10 Things Everyone Always Forgets About Harley Quinn
1. Soap Operatic Beginnings
It is impossible to look at the success of Harley Quinn without also looking at actress Arleen Sorkin. Sorkin, who is a college friend of creator Paul Dini, played the character Calliope Jones in the NBC daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. During a dream sequence, Sorkin played a roller-skating jester. Seeing that and knowing Sorkin’s talent, Dini knew that she had to voice his creation. He incorporated many of her mannerisms and style into the look of Harley, and Arleen’s “very snappy, wisecracking, bubbly blonde” personality, to quote Dini. Paul encouraged his friend to speak in her normal Brooklyn accent with a little Yiddish thrown in.
In addition to Sorkin, Dini was influenced by the gun molls that were background characters in the '60s Batman TV series. Harley also has bits of I Dream of Jeanie star Barbara Eden in her DNA, and Paul was likewise influenced by the female stars of 1940s screwball romantic comedies like Claudette Colbert.
Harley’s other creator, Bruce Timm, drew his artistic inspirations from loftier areas. Timm pulled the design of the classic Harlequin character from the 16th century Italian physical comedic style Theater Commedia Dell’arte and applied that motif to the character’s initial costume.