This article has been updated since its publication.
American actress, writer, and producer Arleen Sorkin has died, aged 67. Per The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly, she passed away on Thursday, August 24, after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, that had kept her away from acting since 2011. Sorkin was best known for portraying comic relief character Calliope Jones on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, and for being the first actress to play Harley Quinn, as well as the inspiration for the character on Batman: The Animated Series, where the DC Comics antiheroine was introduced.
Sorkin was born into a Jewish family in Washington, D.C. on October 14, 1955. She attended Emerson College in Boston, where she befriended future Batman: The Animated Series writer and producer Paul Dini. She began her career in the late 1970s in a comedy troupe and as a cabaret performer, before making her onscreen debut with an uncredited cameo in 1983’s Trading Places. The year after, she debuted as Calliope Jones on Days of Our Lives, a role she would continue to play for the next six years, and on three further occasions until 2010.
During a 1987 episode of the soap, Sorkin appeared in a fantasy sequence as a Medieval jester. The scenario, which Sorkin pitched to the producers after seeing The Princess Bride, soon inspired Dini to cast her as the Joker’s henchwoman in the 1992 BTAS episode “Joker’s Favor.” The asymmetrical blue-and-red jester costume she wore, which was designed by Lee Smith, inspired Quinn’s red-and-black outfit, while the character retained Sorkin’s own Brooklyn accent, albeit with the addition of a “little Yiddish sound” after Dini made her Jewish too.
Originally intended as a one-off character, Harley’s popularity led Sorkin to return to the series multiple times, as well as appearances on other DC Animated Universe projects like Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Gotham Girls, Static Shock, and Justice League. She also voiced the character in video games, including 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, before retiring from the role with 2011’s DC Universe Online. (Tara Strong would take over as Harley Quinn’s primary voice actor, although Melissa Rauch would voice the version she originated in 2017’s feature Batman and Harley Quinn.)
Outside Days of Our Lives and the DCAU, Sorkin was a panelist on the comedy game show The New Hollywood Squares from 1986 to 1989, starred on the 1987-1989 sitcom Open House, and co-hosted America’s Funniest People from 1990 to 1992. She wrote two Tiny Toon Adventures episodes in 1991, as well as the 1997 Jennifer Aniston rom-com Picture Perfect, and created the 1997-1998 sitcom Fired Up. She also worked on Frasier, which was produced by her husband Christopher Lloyd (not to be confused with the actor), reading lines for celebrity callers that they would dub over; she would finally appear on camera in the series finale in 2004, as the monkey owner who helps Daphne deliver her baby.
Sorkin was recognized during her lifetime with four Soap Opera Digest Awards, and two Daytime Emmy Award nominations, for her role on Days of Our Lives. In 2011, she won a Peabody Award, and was nominated for another Emmy for producing Bhutto, a documentary about the first female prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. She was only nominated once for her performance as Harley Quinn (namely for Arkham Asylum at the Spike Video Game Awards in 2009), although the lack of official recognition pales in comparison to the sheer impact the character has had, having gone on to star in countless comics, games, films and TV shows; DC Comics publisher Jim Lee has even admitted he considers Quinn the fourth pillar of their universe, after Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
Mark Hamill, Sorkin’s co-star as the Joker, paid tribute to her, saying she was “not just a wonderful talent, but a truly wonderful person. I’m grateful not only to have worked with her, but to have been her friend.” Tara Strong stated, “Without this gorgeous, talented goddess, Harley Quinn would have never existed. She was the inspiration and the heart and soul of this iconic character. I was in awe as Batgirl watching her alongside Mark Hamill and Kevin [Conroy].” Sorkin’s passing comes nearly nine months after Conroy, her Batman co-star, died unexpectedly from cancer, a few weeks before he would’ve turned 67.
Sorkin had been married to Christopher Lloyd since 1995; the couple had two sons, Eli and Owen. A statement from her family says, “We will always remember our dear Arleen for her immense generosity of spirit. Talented, yes, and dogged, too, as evidenced by her tenacious, decades-long fight with a terrible disease. But more than that, she was a loving presence in the lives of her two boys, Eli and Owen; her mother, Joyce; her brothers, Robert and Arthur; and the countless other children, old and young, whom she took under her beautiful wing over the years. It’s a sad day for us, but a joyous one, too, knowing how many people today are summoning her memory and smiling.” They ask for any donations to be made to the National MS Society.
