Jennifer Leak, who recently passed away, was a cast member of The Young and the Restless along with Janice Lynde in the show’s early days. Now, Lynde is sharing memories of her friend with Soap Hub.
Remembering Jennifer Leak
Lynde was heroine Leslie Brooks, while Leak played Gwen Sherman, a prostitute-turned-nun who was involved with Greg Foster (James Haughton) in Y&R’s early days. Leslie and Gwen were in different stories, but the actresses became dear friends off-screen.
“Jennifer was just wonderful,” Lynde tells Soap Hub. “She had a way of working that was just effortless. You never caught her ‘acting.'” The two women met while appearing on Y&R. “It was one of those times in life where you just recognized another person’s soul. We became fast friends immediately and stayed friends all these years.
“Gwen was brought on to be a love interest for Jim Houghton’s Greg,” Lynde explains. “She was a prostitute and he fell madly in love with her. I thought that it was such fascinating casting. Jennifer was the classiest woman I’d ever known. She had impeccable taste.”
Lynde recalls Leak as a giving pal. “She was always trying to ‘class up’ my wardrobe, my hair,” Lynde recalls. “I was always in dance clothes with my hair in a ponytail. She was always perfection.”
Gwen gave up her life as a call girl and became a nun, which ended her relationship with Greg. “Casting her as Gwen was sheer genius,” Lynde observes. “She was against type. She made the audience fall in love with Gwen.”
Leak left the show, but her friendship with Lynde endured. “Jennifer was so generous, beyond measure,” Lynde says. “She was always trying to help people. If she learned something, she wanted to share it with somebody. I hope she’s soaring with the angels and lovingly navigating their flight. She was lovely, navigating all of us.”
Lynde says that Leak wasn’t just a talented actress but also a savvy businesswoman. “She managed James’s [D’Auria , her husband] architect firm,” Lynde shares. “They moved to the Hamptons, and she became a real estate agent.”
After leaving Y&R, Harmon went to New York where she was cast as conniving Olive Gordon Randolph on Another World. She played the role from 1976 to 1979. Olive was an opportunist who wed vulnerable divorcee and rich attorney John Randolph (Michael M. Ryan), becoming his wife. It was no coincidence that Janice Lynde later joined the same show as singer Tracy DeWitt.
“She suggested [the show] the show contact me,” recalls Lynde who wanted to return to New York and work again in theater. “She helped me find an apartment.
“Jennifer was the most charming person,” Lynde adds. “She had a generosity of spirit, which was very different from the characters she played. That generosity was just a part of her radiance Jennifer was always trying to make us the best version of ourselves. She always wanted to share and make your life better.”
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