Dorothy Lyman

**Dorothy Lyman** (born April 18, 1947 in Minneapolis, MN) is an American Actress, Producer and Director. She is best known to soap opera audiences as Opal Sue Gardener on the ABC soap *All My Children*, Gwen Frame on the NBC soap *Another World*, and as Rebecca Whitmore on *Generations*, also an NBC soap opera. She is also best known to sitcom audiences as the dimwitted Naomi Oates-Harper on the sitcom *Mama's Family*.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to parents Violet E. (née Brightwell) and Hector H. Lyman, who was a stockbroker. One of her first appearances on television came in 1971 when she appeared on the soap opera *A World Apart*. Several years later, Dorothy appeared as Elly Jo Jamison, an evil relation of wealthy Orin Hillyer, on *The Edge of Night*. She played architect Gwen Parrish Frame (1976–1980, 1989) on *Another World*.

However, Lyman's most notable role to soap opera audiences is Opal Sue Gardner on the ABC soap *All My Children* for which she received two back-to-back Emmy Awards as Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Daytime Drama Series in 1982 and for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Drama Series in 1983. Lyman attended high school with Jill Larson, the actress who would eventually succeed her in the role of Opal Gardner on *All My Children*.

In 1983, while still appearing as Opal on *All My Children*, Lyman began pulling double duty after making the move to the world of TV comedy when she land the role of Naomi Oates-Harper on the sitcom *Mama's Family* (first beginning on January 22, 1983-April 7, 1984 on NBC). The character of Naomi was first introduced as the next door neighbor and an old high school crush of Vinton Harper (played by Ken Berry) as they rekindle their romance (much to the dismay of Mama Harper played by Vicki Lawrence) and later marrying in the season and the character taking the last name Harper. *Mama's Family* was originally cancelled by NBC in April 1984 due to a drop in ratings but was able to breathe new life in syndication, returning to the airwaves on September 27, 1986 and ran until February 24, 1990 with the series finale episode titled "Bye-Bye, Baby" in which TV viewers saw Lyman's character, Naomi giving birth to a baby girl they named Tiffany Thelma Harper.

During a *Mama's Family* reunion on Vicki Lawrence's talk show *Vicki!*, Dorothy noted that she continued to perform as Opal on *All My Children* concurrently with the beginning of production of *Mama's Family*, flying back and forth each week between New York (where *All My Children* was filmed) and Los Angeles (where *Mama's Family* was filmed) and while the commute was brutal, she remembered it fondly, she referred to that stage of her career as "All My Paychecks."

Lyman was also known to make two appearances on the Game Show circuit. In 1984, she appeared as a celebrity guest on the CBS Game Show *The (New) $25,000 Pyramid* and a year later, she appeared on the NBC Game Show *Super Password*.

After *Mama's Family* left the airwaves in February 1990, Lyman went behind the camera as producer and director. Her most notable work behind the camera is producing and directing a total of 75 episodes of the CBS sitcom *The Nanny* (all episodes of the third and fourth seasons, and all but four episodes of the fifth), even once made a special guest appearance on the Fran Drescher sitcom. She still occasionally appeared in front of the camera as well, she appeared in a recurring status on Bob Newhart's third sitcom titled *Bob* and appeared in the films *I Love Trouble* in 1994 and *The Departed* in 2006.

Dorothy has married twice. She was first married to actor John Tillinger, they wed on December 1, 1971 and divorced sometime in 1983 and they had two children. On February 8, 1987, she married her second husband, associate producer Vincent Malle and they divorced on August 11, 2001 and they had one child (Malle passed away on November 19, 2011 in France).

She currently resides in New York City.