Julie Harris, one of the most honored stage actresses in Broadway history, died Saturday of congestive heart failure. She was 87.
Harris got her start on Broadway in the mid-1940s and one the first of her record five Tony Awards in 1952 for her role as Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera. She would reprise her role in the film adaptation three years later.
The actress moved to film in 1953, playing Frankie in A Member of the Wedding, a role for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. However, her most famous role would come in 1955, starring opposite James Dean in East of Eden. Other notable film roles include The Haunting, The Bell Jar, and Gorillas in the Mist.
Harris also had an extensive career in television, where she would be nominated for 11 Emmys and win three. Modern audiences might remember her best for the mother of Joan Van Ark’s character on the prime time soap opera, Knotts Landing.
In 2005, Harris was named a Kennedy Center Honoree, along with Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Robert Redford and Tina Turner
