Kim Zimmer

Career

Zimmer's career began with stage work; an early television role was her portrayal of the character of Bonnie Harmon on One Life to Live in 1978. In 1979, she was tapped to replace Kathleen Turner as Nola Dancy Aldrich on The Doctors. She later appeared opposite Turner in the 1981 film Body Heat in a plot that addressed similarities in their appearance. For much of her stint, she was the show's leading lady, but left the show in July 1982 on a maternity leave, escorted off the show by her real life husband, A.C. Weary, who played Nola's newest conquest. She would return one last time later in the year for the funeral of her former mother-in-law, Mona Croft. She had a brief return to One Life to Live from February through November 1983 as Echo DiSavoy. On August 17, 2010, it was announced that after a twenty-seven-year absence, Zimmer would reprise the role of Echo, effective October 1. Zimmer featured in a story along with former Guiding Light co-star Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan), Robin Strasser (Dorian Cramer) and Erika Slezak (Viki Lord). She reprised the role on October 1, 2010, remaining a year, leaving several months before the show's cancellation.

In 1983, Zimmer was cast in the role for which she is best known, the character of Reva Shayne on the television soap opera Guiding Light. Zimmer left Guiding Light in July 1990 and moved to the West Coast for five years, during which she played Jodie DeWitt Walker on Santa Barbara from 1992 to 1993.

In 1995, Zimmer appeared in an episode of Seinfeld (The Diplomat's Club), as Mr. Pitt's attorney who suspects Elaine & Jerry of trying to kill Mr. Pitt. Zimmer returned to Guiding Light in April 1995 and portrayed Reva until the show's conclusion in September 2009. Her character's pairing with Robert Newman's Josh Lewis became very popular and the couple has developed into a supercouple and the cornerstone of the soap. Josh asked Reva if she was ready to go home with him and she was credited for reading the last line on Guiding Light to Josh, "Always."

Zimmer has also appeared in several episodic television programs, including Designing Women, MacGyver, Models, Inc., and Babylon 5 (episode "And Now For a Word", year 1995). She also appeared in several made-for-television movies.

Zimmer frequently returns to Michigan to participate in Michigan's oldest regional summer stock theatre at Augusta's Barn Theatre. In 2011, it was announced that Zimmer would be cast in the Off-Broadway international hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She starred as Mrs. Hayes in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's production of "Odysseus D.O.A.", running through March 4, 2012. Zimmer made her musical theatre debut when she joined the first North American tour of Broadway's Wicked. She played the role of Madame Morrible from 14 August 2012 through 13 December 2013. Zimmer returned to the role with the first North American tour on 30 September 2014. Zimmer has also appeared in several productions of the musical "Gypsy", first in 2006 at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, and in 2015 at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera opposite former "Guiding Light" leading man Robert Newman.

In 2011 she released her memoir called I'm Just Sayin'!: Three Deaths, Seven Husbands and a Clone! My Life as a Daytime Diva.

Personal life

Zimmer was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Burdina Elva "Dede" and Walter Jack Zimmer. She graduated from Forest Hills Central High School in Ada Township, MI, which is just east of Grand Rapids, and then studied at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She is married to actor/director A.C. Weary (Allen Cudney Weary), and they have three children: Rachel, Max, and Jake Weary. Jake is also an actor; he appeared on As the World Turns as Luke Snyder in 2005, and has had various guest roles, including on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and currently stars as Deran Cody in Animal Kingdom. She resides in Montclair, NJ.