’60s pin-up star Joy Harmon has passed away aged 87, after falling ill with pneumonia and battling the illness for several weeks. The mother of three, best known for her role in 1967’s Cool Hand Luke alongside Paul Newman, died in her Los Angeles home on Tuesday, April 14, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
Joy’s family told TMZ that she had spent “one to two weeks in the hospital, followed by a several-week stint at a rehabilitation center, and then returned home to spend her final days on hospice care and with her loved ones”.
She leaves behind her three kids, Jason, Julie and Jamie, whom she welcomed with her ex-husband, Jeff Gourson, as well as her nine grandchildren.
Joy was born in Queens, and her family later moved to Connecticut, where she became a pageant queen. After falling in love with theater, she made her Broadway debut in 1958’s Make A Million, where she caught the eye of comedy legend Groucho Marx.
He invited her onto his quiz show, You Bet Your Life, and gave her a co-hosting position on his next project, Tell It To Groucho. The blonde beauty landed her iconic role of Lucille in Cool Hand Luke at 27 years old, and shot to fame thanks to her sensual performance.
In the film, her character teased a group of convicts with a car-washing performance, and Joy later admitted she had no idea how iconic the scene would become.
© Getty Images“I was just washing a car to my best ability and having fun with it, with the sponge and everything,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “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.”
After finding fame with Cool Hand Luke, Joy went on to appear in projects like Village of the Giants, Angel in my Pocket, One Way Wahine, Bewitched, The Odd Couple and Batman.
© CBS via Getty ImagesShe married TV producer Jeff Gourson in 1968 and welcomed Jason, Julie and Jamie with him. Her final onscreen role was in 1973’s Thicker Than Water, before she left Hollywood altogether to raise her kids. Two years after Joy and Jeff divorced in 2001, the star opened up Aunt Joy’s Bakery in Burbank, where she worked until her passing.
© Disney General Entertainment ConThe website revealed that Aunt Joy’s Cakes “started in the kitchen of her home in California. The name originated when Joy Harmon began supplying cakes to her niece’s coffee shop. Whenever she made a delivery, her niece would cheer, ‘Aunt Joy’s cakes are here!'”
© Instagram“Then Joy Harmon started supplying her desserts to Disney Studios, where her son worked and spread the word about his mom’s mouthwatering cakes and cookies,” the website shared. “Her homemade desserts were becoming very popular, and Joy Harmon started supplying her baked goods to many more studios in the Los Angeles area.”
Her family told TMZ that Joy was “a positive thinker full of life and vibrancy, and certainly had no problem spreading joy throughout her life”.
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