Joy Harmon obit

Joy Harmon Dies: Actress Famous For Seductive ‘Cool Hand Luke’ Scene Was 87

 She was not on the list.

Joy Harmon, the actress who memorably and without a word stole a scene in the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke, has died. Deadline confirmed the news with a business associate. She was 87.

Harmon, then 27, played “Lucille” in Cool Hand Luke, and in her three-minute appearance, she outshines Newman, a young Dennis Hopper and even the film’s eventual Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner George Kennedy. In it, she plays a young, unnamed woman who washes her car wearing only a tattered, tight fitting floral dress. Nearby is a chain gang of convicts digging a ditch in the hot, midday sun. Her character seems to enjoy their attention as she uses a very soapy sponge and, at times, her body to clean the car.

At one point, Kennedy’s character begins calling her “Lucille.”

Newman’s Luke asks him, “Lucille. Where’d you get that?”

Kennedy’s character answers, “Anything so innocent and built like that just gotta be named Lucille.”

Her appearance in the film was so memorable that EW celebrated the actress’ three minutes of screentime with a tribute on the film’s 50th anniversary in 2017.

Harmon told EW that director Stewart Rosenberg’s instructions were simple.

“He just worked it like—’Now, get the sponge, and squeeze it, and wash the car’ and so forth. I just followed [his instruction]. The shots were all like kind of broken up, you know, how he wanted me to do it. It was easy. It was so easy.”

She didn’t fully understand the import of the scene.

“I was just washing a car to my best ability and having fun with it, with the sponge and everything,” she 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.”

Audiences sure were.

Harmon began her screen career with appearance opposite Groucho Marx on You Bet Your Life and Tell It to Groucho. Throughout the ’60s she worked on TV staples such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Gidget, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C, Batman, Bewitched and The Monkees.

Her big-screen career included an uncredited roles in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and The Yum Yum Tree (opposite Jack Lemmon), as well as more prominent parts in The Young Dillinger, One Way Wahine, Angel in my Pocket and Village of the Giants, in which she played a 30 foot-tall teen.

1967’s Cool Hand Luke turned out to be Harmon’s penultimate film role.

Later in life, she launched Aunt Joy’s Cakes out of the kitchen of her home, supplying cakes to her niece’s coffee shop. According to the company’s bio, Harmon soon started supplying desserts to the Disney lot. Eventually, she built Aunt Joy’s into brick-and-mortar business located in Burbank.

Harmon was married for 30 years to producer and film editor Jeff Gourson before the couple divorced. She is suvived by her three children and nine grandchildren.

Her family has established a GoFundMe page to help pay for medical expenses.

Filmography

Film roles

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) – Minor Role (uncredited)

Let's Rock (1958) – Pickup Girl

Mad Dog Coll (1961) – Caroline

Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) – Ardice (uncredited)

Roustabout (1964) – College Girl (uncredited)

Young Dillinger (1965) – Nelson's Girl

One Way Wahine (1965) – Kit Williams

The Loved One (1965) – Miss Benson (uncredited)

Village of the Giants (1965) – Merrie

A Guide for the Married Man (1967) – Party Girl in Bar (uncredited)

Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Lucille, The Girl

Angel in My Pocket (1969) – Miss Holland

Television roles

Tell It To Groucho (1961) Co-Host Series

The Beverly Hillbillies (1963) – Kitty

My Three Sons (1964) – Joanne Grant

Burke's Law (1964–1965) – Barbara Sue / Belle Sue Walsh

Gidget (1965) – Blonde Girl Dancing / Midge (uncredited)

Batman (1966) – Julia Davis (uncredited)

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1966) – Barbara

Bewitched (1966) – Francie

The Rounders (1966) – Rosetta

Occasional Wife (1967) – Model

That Girl (1967) – Miss Bridges

The Monkees (1967) – Cashier in S2:E2, "The Picture Frame"

The Monkees (1967) – Zelda in S2:E14, "Monkees on the Wheel"

Love, American Style (1972) – Rosalie (segment "Love and the Secret Habit")

The Odd Couple (1972) – Waitress

Thicker Than Water (1973) – (final appearance)