Joan Copeland, Soap Veteran and Arthur Miller’s Sister, Dead At 99

Beloved soap veteran Joan Copeland, star of stage and screen, made her acting debut in 1945. Now comes word that the renowned thespian has passed away at the age of 99 years old.

Joan Copeland – A Celebration of Life

Eric Kupchik confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that his mother died in her sleep at her Manhattan home on Central Park West on the morning of January 4.

Born Joan Maxine Miller, on June 1, 1922, Copeland made her professional acting debut in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 1945 production of Romeo and Juliet. Two years later, she made her Broadway debut in Sundown Beach, produced by The Actors Studio. In the ensuing decades, Copeland would return to the Great White Way 12 times. Among the plays she appeared in, two were penned by her brother, Arthur Miller.

Copeland’s first film credit, Paddy Chayefsky’s The Goddess (1958), has long been considered a thinly veiled account of the life and times of Miller’s second wife, Marilyn Monroe.

Her other motion picture efforts include Middle of the Night (1959), Roseland (1977), It’s My Turn (1980), A Little Sex (1982), The Laser Man (1988), Her Alibi (1989), The Peacemaker (1997), The Object of My Affection (1998), and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009).

Joan Copeland began her career in television via an episode of the popular anthology series Suspense. Subsequently, she appeared in a plethora of episodic programs – The Web, The Patty Duke Show, All in The Family, Chicago Hope, Law & Order et al. – and several daytime dramas.

Of the many soap operas she graced with her presence,  a list which includes Love of Life (where she played twins Maggie and Kay), The Edge of Night, As the World Turns, and One Life to Live, it is no doubt Search for Tomorrow for which Copeland is best known.

There, she played neurotic harridan Andrea Whiting, and her nervous breakdown whilst serving as a witness for the prosecution – punctuated by the sudden breakage of Andrea’s pearl necklace – remains a standard-bearer for performers everywhere.

Joan Copeland was preceded in death by her husband, bacteriologist George Kupchik, and her brothers, Arthur and Kermit Miller. Her survivors include her son, and her niece, actress Rebecca Miller. Soap Hub sends sincere condolences to her family members, friends, and fans at this difficult time.