American actress (1955-2023). She was born in Washington, D.C. to Irving and Joyce Sorkin, and she had two brothers. She got interested in acting and dancing and decided to go into showbiz. In the late 1970s, she joined The High-Heeled Women, a comedy and cabaret group.
She soon made her way to TV, where she got a job on "Days of Our Lives" playing a character named Calliope Jones. She played the eccentric character from 1984 to 1990 and made periodic returns to the character clear through 2010. She also got a role as Geneva, the maid of the lead characters, on a dramedy called "Duet."
In 1990-92, she was the female co-host on "America's Funniest People," but she was fired because ABC chairman Dan Burke told producer Vin Di Bona she should be replaced by a host who was either Black or another ethnic minority. Sorkin sued, seeking $450,000 in lost earnings. As it turned out, once Sorkin complained about the incident, Di Bona hired Tawny Kitaen (white and with more of a sex kitten vibe) as the co-host.
Sorkin had a minor behind-the-scenes role on the sitcom "Frasier," which was produced by her husband Christopher Lloyd (No, not that Christopher Lloyd). When Frasier took calls on his radio show, Sorkin would voice the callers to make sure star Kelsey Grammer could get the timing of his responses right. Her lines would later be dubbed over by various celebrities who provided the voice-over readings during the completed episode.
Sorkin also wrote for the "Tiny Toon Adventures" animated series and co-wrote the story and screenplay for the film "Picture Perfect" in 1997.
Sorkin is best-known as the inspiration for and the voice of Harley Quinn in the "Batman: The Animated Series" cartoon. Since college, Sorkin had been friends with a guy named Paul Dini, who caught one of Sorkin's performances on "Days of Our Lives" in which Calliope Jones has a dream that she's a dancing jester. While working on the early stages of the groundbreaking Batman cartoon as a writer, animator, and producer, Dini hit on the idea of giving the Joker a moll for one episode. Remembering Sorkin's performance as the jester, Dini cooked up the idea for a wisecracking assistant wearing a harlequin costume and patterned many aspects of the character on Sorkin's voice and mannerisms. He also cast Sorkin as Harley Quinn, feeling that no other actress could replicate her voice.
Harley made her debut in a first season episode titled "Joker's Favor." She was only planned as a one-off character, but audiences and the show's creators loved the character and Sorkin's voice, so she became a regular recurring character. She also showed up in other DC cartoons, including "The New Batman Adventures," "Static Shock," "Justice League," "Gotham Girls," and the animated film "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker." Sorkin also voiced Harley in the video games "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and "DC Universe Online."
And Harley Quinn was popular enough that she eventually made the jump from animation into comics -- she made her comics debut in 1999 in "Batman: Harley Quinn #1." The character has also been featured in movies and other cartoons, the most successful being the "Harley Quinn" animated series, with Kaley Cuoco as Harley, and "Suicide Squad," "Birds of Prey," and "The Suicide Squad," with Margot Robbie as Harley. Robbie and Cuoco clearly took Sorkin's vocal performances as inspirations.
Sorkin died in Los Angeles on August 24, 2023, of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis.