Joan Copeland Dies: Broadway Actress, Sister Of Playwright Arthur Miller Was 99

Greg Evans
·2 min read
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Joan Copeland, an actress whose Broadway career began in the 1940s and would include acclaimed performances in a 1976 revival of Pal Joey and in the 1980 premiere of The America Clock, written by her brother, the playwright Arthur Miller, died today at her home in New York City. She was 99.

One of the original members of the renowned Actors Studio, Copeland also had numerous film credits and recurring roles on such daytime serials as Search for Tomorrow and One Life to Live. Copeland’s death was first reported by the Broadway World website.

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Copeland made her Broadway debut in 1948’s Sundown Beach, following it up the next year in Detective Story. She also appeared in Not For Children (1951), Handful of Fire (1958), Tovarich (1963), Something More! (1964), The Price (1968), Coco (1969), Two By Two (1970), Checking Out (1976), and 45 Seconds From Broadway (2001).

She was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Pal Joey (1976) and The American Clock (1981), winning for the latter. She won an Obie Award in 1991 for her performance in Richard Greenburg’s The American Plan at the Manhattan Theatre Club Off Broadway.

Ezio Pinza, Joan Copeland, Mike Wallace, ‘General Electric Theater’ (1955) - Credit: Everett Collection
Ezio Pinza, Joan Copeland, Mike Wallace, ‘General Electric Theater’ (1955) - Credit: Everett Collection

Everett Collection

Beginning her TV career with a role on the 1950 series Suspense, Copeland would appear in numerous of the era’s anthology dramas, as well as daytime serials Love of Life and The Edge of Night before taking the role of Search For Tomorrow‘s Andrea Whiting for five years starting in 1967. She also had roles on How To Survive a Marriage, As The World Turns and One Life To Live, and in such episodic programs as The Patty Duke Show, All in The Family, Chicago Hope, NYPD Blue and ER, among others. She recurred as Judge Rebecca Stein from 1991 to 2001 on Law & Order.

Copeland’s film credits The Goddess (1958), Middle of the Night (1959), Roseland (1977), It’s My Turn (1980), A Little Sex (1982), Happy New Year (1987), The Laser Man (1988), Her Alibi (1989), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), The Peacemaker (1997), The Object of My Affection (1998), The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998), Brother Bear (2003), The Last Request (2006), and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009).

Born in New York City to parents Isidore and Augusta Miller, Copeland was the younger sister of Death of a Salesman playwright Arthur Miller and their brother Kermit Miller. She was preceded in death by husband George J. Kupchik and is survived by son Eric Kupchik.

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