Trigger warning: This article mentions death, reader discretion is advised.Jennifer Harmon, the Broadway veteran who played Cathy Craig Lord on the ABC soap opera ‘One Life to Live’, has died at 82. Harmon died Saturday in New York, her family announced. Across a career that stretched nearly five decades, she appeared in 21 Broadway productions and built a long television résumé that included soaps, dramas and guest roles on several well-known shows.
Jennifer Harmon’s death confirmed by family
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harmon lived in New York at the time of her death. Her family confirmed the news but did not share further details about the cause. Harmon became the fifth actress to play Cathy Craig Lord on Agnes Nixon’s ‘One Life to Live’. The role had earlier been played by Catherine Burns, Amy Levitt, Jane Alice Brandon and Dorrie Kavanaugh. Harmon appeared on the show from 1976 to 1978 and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for her work.Robin Strasser had been offered the role of Cathy but turned it down to play Dorian Lord. Harmon later returned to ‘One Life to Live’ in the early 1990s in a different role. She played an attorney representing Erika Slezak’s Viki Lord, years after her Cathy had kidnapped Viki’s baby.
Jennifer Harmon’s Broadway and TV career
Harmon made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a revival of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s ‘You Can’t Take It With You’. She went on to appear in revivals of Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ before the decade ended. Her Broadway credits included ‘The School for Scandal’, with productions nearly 30 years apart, Noël Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’, Wendy Wasserstein’s ‘The Sisters Rosensweig’, Lillian Hellman’s ‘The Little Foxes’ and Terence Rattigan’s ‘The Deep Blue Sea’.She also appeared in David Hare’s ‘Amy’s View’, Neil Simon’s ‘The Dinner Party’ and ‘Barefoot in the Park’, Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie’, Edward Albee’s ‘Seascape’ and Jon Robin Baitz’s ‘Other Desert Cities’. Born in Pasadena on December 3, 1943, Harmon grew up in New Orleans. She attended the University of Mississippi and the University of Michigan before moving to New York and joining the APA-Phoenix Repertory Company.On television, she appeared in ‘How to Survive a Marriage’, ‘Another World’, ‘Guiding Light’, ‘Loving’, ‘Barnaby Jones’, ‘Dallas’, ‘St. Elsewhere’, ‘Oz’, ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘The Good Wife’.
