| Cathryn Damon | |
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Cathryn Damon in 1978
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| Born | September 11, 1930 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | May 4, 1987 (aged 56) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Ovarian cancer |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1957–1987 |
Cathryn Lee Damon (September 11, 1930 – May 4, 1987) was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s.
Life and career[edit]
Born in Seattle, Damon was raised in Tacoma and graduated from Stadium High School,[1] moved to New York City at age 16 to pursue ballet and ultimately appeared in several Broadway productions, including Shinbone Alley, Foxy, Flora, The Red Menace, The Boys from Syracuse,[2] The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sweet Bird of Youth, and The Cherry Orchard. During the 1967-68 season, she was the Mame and Vera understudy for the Angela Lansbury-led tour of Mame.
Damon became familiar to television viewers as middle-class Mary Campbell on the primetime spoof of daytime soaps aptly entitled Soap from 1977 until 1981, followed by her role of Cassie Parker on Webster from 1984-86. Other television credits included guest roles on Matlock, Mike Hammer and Murder, She Wrote.[2][3]
Damon won an Emmy Award for Soap in 1980, but could not appear in person to receive the Award owing to an actors' strike; her former co-star, and TV husband Richard Mulligan referred Damon and the strike-related absence when he received his own Emmy more than a decade later for his role as Dr. Weston on the television series Empty Nest (Coincidently, Empty Nest debuted a year after Damon's death, with Mulligan playing the part of a widower who's wife died a year earlier).
Illness and death[edit]
In 1986, Damon was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but continued acting in small roles up until shortly before her death a year later at age 56, on May 4, 1987.[2] Her final role, as Elizabeth McGovern's mother in the movie She's Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon, was released posthumously.[3] She was survived by her mother, Mary Cathryn Springer, and a sister. She is interred in Acacia Memorial Park near Seattle.[4]
Filmography[edit]
- Producers' Showcase as Dancer (1 episode, 1957)
- Calamity Jane (1963) as Adelaide Adams
- Blansky's Beauties as Rose (1 episode, 1977)
- Rafferty as Grace Hampton (1 episode, 1977)
- Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979) as Martha
- Getting There (1980) as Mary
- How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980) as Natalie
- Midnight Offerings (1981) as Diane Sotherland
- Soap as Mary Campbell (85 episodes, 1977-1981)
- Not in Front of the Children (1982) as Sheila
- The First Time (1983) as Gloria
- Fantasy Island as Baronne LaRue (1 episode, 1983)
- Who Will Love My Children? (1983) as Hazel Anderson
- The Love Boat as Charlotte (2 episodes, 1978-1983)
- Simon & Simon as Kate Franklin (1 episode, 1984)
- Murder, She Wrote as Morgana Cramer (1 episode, 1984)
- Matlock as Victoria Edwards (1 episode, 1987)
- Mike Hammer as Aunt Dorothy Putnam (1 episode, 1987)
- Webster as Cassie Parker (50 episodes, 1984-1986)
- She's Having a Baby (1988) as Gayle Bainbridge
References[edit]
- ^ "Some famous and notable graduates", The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), September 9, 2006.
- ^ a b c "Deaths in the news", Chicago Sun-Times, May 10, 1987.
- ^ a b Cathryn Damon at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Cathryn Damon at Find a Grave
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