In films, she starred opposite the likes of Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, James Earl Jones and Michael Caine. On television, she played the scheming, moneyed Dominique Deveraux on ABC’s prime-time soap opera “Dynasty” in the 1980s.

But it was for “Julia” that she remained most enduringly known. Created by the writer, director and producer Hal Kanter, the show was a novelty for its day: Black women, when they were seen at all in series television, had long been relegated to marginal roles. The few larger parts that came their way were invariably those of domestics.

“Julia” divided critical consensus. It was praised in some quarters as groundbreaking and criticized in others as reductive, Pollyannaish and accommodationist — condemned, in short, for glossing over the stark realities of life that black Americans faced daily.

Though Ms. Carroll publicly defended “Julia,” she acknowledged that in portraying the black experience it made many concessions to the middle-class white viewers it hoped to attract. She also said afterward that her experience playing the character had been both a professional boon and a professional hindrance.

The series made her one of the most visible performers of her day, booked regularly on TV talk and variety shows. But in addition, it entailed her becoming a de facto spokeswoman not only for “Julia” but also seemingly for her race, an onus for which she had never bargained.