"Palmer Cortlandt" has Passed Away at 79

Soap Opera Digest is reporting that longtime All My Children star James Mitchell (Palmer Cortlandt) died Friday, January 22nd, in LA of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, complicated by pneumonia.

Sacramento native Mitchell appeared on the soaps The Edge of Night as Lloyd Griffin and Where The Heart Is as Julian Hathaway prior to his run on All My Children which began in 1979. He earned seven Daytime Emmy nominations for the role of Palmer.

Mitchell started his career as a dancer and achieved great success appearing in films such as Moonlight in Havana, Rhythm of the Islands and White Savage.

Taylor Miller, who played Mitchell's daughter Nina on All My Children, spoke fondly of him in our recent interview: "James Mitchell (Palmer), one of the kindest men in the world, was about finding the humor in situations." She also spoke about requesting to come back to the show last year to spend time with him: "I wanted to come back on the show because James [Mitchell] is not feeling well. And I wanted to come back to be with him, to be able to see him more. And they said, 'No.'"

Mitchell recently appeared on All My Children's 40th anniversary show on January 5th.