Julie Harris, Broadway star who won 5 Tonys for best actress, dies at 87

WEST CHATHAM, Mass. – Broadway star Julie Harris, who won an unprecedented five Tony Awards for best actress, has died. She was 87.

Actress and family friend Francesca James says Harris died Saturday at her home in West Chatham, Mass. She had previously suffered two strokes.

Harris’ Tony-winning roles ranged from the flamboyant Sally Bowles in “I Am a Camera” to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in “The Belle of Amherst,” a one-woman show.

Television viewers knew her as the free-spirited Lilimae Clements in the 1980s series “Knots Landing.”

Harris leaped to fame at age 24 playing a lonely 12-year-old tomboy in “The Member of the Wedding.” She repeated the Broadway role in the 1952 film version. She was also James Dean’s romantic co-star in “East of Eden.”