LOS ANGELES – James Mitchell, who for nearly three decades played gruff patriarch Palmer Cortland on the ABC soap opera “All My Children,” has died, his longtime partner said Sunday night.
Mitchell died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, partner Albert Wolsky said. Mitchell had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for years, complicated by a recent bout of pneumonia.
Mitchell appeared in more than 300 episodes of the popular soap from 1979 until a 40th anniversary episode this month. He was a regular on the show until 2008.
Mitchell enjoyed playing the icy, wealthy Palmer, who wielded power over his children and the show’s fictional town of Pine Valley.
“He loved playing mean,” Wolsky said. “A soap gives an actor a chance to develop something because it goes on for so long.”