Cathryn Damon

Cathryn Lee Damon (September 11, 1930 – May 4, 1987) was an American actress and dancer born in Seattle, Washington, who built a career spanning Broadway, television, and film across more than three decades. The elder daughter of Lee Frank Damon and Mary Cathryn Atwood, she was raised in Tacoma after her parents divorced and her mother remarried Walter A. Springer. Damon graduated from Stadium High School and relocated to New York City at age 16 to study ballet.

Her performing career began in dance. She trained and performed as a ballerina, appearing at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Massachusetts, and with the Metropolitan Opera's dance company before transitioning to the stage. Her Broadway career extended from 1954 to 1983 and encompassed a wide range of productions. She appeared in By the Beautiful Sea, A Family Affair, A Place for Polly, and Passion, as well as Shinbone Alley, Foxy, Flora the Red Menace, The Boys from Syracuse, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sweet Bird of Youth, and The Cherry Orchard. Off-Broadway, she performed in The Boys from Syracuse and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. During the 1967–68 season, she appeared in Dames at Sea at the Wayside Theatre and served as understudy for both Mame Dennis and Vera Charles in Angela Lansbury's national tour of Mame.

Damon became widely recognized through her television work, most notably as Mary Campbell on the primetime soap opera parody Soap, which aired from 1977 to 1981. She was the third and final actress cast in the role; producer Tony Thomas noted that the part was recast specifically to place her in it. For the performance, Damon received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 1980. Though she won the award alongside co-star Richard Mulligan, an actors' strike prevented her from attending the ceremony in person. Mulligan later referenced her strike-related absence when accepting his second Emmy Award for Empty Nest, referring to her affectionately as "Toots." Following Soap, Damon appeared alongside fellow cast member Eugene Roche on Webster from 1984 to 1986, where the two played landlords Cassie and Bill Parker. Her additional television credits included guest appearances on The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Murder She Wrote, Matlock, and Mike Hammer.

In August 1953, Damon married Richard Price Towers, an actor and singer, in New York City. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986 and continued to work in small roles until shortly before her death. Her final screen appearance, as Elizabeth McGovern's mother in the film She's Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon, was released posthumously. Damon died on May 4, 1987, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 56. She is interred at Acacia Memorial Park near Seattle.