Cecilia Hart

Cecilia Hart (February 19, 1948 – October 16, 2016) was an American actress born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the daughter of an Army colonel. She relocated to New York City to pursue a career in acting, and her stage work brought her to Broadway across a span of years stretching from 1976 to 1984.

Hart's Broadway debut came with The Heiress in 1976, and she followed that appearance with Tom Stoppard's Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land, which ran from January to March 1977. Her performance in that production earned her the 1977 Theatre World Award. She later joined the cast of Othello in March 1982 in the role of Desdemona as a replacement, and her final Broadway credit was Design for Living in 1984. Beyond Broadway, Hart accumulated stage experience that included five productions opposite actor Paxton Whitehead, and the two appeared together again as late as 2015 in Bedroom Farce at the Westport Country Playhouse, a run that lasted from August 25 through September 13 of that year.

Hart also worked in television, appearing under the credit Ceci Jones as Stacey Erickson in the CBS police drama Paris, which aired from 1979 to 1980. Her co-star in that series was actor James Earl Jones, whom she married in 1982 in what was a second marriage for both. The couple had one child together and resided in Pawling, New York, remaining married until Hart's death. Her first marriage, to actor Bruce Weitz in 1971, ended in divorce in 1980.

Hart died of ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016, at the age of 68.