Actress Arlene Sorkin, best known for being the original voice of Batman villainess Harley Quinn, passed away on August 24th. No cause of death was released. She was 67.
In addition to voicing Harley Quinn, Sorkin spent many years on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives for her portrayal of Calliope Jones Bradford.
However, I remember Sorkin primarily as the original co-host of America's Funniest People which aired on ABC between 1990 and 1994. It was a spinoff of the wildly popular America's Funniest Home Videos hosted by Bob Saget of Full House fame. Sorkin co-hosted the first two seasons of America's Funniest People with Saget's Full House co-star Dave Coulier.
Sorkin and Coulier had excellent chemistry together, but it was Sorkin who was the woman with a thousand voices who was the spark. When Sorkin was replaced by Tawny Kitaen (who herself died far too young), America's Funniest People didn't have the same spark and zip.
Sorkin's dismissal resulted her in filing litigation on the basis of racial discrimination, as she claimed the show's producers were planning to replace with an African-American or ethnic minority.
Notwithstanding this setback, Sorkin found her niche as Harley Quinn's voice for nearly 20 years. R.I.P.
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