Kim Zimmer
Kimberly Jo Zimmer (born February 2, 1955)[2] is an American actress, best known for her role as Reva Shayne on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. For this portrayal, she has won four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Also recorded as Kimberly Jo Zimmer
Kim Zimmer

Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Kim Zimmer
- Birth Name
- Kimberly Jo Zimmer
- Born
- 2 February 1955
- Birthplace
- Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
- Occupation
- Actress
- Nationality
- United States
- Education
- Hope College · American Conservatory Theater · Forest Hills Central High School
- Honours
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Kimberly Jo Zimmer (born February 2, 1955)[2] is an American actress, best known for her role as Reva Shayne on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. For this portrayal, she has won four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
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Note VALÉORINE
Kim Zimmer (born 1955) is an American actress. The actress was born in Grand Rapids.
Kim Zimmer studied at American Conservatory Theater, Forest Hills Central High School and Hope College. The actress lived in Montclair.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q449620 · wikipedia · Kim Zimmer
In this article
Biography
Biography
Zimmer worked across television actor, stage actor, film actor and actor. This article rests on 2 published texts and 23 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kim Zimmer • Birth Name — Kimberly Jo Zimmer • Born — 2 February 1955 • Birthplace — Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1979–present • Children — 3, including Jake Weary
Career
Career
Zimmer's career began with stage work; an early television role was her portrayal of the character of Bonnie Harmer 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. 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. Her portrayal of Reva was a focus of the show until Zimmer left in 1990. She returned to Guiding Light in April 1995 and portrayed Reva until the show's conclusion in September 2009. While Zimmer's Reva was paired with several leading men, her work with Robert Newman (Josh) earned them the label of "supercouple." 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 suspected Elaine and Jerry were trying to kill Mr. Pitt. In 2010, Zimmer returned to the role of Echo on One Life to Live.[3] Zimmer was featured in a story along with former Guiding Light co-star Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan), Robin Strasser (Dorian Cramer) and Erika Slezak (Viki Lord).[4] Zimmer has also appeared in several episodic television programs, including Designing Women, MacGyver, Models, Inc., University Hospital, and Babylon 5 (episode "And Now For a Word", year 1995). She also appeared in several made-for-television movies. Zimmer has starred in a number of theater roles, including several at Augusta's Barn Theatre.[5] 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.[6] Zimmer returned to the role with the first North American tour on 30 September 2014.[7] 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.[8] In 2023, after several years off-screen, Zimmer returned to acting starring in the drama film You Sing Louder, I Sing Louder starring opposite Ewan McGregor and her son Jake Weary.[9]
Personal life
Personal life
Zimmer was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Burdina Elva (known as "Dede") Zimmer and Walter Jack Zimmer.[10][11] She has an older sister Karen Ann (née Zimmer) Witzel. She graduated from Forest Hills Central High School in Ada Township, which is just east of Grand Rapids, and then studied at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.[12] 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 starred as Deran Cody in Animal Kingdom from 2016 to 2022. She resides in Montclair, New Jersey. On May 16, 2024, during an appearance on a special Stand Up to Cancer benefit episode of the YouTube podcast series The Locher Room, Zimmer revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2023 and was undergoing treatment.[13]
Filmography
Filmography
• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1978 — One Life to Live — Bonnie Harmon — May 3, 1978 – 1978 • 1979–1982 — The Doctors — Nola Dancy Aldrich — Series regular: August 18, 1979 – 1982 • 1981 — Body Heat — Mary Ann • 1983, 2010–2011 — One Life to Live — Echo DiSavoy — Series regular, from March to October 1983, October 1, 2010 – October 14, 2011 • 1983–1990, 1995–2009 — Guiding Light — Reva Shayne — Series regular, from November 28, 1983 – August 1990, April 28, 1995 – September 18, 2009 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1985, 1987, 1990, 2006) Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Drama (1988, 2000) Nominated - Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1986, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007) Nominated - Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Drama (1986, 1989, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2003) Nominated — Gold Derby Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (2004, 2006) • 1989 — Trenchcoat in Paradise — Claire Hollander — TV movie • 1989 — Designing Women — Mavis — Episode: "The Rowdy Girls" • 1989–1990 — MacGyver — Police Lt. Kate Murphy — 3 episodes • 1991 — Hell Hath No Fury — Marlene — TV movie • 1991 — Keeping Secrets — Maureen — TV movie • 1992 — FBI: The Untold Stories — Barbara Oswald — Episode: "Lady Skyjacker" • 1992–1993 — Santa Barbara — Jodie Walker — Series regular Nominated - Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Drama (1993) • 1994 — The Disappearance of Vonnie — Vonnie Kaczmarek Rickman — TV movie • 1994–1995 — Models Inc. — Joan — 6 episodes • 1995 — University Hospital — Dr. Karen Hale — Episode: "Shadow of a Doubt" • 1995 — Babylon 5 — Cynthia Torqueman — Episode: "And Now for a Word" • 1995 — Seinfeld — Lenore — Episode: "The Diplomat's Club" • 2003 — Shortcut to Happiness — Patty • 2006 — Little Secrets — Nico • 2008 — The Van Pelt Family — Janet Van Pelt — Short film • 2010 — Steamboat — Rhonda — Web-series Nominated — Indie Series Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress • 2010 — Freshman Father — Dean Frost — TV movie • 2013 — 23 Blast — Mary Freeman • 2019 — Venice the Series — Tori — 8 episodes • 2023 — You Sing Louder, I Sing Louder — Elsie
Identity
Identity
Kim Zimmer is recorded with the occupation television actor. Recorded as a citizen of United States. Established in Library of Congress under no99076692. Established in FAST under 1937269. Formation and teaching. Zimmer studied at Hope College, American Conservatory Theater and Forest Hills Central High School.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1955
Kim Zimmer was born on 2 February 1955.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Montclair
Residences
Grand Rapids.
Birth place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Kim Zimmer”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q449620: Kim Zimmer
Unverified · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search. news.google.com.
- 2.Archive of American Television -- Kim Zimmer Inverview. emmytvlegends.org.
- 3.Michael Logan. Soap Veteran Kim Zimmer Joins One Life to Live - Today's News: Our Take. TVGuide.com. September 21, 2010.
- 4.Matt Webb Mitovich. AMC and OLTL: Stars From Daytime and Primetime Sound Off on ABC's Scrubbed Soaps. TVLine. April 15, 2011.
- 5.See Kim Live.
- 6.Gioia, Michael. Kim Zimmer and Cliffton Hall Fly Into Wicked North American Tour Aug. 14; Patti Murin Is in the Wings. Playbill. August 14, 2012.
- 7.Gans, Andrew. Four-Time Emmy Winner Will Return to National Tour of Wicked. Playbill. August 18, 2014.
- 8.Michael Logan. Finally, A Tell-All That Tells All: Kim Zimmer Dishes About Her New Memoir. TV Guide. July 22, 2011.
- 9.James, Caryn. 'You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder' Review: Ewan McGregor and Daughter Clara McGregor in an Uneven Parent-Child Drama. The Hollywood Reporter. March 12, 2023.
- 10.Kim Zimmer. TVGuide.com.
- 11.LLC, LifeStoryNet. Burdina Zimmer : April 9, 2009 - Bellaire, MI. www.lifestorynet.com.
- 12.TV Guide. Kim Zimmer: Biography.
- 13.Daytime Stands Up: A Benefit for Stand Up To Cancer - We All Have a Story.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedauthority record
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,408 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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