Jennifer Leak Dies: ‘Another World’ & ‘Guiding Light’ Actress Was 76
Actress Jennifer Leak, who starred in soaps Another World and Guiding Light, and the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours, has died. She was 76.
According to the obituary posted by The East Hampton Star, Leak passed away on March 18 at her home in Jupiter, Florida. The publication also notes that for the last seven years, she had been battling with a rare neurological disease, progressive supranuclear palsy.
Actor Tim Matheson confirmed the passing on his Facebook page. Matheson starred alongside Leak in Yours, Mine and Ours and was married to her from 1968 to 1971.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of Jennifer Leak’s passing,” Matheson wrote. “She wasn’t just my screen sister in ‘Yours, Mine and Ours,’ but also my beloved first wife. Jennifer was a remarkable woman, strong, lovely, and incredibly talented. My deepest condolences go out to her husband of 47 years, James D’Auria, and their multitude of friends.”
Born on September 28, 1947, in Cardiff, Wales, Leak moved around a lot growing up, eventually settling in Canada, where she began her acting career. Her first role came in a pilot for the Canadian television series Wojeck, directed by EGOT winner Mike Nichols. She was later cast in Nichols’ Oscar-winning film The Graduate, but immigration issues kept her from taking part in the shoot.
Leak later moved to Los Angeles, and within a few months, she landed a role as Lucille Ball‘s daughter in Yours, Mine and Ours, where she met her first husband, Matheson.
Her television career also continued with parts in Hawaii Five-0, Nero Wolfe, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She also became a regular on daytime soap operas, starting with Bright Promise and later landing the role of Gwen Sherman on The Young and the Restless. She also spent three years in New York playing Olive Springer on Another World.
Leak’s later credits include Guiding Light, One Life to Live, and Loving. She retired from screen acting by the mid-1980s and worked for many years as a sales agent with the Devlin McNiff real estate company.
It was during her time in New York that Leak met her second husband, James D’Auria; the pair married in April 1977. D’Auria told The East Hampton Star that his late wife was “a shy and private person, never desiring to be the center of attention or having the need for an audience,” adding, “She saved those feelings and exhibited them only when on camera, and then she became electric.”
She is survived by her husband, D’Auria, and her brother, Kenneth Leak.
