Arleen Sorkin, whose memorable portrayal of the colorful Calliope Jones Bradford made her a fan fave — and earned her four Soap Opera Digest Awards — during her Salem run (1984-90, 1992, 2001, 2006, 2010), has passed away at the age of 67. Outside of her DAYS work, Sorkin appeared on sitcoms (DUET, OPEN HOUSE) and co-hosted AMERICA’S FUNNIEST PEOPLE, and also provided the original voice of Harley Quinn, the DC Comics character created by her college pal Paul Dini, who found inspiration for Harley in a clip of Sorkin’s Calliope dressed in a roller-skating court jester outfit. Dini told Entertainment Weekly in 2017, “Arleen and I had been friends. She is a very funny talent, kind of a live wire. She can do that snappy blonde Judy Holliday persona very easily, and that was part of her performance style when I came up with the character. With Harley, thinking about that character, I was like, ‘Gosh, she sounds like Arleen.’ Around that time [Sorkin] had appeared as a wacky jester on DAYS OF OUR LIVES in a costume series. She was wearing this Pied Piper outfit, and I was like, ‘Well, there she is. She should run around with the Joker dressed like that.’ So all these ideas came together.” Mark Hamill (ex-Ken, GH), best known as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, paid homage to Sorkin on X, formerly Twitter, saying, ““Devastated to learn we’ve lost the brilliant Arleen Sorkin. Not just a wonderful talent, but a truly wonderful person. I’m grateful not only to have worked with her, but to have been her friend. 🙏 Sending my heartfelt condolences to her family & loved ones.” Sorkin is survived by her husband, television producer Christopher Lloyd, and their two sons, Eli and Owen.
