Arleen Sorkin was an American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedian. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial Days of Our Lives and for inspiring and voicing the DC Comics villain Harley Quinn, created by her college friend Paul Dini, in Batman: The Animated Series and the many animated series and video games that followed it.
Early life, family and education[]
Arleen Sorkin was born in Washington, D.C. on October 14, 1955. Her family is Jewish.
Career[]
Sorkin began her career in cabaret in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a member of the comedy group The High-Heeled Women, alongside Mary Fulham, Tracey Berg, and Cassandra Danz.
One of her more prominent roles was the wacky but lovable Calliope Jones, as seen on Days of Our Lives. She played this part from 1984 to 1990 and made return visits in 1992 and 2001. She reprised her role on the soap for the fourth time on February 24, 2006. She returned to Days for a limited run beginning on May 5, 2010.
From 1987 to 1989, Sorkin played Geneva, a sexy maid to yuppie couple Richard and Linda Phillips, on the Fox dramedy series Duet. She would reprise this role on one episode of Open House, the sequel series to Duet. She was the original female co-host on America's Funniest People in 1990. In 1992, Sorkin was dismissed from America's Funniest People by producer Vin Di Bona. In response, Sorkin filed a lawsuit against Di Bona, claiming she was dismissed from the show due to her race, after ABC Chairman Dan Burke had suggested to Di Bona that Sorkin be replaced by an African-American or a person of another ethnic minority. Sorkin sought $450,000 for lost earnings, and an additional unspecified amount for harm to her professional reputation and emotional injury. She additionally claimed that after she denounced the move as being racially motivated, Di Bona changed plans and hired new cohost Tawny Kitaen, who was also white.
Sorkin's writing included for the Tiny Toon Adventures 1990–1992 television series, and co-writer of the story and screenplay of the 1997 Jennifer Aniston film, Picture Perfect.
The character of Harley Quinn was based on her (alongside providing the voice), after her college friend Paul Dini saw her play a jester from a dream sequence in the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Dini then based Harley Quinn on Sorkin, incorporating aspects such as her mannerisms and "very snappy, wisecracking, bubbly blonde" personality. In recording Harley Quinn's voice, Sorkin spoke in her normal Brooklyn accent while putting in a "little Yiddish sound", since Dini made the character Jewish, another aspect of the character borrowed from Sorkin. Harley Quinn made her first appearance in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Joker's Favor" originally intended to appear in a single episode, but reaction to the character and Sorkin's voice performance was positive, so Quinn was written into the show regularly, and appeared in further DC animated universe series including The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, Justice League, Gotham Girls, and the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. After the video game DC Universe Online, Sorkin retired from voicing Harley Quinn and therefore did not reprise her role in any subsequent DC projects.
For the series Frasier (1993-2004), produced by her husband Christopher Lloyd, Sorkin would perform as a caller to Frasier Crane's radio show; the lines would later be dubbed over by a celebrity caller. In the final episode of Frasier, Sorkin made an onscreen appearance as the owner of a monkey.
Personal life and death[]
Sorkin married television writer-producer Christopher Lloyd in 1995, with whom she had two sons, Eli and Owen.
Arleen Sorkin died in Los Angeles on August 24, 2023, at the age of 67, of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis. The fourth season finale of Harley Quinn is dedicated to her memory.
