Julie Harris Dies At 87 | Broadway Actress Julie Harris Dies At 87 | Julie Harris Died | Julie Harris Dead | Julie Harris Passed Away

Julie Harris Dies At 87  | Broadway Actress Julie Harris Dies At 87 | Julie Harris Died | Julie Harris Dead | Julie Harris Passed Away

Julie Harris, one of Broadway’s most honored performers, whose roles ranged from the flamboyant Sally Bowles in “I Am a Camera” to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in “The Belle of Amherst,” died Saturday. She was 87. Harris died at her West Chatham, Mass. home of congestive heart failure, actress and family friend Francesca James said. Actress and family friend Francesca James announced Harris’ death, which was attributed to congestive heart failure. James explained that Harris suffered a strokes in 2001 while in Chicago for a production of Claudia Allen’s Fossils. The Associated Press notes that the actress suffered a second stroke in 2010.

Ms. Harris won five Tony Awards for best actress in a play, displaying a virtuosity that enabled her to portray an astonishing gallery of women during a theater career that spanned almost 60 years and included such plays as “The Member of the Wedding” (1950), “The Lark” (1955), “Forty Carats” (1968) and “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln” (1972). She was honored again with a sixth Tony, a special lifetime achievement award in 2002. Her record is up against Audra McDonald, with five competitive Tonys, and Angela Lansbury with four Tonys in the best actress-musical category and one for best supporting actress in a play. The actress appeared in the 1952 film version, too, with her original Broadway co-stars, Ethel Watersand Brandon De Wilde, and received an Academy Award nomination.

Harris won her first Tony Award for playing Sally Bowles, the confirmed hedonist in I Am a Camera, adapted by John van Druten from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. The play later became the stage and screen musical Cabaret. In her second Tony-winning performance, Harris played a much more spiritual character, Joan of Arc in Lillian Hellman's adaptation of Jean Anouilh'sThe Lark. The play had a six-month run, primarily because of the notices for Harris. Ms. Harris was married three times, to lawyer Jay I. Julian, stage manager Manning Gurian and writer William Erwin Carroll. She had one son, Peter Alston Gurian.