Joy Harmon, who became memorable to moviegoers as the car-washer Lucille in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, has died at 87. A family member confirmed to TMZ that Harmon died surrounded by loved ones at her home in the Los Angeles area.
She had been battling pneumonia in the weeks before her death and was expected to recover, but her family said she “fought until the end.” Before being taken to hospital, Harmon was working at her bakery. She later spent one to two weeks in the hospital, then several weeks in a rehabilitation center, before returning home on hospice care.
Harmon’s career began early, when she started working as a newsreel model at age 3. After her family moved to Connecticut, she was largely raised there and later became a finalist in the Miss Connecticut pageant as a teenager. At 18, she made her Broadway debut in Make a Million, and Groucho Marx later discovered her on his quiz show, later known as You Bet Your Life.
Her screen credits stretched across film and television through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She appeared in Let’s Rock in 1958, Mad Dog Coll in 1961, Village of the Giants in 1965 and Angel in my Pocket in 1969. On television, she appeared in The Beverly Hillbillies in 1963, My Three Sons in 1964, Bewitched and Batman in 1966, and The Odd Couple in 1972. Her final TV appearance came in 1977 in the sitcom Thicker than Water.
Harmon stepped back from Hollywood to focus on raising her three children, and she was married to Jeff Gourson from 1968 to 2001. Her death closes the life of a performer whose most famous role came in one of the era’s defining films, but whose career reached well beyond it.
