On Wednesday at 7:45pm, Broadway theaters will dim their marquee lights in honor of one of the great legends of modern theater, actress Julie Harris, who passed away at age 87. A five-time Tony Award winner (plus a sixth for lifetime achievement), Harris made her mainstem debut in her late teens in 1945's “It’s a Gift” and last appeared on Broadway opposite Charles Durning in a 1997 revival of “The Gin Game”.

In between, Harris made an indelible mark in Carson McCullers’ drama, “The Member of the Wedding”, a performance that eventually earned her an Oscar nomination for the film version, as well. She was also Broadway’s first Sally Bowles – in the play that inspired “Cabaret”, “I am a Camera”. She nabbed her first Tony for that show and her second for playing Joan of Arc in 1955’s “The Lark”. She picked up Tonys, too, for “Forty Carats”, “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln” and, arguably, her most well-known grown-up role, as Emily Dickinson in “The Belle of Amherst”.

Born Dec. 2, 1925 in Michigan, Harris studied drama at Yale and then the Actor’s Studio. Her training served her well for both theater and TV, as she became a familiar television presence on “Knots Landing”. She also enjoyed featured roles in the films “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and “East of Eden.”

The actress had to slow down a bit in 2001 after she suffered a stroke while appearing in a play in Chicago. Another stroke followed in 2010, and Harris died yesterday of congestive heart failure.

In its obit, USA Today quotes Harris once saying, “The theater has been my church. I don't hesitate to say that I found God in the theater."

More info: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/08/24/julie-harris-broadway-star-dies-at-87/2696211/