Victoria Lord

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Victoria Lord
One Life to Live character
Amanda Davies (2003)
  • Leah Marie Hays (flashbacks)
    • Duration1968–2013
    First appearanceJuly 15, 1968 (1968-07-15)
    Last appearanceAugust 19, 2013 (2013-08-19)
    ClassificationFinal; regular
    Created byAgnes Nixon
    Introduced by
    Book appearancesPatrick's Notebook
    In-universe information
    Other namesNiki Smith, Tommy, Jean Randolph, Princess, Tori Lord, Victor Lord (alternate personalities)
    Barbara Wedgeworth
    Occupation
    Family
    Hope Manning-Thornhart

    Victoria Lord is a fictional character and

    Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Erika Slezak
    .

    The character was created as one of the

    FX Canada, and the Oprah Winfrey Network from April 29, 2013[2][3] through the final episode released August 19, 2013.[4]

    The role of Victoria is the mainstay original lead character of the serial, and her storylines focus on drudgery, love, and family troubles. One of the longest-running characters on American

    lupus. Most notably, she suffers recurring bouts with dissociative identity disorder throughout the show narrative
    .

    Slezak's tenure as Victoria earned the actress a reputation as a leading actor in American serials,[5][6][7][8][9] with her portrayal becoming one of the most lauded and longest-running in American soap operas.[10]

    Character background

    It is a very, very good job, but it takes a lot of work, and it takes responsibility. You are responsible to the audience for who you're playing. You're responsible to your writers and your producer for the character, and you are extremely responsible to your fellow actors. There are people who don't realize that.

    —Erika Slezak on playing Victoria Lord,

    Archive of American Television[11]

    Conception

    One Life to Live series creator Agnes Nixon conceived the central role of Victoria "Viki" Lord inspired by her relationship with her domineering father, Harry Eckhardt, and her own married family life along the Philadelphia Main Line in Bryn Mawr.[12][13] Nixon took further inspiration from lead protagonist Tracy Lord of the 1939 play The Philadelphia Story,[14] portrayed on stage and film by actress Katharine Hepburn.

    Casting

    The role of Victoria was originally cast to Gillian Spencer, who appeared from the July 1968 debut until 1970.[1] Joanne Dorian replaced Spencer from October 1970 until March 16, 1971,[1] when established theater actress Erika Slezak stepped into the role in the following day's episode.[1][10] Slezak was told she was auditioning for a new character, but when offered the role she learned she was replacing someone else.[15] The producers informed Ernest Graves and Lynn Benesch, who played Viki's father Victor Lord and sister Meredith Lord, of the change in advance, but no one else in the cast or crew knew of the switch when Slezak arrived to work.[15] Slezak became synonymous with the character since her first appearance in the role March 17, 1971, playing Victoria continually for 41 years until the original One Life television finale in 2012. Slezak reprised the role onscreen upon Prospect Park resumption of the serial from April 29, 2013, through the final episode released August 19, 2013.[4]

    Two other actresses portrayed Victoria while Slezak was on

    Amanda Davies, portrayed a teenaged Victoria in flashbacks.[10]
    Leah Marie Hays played the role of a young Victoria Lord in a series of flashbacks as well.

    At the death of show and character creator Agnes Nixon in 2016, Slezak eulogized that, "When she hired me to play Viki on One Life To Live, she changed my life and my career and I will forever be grateful to her."[17]

    Slezak expressed interest for reprising portrayal of the character in a short-term guest appearance on ABC's last remaining soap opera, General Hospital, in a March 2018 interview with Soap Opera Digest magazine, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the July 1968 premiere of One Life to Live.[18]

    Characterization

    At the debut episode of One Life to Live July 15, 1968, twentysomething recent college graduate and

    Lord Enterprises. As Erika Slezak stepped into the role in 1971, head writer Nixon matured Victoria to a self-assured working woman managing fictional Llanview's predominant newspaper, The Banner. An increasingly headstrong Victoria, relinquishing her primal desires to pander to Victor, marries working-class Banner editor Joe Riley, much to the patriarch's chagrin.[14]

    By the mid-1980s, Victoria largely adopts a matronly role

    grande dame of Llanview."[7][8][9] In a 2006 Boston magazine article, Slezak remarked of Victoria representing "the very classy, very old-world money,"[12] with writer Michael Callahan calling the character "the stiff-upper-lipped matriarch"[12] of the prominent Lord family
    .

    American journalist and soap opera critic Connie Passalacqua Hayman (pen name "Marlena De Lacroix") briefly summed up the character role:

    ... Slezak's 'Viki' is the consummate soap opera heroine, because she has so harrowingly and humanistically triumphed over all her life's tragedies.[20]

    Storylines

    1960s and 1970s

    The eldest child of domineering millionaire publisher

    eloping with him.[27] Viki learns she has a half-brother, Tony Lord (George Reinholt), and Dorian plots to keep Victor's fortune for herself.[28] In 1976, Victor suffers a heart attack and dies after wife Dorian denies him medication, and in his wake Dorian wreaks havoc on the Lord family.[29] Viki and Joe have a son, Kevin Lord Riley, who is soon kidnapped by jealous Cathy Craig Lord (then Jennifer Harmon), but is later returned.[30] In 1978, Viki takes in Tina Clayton (Andrea Evans), the sixteen-year-old daughter of college roommate and best friend Irene Manning Clayton (Kate McKeown), who is apparently dying of cancer.[31] Shortly after Irene dies, Viki goes on trial for the murder of her nemesis Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony), but she is later exonerated following confessional testimony by Karen Wolek (Judith Light).[32] Joe dies from a brain tumor in October 1979.[33][34][35] Also in October 1979, Viki serves as the matron of honor in her friend Carla Gray's (Ellen Holly) wedding to Dr. Jack Scott (Arthur Burghardt).[36]

    1980s

    Widowed Viki gives birth to her second son, Joe Riley Jr., in January 1980. After a disastrous relationship with con man

    Megan Gordon (Jessica Tuck), an actress on the soap opera (within a soap opera), Fraternity Row. Megan and Viki initially spar, but ultimately get past their initial conflicts and become close.[43]

    1990s

    In 1990, Viki is elected mayor of Llanview,

    Renée Divine Buchanan (Patricia Elliott). Ben's first wife, Skye Chandler (Robin Christopher), comes to town and tries in vain to keep Ben and Viki apart.[53]
    That same year, Jessica falls pregnant, but miscarries the child when she is run over by Dorian. She names the child Megan.

    2000s

    Viki is diagnosed with

    Antonio Vega (Kamar de los Reyes), Viki returns. Ben is left comatose after the shooting. In 2003, Victor (William Stone Mahoney) is ostensibly revealed to be alive, claiming to have faked his death in 1976; however, shortly after he returns, Victor dies — but not before Viki and Todd confront him on ills inflicted to them in his wake.[50] In 2004, Viki is diagnosed with heart disease and eventually needs a heart transplant. Coincidentally, a comatose Ben dies just as Viki takes a turn for the worse, and his heart is transplanted into Viki, who recovers but must face widowhood once again.[58]

    In 2007, Viki and Clint (now

    Megan Rappaport
    (Erin Torpey), Ben and Asa. Reexamining her life, Viki reunites with Charlie, and they marry on August 4, 2009. Viki runs for mayor against Dorian and wins; she steps down, however, to help her family deal with the unexpected return of Mitch Laurence, who wreaks havoc on her daughters and murders Jared in the process.

    2010–13

    Charlie, devastated over his son's death, quits his sobriety and began drinking, distancing himself from Viki, choosing instead to conspire with Dorian to kill Mitch. Though Dorian tries to stop him at the last minute, Charlie ends up accidentally shooting Jessica (

    Ryder Ford while his mother Jessica was ill with her multiple personality. A stressed Viki suffers a bout with multiple personalities on the stand, leading the judge against giving the child to Viki but instead to her son and daughter-in-law, Joey (Tom Degnan) and Aubrey Buchanan (Terri Conn
    ).

    In summer 2011 a man with the "original" face of her only known living brother, Todd (Howarth), returned to Llanview claiming to be the victim of eight years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of his mother and Viki's childhood friend, a back-from-the-dead Irene Manning (now

    Victor Lord, Jr., brainwashed into believing that he is Todd by Irene. Meanwhile, Viki agrees in court to put up Clint in Llanfair for house arrest after he was convicted of various crimes in Llanview. Dorian and Viki ostensibly put an end to their feud of nearly four decades when Dorian leaves town to become an acting U.S. senator
    . Viki continues work at The Banner when Tina returns to town for the reading of the will of recently murdered Victor, Jr. After months of rehashing old feelings and living under the same roof, Clint and Viki too admit to their unresolved feelings and agreed to give a romantic relationship one more try.

    At the original finale, a prison breakout leads Allison Perkins to shoot both Clint and Viki, but only after telling the two that Jessica is in fact Clint's daughter after all and not the daughter of Mitch Laurence. Clint sanctions another paternity test and, in the presence of Jessica, Viki and Natalie, it is revealed Allison's claim to be true. Following all the emotional revelations and tears, Clint again declares his undying love for Viki and asks her to marry him for a third time.

    Upon the series resumption in April 2013, Viki accepts Clint's marriage proposal, and concurrently hires freelance journalist Jeffrey King (Corbin Bleu) to investigate the alleged congressional malfeasance of junior U.S. senator Dorian. Upon visiting niece Danielle Manning (Kelley Missal) in the hospital after overdosing on drugs and alcohol, she uncovers her brother Victor, Jr. to be alive. With her family newspaper in financial straits, The Banner focuses on growing the publication's online presence.

    Alternate personalities

    Slezak as Victoria's main alter-ego Niki Smith in 1985, a performance for which she earned the 1986 Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Drama Series

    As of the final ABC episode, all of Victoria's six[29] alternate personalities are integrated with her baseline psyche. At times during the series, Viki has been forced to impersonate one of them, particularly Niki and Jean. In order of their first appearance on One Life to Live, they are:

    • Nicole "Niki" Smith – a devil-may-care, sexually promiscuous party girl, approximately 22 years old. First appearing in the episode first-run November 15, 1968, Niki appears more times than all of the other alters combined and is very skilled at masquerading as Viki when necessary to hide her re-emergence.
      Harry O'Neill
      (1985); neither Vinny or Harry realized at the time that Niki was an alter of Viki.
    • Tommy – a 14-year-old male alter who first appeared in the episode first-run February 2, 1995, who embodied Viki's anger and rage at her abuse.[60] Tommy usually emerged to protect Princess (another alternate personality), and once threw Dorian Lord down the La Boulaie staircase and attempted to beat her to death with a claw hammer in the Llanfair secret room.
    • Jean Randolph – Jean Randolph is the calm, cool, collected and calculating caretaker of all the other alters, who first appeared in the episode first-run February 2, 1995 when Viki's abusive childhood was revealed.[60] Her name is derived from that of Viki's mother, Eugenia Randolph Lord. Jean blackmailed con man David Vickers into divorcing Viki's sister, Tina, and also freed Viki's son, Joey, from Dorian Lord's clutches by imprisoning Dorian in a secret room in the basement of Llanfair, which led Joey to believe that Dorian left him. Jean then forced Dorian to marry David to keep them both occupied and away from Viki's loved ones.
    • Princess – a manifestation of Viki as a seven-year-old girl. First appearing in the episode first-run February 21, 1995, Princess is a traumatized child who is constantly reliving the molestation by Viki's father. Protected by Tommy, the 14-year-old alternate personality, who is most angry about the abuse.
    • Tori Lord – Tori first appeared in the episode first-run April 18, 1995, approximately 19 years old, after Dorian revealed the truth of Victor's abuse to Viki. It was established that Tori was the alter who murdered Victor Lord in 1976. (It was later revealed that Victor survived and did not die until 2003. However Dorian has planted a seed of doubt regarding that notion, suggesting that the man who re-emerged as Victor in 2003 was a fraud.) Although her declared mission was to force Viki to face the truth, she wreaked much destruction before getting around to that. Tori started undermining The Banner by feeding stories and information to rival newspaper editor Todd Manning, and she torched Llanfair, nearly killing Jessica in the blaze.
    • Victor Lord – this personality is the reflective image of Viki's abusive father, Victor. First appearing in the episode first-run October 23, 1995, the Victor Lord personality only emerged a handful of times, but one of the instances that he took over led Viki to attempt suicide by cutting her own wrists to "expel" Victor from her body.

    Reception

    Series fansite Llanview Labyrinth remarks that although Gillian Spencer's Victoria is featured at the show's outset, "the obviousness of Viki being the show[']s unquestioned 'lead' did not smack the viewer quite as hard as it later would [with Erika Slezak's portrayal],"[61] with Spencer's Victoria melding into the ensemble cast. Joanne Dorian briefly stepped into the role beginning in October 1970, with a markedly less dynamic presence on the series than her predecessor.

    In March 1971, One Life to Live executive producer Doris Quinlan remarked to After Noon TV magazine of Erika Slezak and her audition before herself, series creator and head writer Agnes Nixon, and director David Pressman, "You've got to meet this girl—she's going to be a star."[62]

    Since the introduction of Slezak as Victoria, her portrayal has become regarded as definitive to the role.

    Daytime Emmy Award nominations in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress for her portrayal of Victoria, winning in 1984,[65] 1986,[66] 1992,[67] 1995,[68] 1996,[69] and 2005.[70] At the finale of the show's last iteration, she held the record for most Emmy wins by an actress. She also garnered the Soap Opera Digest Award for Favorite Couple with co-star Mark Derwin (Ben Davidson) in 2000.[10]

    In 2002, in recognition for her work on One Life to Live, Slezak was inducted as a member of the Silver Circle of the

    Soaps.com cited Slezak's casting in the role as the third-best recast of all-time on a soap opera.[73]

    References

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    5. ^ Tanya Barrientos (May 23, 1996). "Slezak Wins Emmy; Lucci Shunned For A 16th Year Puppeteer Shari Lewis And Oprah Winfrey's Show Are Also Winners". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
    6. ^ Michael, Fairman (March 17, 2011). "It's Erika Slezak Day! OLTL honors her with 40th Anniversary Surprise Party!". Retrieved May 26, 2013.
    7. ^ a b Coulton, Antoinette Y.; Pham, Thailan (2012). "Farewell to One Life to Live". People. 77 (2). Retrieved May 22, 2013.
    8. ^ a b Logan, Michael (2012). "Erika Slezak Goes to Heaven One Last Time on One Life to Live". TV Guide. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
    9. ^ a b McConnell, Michael (2011). "The View Plans One Life to Live Special for Series Finale". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
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    16. ^ a b "Who's Who in Llanview: Victoria Lord | One Life to Live on Soap Central". soapcentral.com.
    17. ^ "Agnes Nixon: A Note from Erika about Agnes Nixon". Erika Slezak Fan Club. September 28, 2016. Archived from the original on September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016. I am so terribly saddened by the death of Agnes Nixon. She was more than a great writer, producer and boss, she was a warm, loving and wonderful woman with a truly delightful and somewhat wicked sense of humor. It was my very great privilege to have known her and to have worked for her. When she hired me to play Viki on One Life To Live, she changed my life and my career and I will forever be grateful to her. I wish her peace and angels all around her. She deserves that!
    18. ^ Larson, Kelli M. (March 21, 2018). "ONE LIFE TO LIVE Star Erika Slezak Opens up About Her Return to Television (EXCLUSIVE)". Soap Opera Digest. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
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    73. SheKnows Media. Archived
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    External links
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victoria_Lord&oldid=1216958627"