Beloved ‘Cool Hand Luke’ Actress Joy Harmon Passes Away at 87

Joy Harmon, the celebrated screen siren of the 1960s best known for her memorable role in “Cool Hand Luke,” has passed away at the age of 87.

Harmon, who captivated audiences as the alluring Lucille in the 1967 film alongside Paul Newman, died at her residence in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday. Her family confirmed that she was surrounded by loved ones during her final moments, according to a report by TMZ.

Having transitioned from acting to entrepreneurship, Harmon ran a thriving bakery in Burbank, California. Unfortunately, she had been struggling with pneumonia for several weeks prior to her passing.

Despite her illness, Harmon was determined and hopeful for recovery, continuing her work at Aunt Joy’s Cakes up until the day before she was admitted to the hospital.

A family member shared with the publication that Harmon spent “one to two weeks in the hospital, followed by several weeks in a rehabilitation center, before returning home to spend her final days in hospice care with her family.”

1960s screen icon Joy Harmon, who wowed fans in Cool Hand Luke, has died aged 87 – pictured as car-washer Lucille in the film in 1967

Harmon passed away at her Los Angeles-area home on Tuesday, surrounded by her loved ones, a family member confirmed to TMZ – pictured 1972 in The Odd Couple

She also appeared in films including Village of the Giants, Angel in my Pocket, and One Way Wahine as well as TV roles on Bewitched, The Odd Couple and Batman. 

Harmon moved away from her Hollywood career to focus on raising her three children with her ex-husband Jeff Gourson.

Her family remembered Harmon as a ‘positive thinker full of life and vibrancy, and certainly had no problem spreading joy throughout her life.’

She is survived by her three children and nine grandchildren.

Born Patricia Joy Harmon in Queens in 1940, she became a newsreel model at the age of three and then her family moved to Connecticut, where she was raised.

As a teenager she made finalist in the Miss Connecticut pageant and began her stage career at a local playhouse in Bridgeport, kick-starting the process that led to her Broadway debut at the age of 18 in Make a Million, a comedy about a quiz show.

Groucho Marx saw her in the production and was so taken with her he brought her onto his actual quiz show You Bet Your Life, launching her in Hollywood.

He made her the announcer on his later quiz show Tell It To Groucho and often flirted with her on set, she recalled fondly on the podcast Vanguard of Hollywood.

‘He had the reputation of being flirty with women. He was very flirty with me when we were on set. But that wasn’t like him at all, because then he would be questioning me: “Where did you go last night? What were you doing? No, you don’t do that.” He was just like a dad to me, but I loved him very much and I went a lot to his house,’ she said.

In the 1960s she jobbed around on such beloved TV series of the time as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., That Girl and Burke’s Law.

However her best-remembered role was in Cool Hand Luke as a blonde called Lucille, who suggestively washes a car and prances around for the benefit of an increasingly overheated group of inmates doing prison labor nearby.

The three-minute scene at once made her an enduring pinup of the 1960s, heralding the increasingly open sexuality of the emerging New Hollywood.

When Harmon showed up to audition for the part, the movie’s leading man Paul Newman was taken with her looks, marveling: ‘Gosh, you have the bluest eyes.’

Before the filming of the car wash scene, the male cast playing the inmates – including Newman, George Kennedy, JD Cannon, Strother Martin and and Jo Van Vleet – were forbidden from bringing their wives or girlfriends to the set.

‘They wanted the guys not to be around women for a long time,’ Harmon explained. ‘So they couldn’t talk to me – the cast, you know. They just kept them separate, ’cause they wanted their reaction I guess.’

To the last years of her life, Harmon kept getting fan mail for the car wash scene, with customers at her bakery asking her to sign stills from the film. 

She married film editor and TV producer Jeff Gourson in 1968 and continued appearing on such programs as The Monkees and Love, American Style.

After a final guest shot on an episode of the 1973 flop sitcom Thicker Than Water starring Julie Harris, she retired from acting to focus on raising her children, and found her second act with her beloved Aunt Joy’s Cakes in Burbank.