Gloria Carlin, the veteran actress known for The Hanoi Hilton, General Hospital and a string of projects written by her Oscar-nominated husband, Lionel Chetwynd, has died. She was 84.
Carlin died Aug. 5 at her home in Sherman Oaks, California, her family announced.
The Montreal-born actress built a decades-long career that stretched from Canadian films and the London stage to Hollywood television, biblical epics and daytime soaps.
One of Carlin’s most memorable roles came in the controversial 1987 Vietnam War drama The Hanoi Hilton, which was written and directed by Chetwynd and starred Michael Moriarty.
Carlin played a member of an American peace delegation visiting a Vietnam prison camp in a scene that echoed Jane Fonda’s highly controversial 1972 trip to Hanoi.
But Carlin’s career began long before Hollywood.
Born Feb. 20, 1942, she started acting at the Montreal Children’s Theatre before attending Sir George Williams University, where she first crossed paths with Chetwynd.
She later headed to New York to pursue acting more seriously, studying with Peggy Feury at The Actors Studio and training in dance with legendary choreographer Martha Graham.
Carlin eventually returned to Montreal and married Chetwynd in 1963.
She continued performing in stage productions, hosted a CBC children’s program and even worked at Montreal’s famed Expo 67 world’s fair.
The couple later moved to London, where Carlin appeared in the 1971 West End production Maybe That’s Your Problem, a provocative musical about premature ejaculation that marked Chetwynd’s first play.
Director Ted Kotcheff later reunited with Chetwynd for the acclaimed 1974 movie The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, starring Richard Dreyfuss. The film earned Chetwynd an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Carlin and Chetwynd eventually moved with their two sons to Connecticut and New York before settling in Los Angeles in 1976.
Her film credits included Goldenrod in 1976, where she played the wife of Tony Lo Bianco’s struggling rodeo rider, and Two Solitudes in 1978 alongside Jean-Pierre Aumont and Stacy Keach.
Both films were written by Chetwynd, who also directed Two Solitudes.
Carlin later appeared in Roger Vadim’s The Hot Touch, the Emmy-winning biblical miniseries Joseph and the Showtime movie Varian’s War: The Forgotten Hero — all projects written by her husband.
Soap fans may also remember her from General Hospital.
In 1986, Carlin appeared on the ABC daytime drama as widowed store owner Charity Gatlin.
Her television résumé also included appearances on Cagney & Lacey, E/R, Knots Landing, Freddy’s Nightmares and The Facts of Life.
Carlin is survived by her husband; sons Michael and Josh; daughters-in-law Tracy and Jennifer; grandchildren Miller, Joseph, Mira and Becca; brother Harvey and sister-in-law Suzee; as well as several nieces and nephews.
Her family remembered Carlin as an eternal optimist who was fiercely supportive of those closest to her.
They said she “was a light for anyone who had the privilege to know her” and was always ready to listen, offer advice and stand firmly in the corner of the people she loved.