James Mitchell aka Palmer Cortlandt dead at 89/ABC

James Mitchell, who joined the cast of ABC's daytime drama All My Children back in 1979, died Friday January 22 at Cedars-sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. According to a statement released by Mitchell's longtime partner, Albert Wolsky, the actor suffered chronic obstructive pulmonary disease further complicated by a recent bout with pneumonia.

Daytime audiences no doubt know Mitchell primarily for his work on All My Children.  Some fans of his evil-personified Palmer Cortlandt, might be surprised to learn that he also enjoyed a lengthy career on the stage, screen,and TV with a career that spanned four decades and covered genres as varied as westerns and war pictures to classical ballet and modern dance.  

He studied acting at Los Angeles City College in the early 1940s where he met Lester Horton, a choreographer and teacher who specialized in modern dance. He followed Horton to New York to form a new dance company. In 1944 he auditioned for famed choreographer Agnes de Mille, who at the time was best known for her work on Oklahoma!. de Mille was casting another Broadway musical, Bloomer Girl, and hired Mitchell as principal male dancer and assistant choreographer. He went on to work with de Mille as a dancer and assistant in nearly a dozen shows and dance productions. 

During this time he also worked with other legends of dance and theatre, including Gower Champion, Eugene Loring and Jerome Robbins. He appeared in Broadway productions of Brigadoon, Carousel, First Impressions and The Deputy, among others.  He performed in touring companies of The Three Penny Opera with Chita Rivera, The Rainmaker, The King and I with Ann Blyth, Funny Girl with Carol Lawrence and more.

During the early part of his career, the stage wasn't Mitchell's only home. He enjoyed numerous appearances in TV, oftentimes partnered with dancer Cyd Charisse, as he was in a 1963 episode of The Perry Como Show. As he had on Broadway, Mitchell frequently went from lead actor to lead dancer during these TV appearances. In the 70s he added guest roles on such iconic fare as Lou Grant and Charlie's Angels to his already impressive resume. In the years prior to his role on AMC, Mitchell also starred on the soap opera The Edge Of Night.

In addition to the small screen, he also enjoyed lengthy, yet B-level success in a number of movies. Among this film appearances were Border Incident, Stars in My Crown, The Band Wagon, Colorado Territory, Oklahoma! and many others. In 1956 he starred in The Peacemaker. This was the only film in which his name appeared above the title in the opening credits.  Coincidentally, this was his next to last film. It was more than 20 year when he appeared in the 1977 dance-drama, The Turning Point. 

It was his three-decade turn as Palmer Cortlandt on All My Children that earned the actor his rightful place in daytime history.  From 1979 to 2002, Mitchell was a mainstay in the fictional town of Pine Valley, providing the soap's other longtime bad guy, Adam Chandler (David Canary) a worthy rivalry.

Like most sudser evil-doers, Mitchell's Cortlandt was primarily concerned with the well-being of his family, and willing to secure their happiness at any cost. When the character was first introduced, he arrived in Pine Valley a wealthy widower with his beautiful daughter Nina (Taylor Miller) in tow. Over the years, he meddled in his daughter's life, mostly keeping her from her one true love, Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman).  During the course of his thirty years on the show, Mitchell's Cortland was involved in some of the show's biggest storylines and married seven times, nearly as many as AMC's much-married Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), who holds the Pine Valley record with 10 marriages.

During his time on All My Children, Mitchell was nominated for 7 Daytime Emmy Awards, although he never took home a single statuette. 

As is often the case with long running soaps, back in 2002, Mitchell's role was trimmed to make way for younger storylines and the accompanying barrage of actors to fill the roles. Even though he role was substantially cut back, Mitchell continued to make appearances. He was seen in 2004 when Cortlandt's great-great-nephew Little A (Declan & Rory McTigue) was kidnapped.

Mitchell made three appearances in 2006: at the Mardi Gras ball, at JR Chandler's (Jacob Young) wedding and when his presumed-dead niece Dixie (Cady McClain) was found alive. When Dixie was subsequently murdered in 2007, Mitchell appeared for the funeral episode. In 2008, he taped his last regular scene alongside Opal (Jill Larson), his former wife and Petey (Daniel Kennedy), their son.  His final appearance took place earlier this month when he took part in the show's 40th anniversary episode as Palmer Cortlandt was interviewed by Pine Valley resident-turned-TV journalist Hayley Santos (Kelly Ripa) sat down with him as part of a documentary on life in Pine Valley.

At the time of this article, funeral arrangements were not yet know.

James Mitchell in Oklahoma! (he appears at 2:53 in the dream sequences as Dream Curly)

AMC:  Palmer apologizes to Nina

AMC:  Palmer begrudgingly give Nina's hand in marriage

AMC:  Palmer and Opal's Wedding

Mitchell as Palmer Cortlandt in his final regular appearance on All My Children

Mitchell appeared on the AMC 40th Anniversary episode (Palmer can be seen at 1:36 and 7:13)