Joy Harmon has died. The actress was celebrated for her role as Lucille in a car-wash scene in the 1967 classic film “Cool Hand Luke,â and her death was announced on Wednesday, April 15. She was 87, TMZ reports.Â
Joy Harmon Passes Away & Tributes Pour In
Harmonâs family member shared the news of her passing with TMZ, noting that she had died at her Los Angeles-area home on Tuesday, April 14. She was surrounded by her loved ones and had been struggling with pneumonia for several weeks. âShe fought until the end and fully expected to recover and get back to work at her beloved Burbank bakery, Aunt Joy’s Cakes,â TMZ reports.Â
Harmon is survived by her ex-husband, film editor Jeff Gourson, her three children, and nine grandchildren. In a statement to People, Gourson shared his thoughts on Harmonâs passing.
“She was a wonderful person, who always loved baking,” Gourson said. “Even back when she was acting, she’d bake cookies and bring them to set, and later she opened her bakery and went to it every single day. She loved that place. also loved animals. She lived above Burbank in Shadow Hills and there were all these peacocks that would come around, the chickens, the squirrels, the peacocks would come right up to her because she’d feed them. So she loved people, she loved animals, and she loved baking. We’ll miss her dearly. We miss her already.”
In an Instagram post about her passing on TMZ, Harmonâs fans shared their condolences. âRest in peace Queen,â a comment reads. âSo sad rest in peace to a legend praying for her family and friends,â another person wrote.Â
Remembering Joy Harmonâs Life & Career
Harmon was an actress with roles in films, “Village of the Giants,” “One Way Wahine, “Batman,” and “Bewitched.â She also appeared on Broadway, was a child model and pageant star, including as a finalist in the Miss Connecticut pageant. Later in life, she was a baker, TMZ reports. She founded her Los Angeles-based bakery in 2003.Â
Harmon was aware of the fame her short scene in “Cool Hand Lukeâ brought her. She discussed it in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, BBC News reports. “I was just washing a car to the best of my ability and having fun with it, with the sponge and everything,” Harmon said. “My concept of the [scene] was not like what came out. I was not aware that there were two meanings to things that I was doing. And I’m still not really that much aware of what they all were.”
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