Jennifer Harmon, a prolific Broadway performer who often understudied more widely known actors such as Stockard Channing, Judi Dench, Jessica Lange and Jessica Lange, and who appeared as a regular on the ABC soap One Life To Live in the 1970s, died Saturday, May 9. She was 82.
Her death was announced by family. No cause was stated.
A resident of New York, Harmon, born December 3, 1943, was cast in 21 Broadway productions, from her debut in 1965’s You Can’t Take It With You to 2011’s Other Desert Cities. In the latter, she was an understudy for Channing before later taking over as a replacement.
Among her other Broadway credits were The School for Scandal (in both 1966 and a revival in 1995), Blithe Spirit (1987); The Sisters Rosensweig (1993); The Little Foxes (1997); The Deep Blue Sea (1998); Amy’s View (1999); The Glass Menagerie (2005); and Edward Albee’s Seascape (2005). She was an understudy in two Neil Simon Broadway comedies: The Dinner Party (2000) and Barefoot in the Park (2006).
On television, she appeared in episodes of, among others, Barnaby Jones, Dallas, The White Shadow, St. Elsewhere, Law & Order, Oz, Rescue Me and The Good Wife.
Harmon was a regular on the NBC soap How To Survive A Marriage for the series’ entire 1974-1975 run, and then, from 1976 to 1978, took over the mainstay role of Cathy Craig Lord on ABC’s One Life to Live. The character was a fan favorite as the antagonist to the series’ upstanding heroine Viki Lord, played by Erika Slezak.
Her performance on OLTL earned Harmon a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1978.
Other soap roles included brief stints on Guiding Light, Another World and Loving.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.