Jill Larson

Jill Larson, born October 7, 1947, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an American actress whose career has spanned stage, film, and television. She is most widely recognized for portraying Opal Cortlandt on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children from 1989 to 2011 and again in 2013, and for her leading role in the 2014 supernatural horror film The Taking of Deborah Logan.

Larson grew up in Minneapolis with three sisters and attended the same high school as Dorothy Lyman, the actress who originated the role of Opal on All My Children before her. She began her higher education at the University of Minnesota and later completed it at Hunter College. During her early years she sang in nightclubs as part of a group called Just Us, which was eventually discovered and relocated to New York City. There the group recorded several soundtracks, among them the score for the 1968 film Rachel, Rachel, starring Joanne Woodward.

Her path to acting took shape after she and her sister traveled through Europe by bus before she settled in Paris, where she worked as a model and appeared in major American and European fashion spreads. While living in Paris she secured her first film role, playing a Swedish au pair in Deadly Trap, which starred Faye Dunaway and Frank Langella. A subsequent film role cast her as Jeanne Moreau's rival in Dear Louise.

Larson made her Broadway debut in Death and the King's Horseman in 1987. Her additional Broadway credits include Romantic Comedy by Bernard Slade and Dancing in the End Zone by Bill Davis. Off-Broadway, she appeared in Mayo Simon's two-person play These Men in 1980 and Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play in 1982. Her regional stage work encompassed productions of Private Lives, Holiday, The Seagull, Agnes of God, and Gypsy, as well as Full Gallop, a one-woman show in which she portrayed Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Beyond performing, Larson produced the cabaret revue Serious Bizness in 1983 and both produced and appeared in Wicked & My So Called Life, a comedy revue written by Winnie Holzman and David Babcock that ran Off-Broadway for eight months.

Larson's television career began in 1986 when she played TV columnist Judith Clayton on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. In 1988 she briefly appeared on One Life to Live as Ursula Blackwell before joining the cast of All My Children as Opal Cortlandt in 1989. Her work on that series earned her two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. After approximately seventeen years on contract, she was moved to recurring status in June 2006, though ABC reinstated her contract in December 2009 to secure her participation in the show's relocation to Los Angeles. She reprised the role in 2013 on the short-lived revival web series. In 2014 she also guest starred on The Young and the Restless.

Alongside her television work, Larson built a film career that includes White Squall in 1996, Were the World Mine in 2008, and Shutter Island in 2010. Her leading performance in The Taking of Deborah Logan in 2014 drew positive critical attention. She subsequently co-starred in the horror films Can't Take It Back in 2017 and The Manor in 2021. Her television guest appearances include Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Desperate Housewives, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.