Tune in Tomorrow – Jon Michael ReedFebruary 20, 1982When the character of lady mechanic Georgina Whitman surfaced on “One Life To Live'” three months ago, she was intended to be an “interim buffer” to re-introduce the character of Tony Lord. Now, the shows writers have extended the character to be more active. But the actress originally hired to play Georgina has been dropped. Actress Ilene Kristen was the original Delia on “Ryan's Hope.” Her return to the soap world signaled a willingness to combine soap acting's financial security with her outside interest. Unfortunately. Kristen gained a noticeable amount of pounds to her girth between soaps stints. A “OLTL” source claims that Kristen was cautioned to lose the flab or risk her job.Last week, “OLTL announced that Nana Tucker will take over the role of Georgina, Interestingly, Tucker's also a “RH” alumna. She played Jewish girl, Nancy Feldman, who had an ill-fated romance with Catholic Pat Ryan. Tucker later portrayed Darcy Collins on “The Doctors.”Kristen, meanwhile, is rumored to be negotiating with “RH” to resume her role of Delia. The current Delia, Randall Edwards, is, according to another source, tired of the part and not afraid to let her displeasure show. Edwards garnered an Emmy nomination last year and was a delightful Delia. Kristen’s return, should it occur, would, however, be a reminder, and perhaps an inspiration, of the exemplary show “Ryan's Hope” was before it digressed to bloated tales of gangland wars and Egyptian mummy curses.“RH” has hired Patrick Jame Clarke for the returning role of Pat Ryan.
Newspaper columnApril 11, 1982 Randall Edwards said, "I was inspired by a person who is so unconnected to the adult world... that the only one she could turn to was a gorilla." Kristen, then in California as a viewer, hated it. “Soap operas shouldn't tackle that kind of thing.” “I think soaps should be as crazy as they can be within reality. People are nutty. People are crazy.” Kristen emphasized. While working on and off in California after she left the show, Kristen had a hard time shaking the Delia image. Even the late comic actor John Belushi was a fan of hers. She said he had been eying her on the set of “1941” for several days and finally phoned her at 3 a.m. “My little Delia. My little bitch. I love you, “ she recalled him saying, imitating their conversation in a throaty whisper. “I spent the whole summer with you. “ Now, she admitted, “I have to refocus myself on Delia. I've been a way from her for a while....she can do anything. The dramatic possibilities are endless.” She sees Delia as a “street fighter” and said one of her bigger challenges will be getting the character “back to the streets “ a far cry from Edwards comic portrayal of Delia as the classic “dumb blonde”. Kristen says she prefers playing Delia as an exposed wound people can relate to. But she added, Delia has a cunning edge. “She is a whole lot smarter than I am. She has a whole lot more nerve than I do.” “ I hope they let me do what I want...I take a lot of chances with Delia and no one has ever said “no'.” Delia had made a killing in the stock market, but lost her fortune and third husband, Roger, when she had an affair with her sleazy stock broker.An organized crime figure helped to recoup her losses and she ended up running the glitzy restaurant that the mobster secretly owned and used as a front for his drug operation. When the chieftain was murdered, she inherited the restaurant free and clear to lose it again to his nephew. She tried to run over former fiance Barry Ryan in a jealous rage after seeing him with another woman. She then let another woman, who was drunk at the time, take the blame. In one of the shows most zany story lines, Delia befriended “Albert”, a gorilla at the zoo, who fell in love with her ala King Kong. In a fit of passion and rage, he kidnapped her and held her captive in a tower in Central Park. Former husband Roger Coleridge became her Prince Charming when he rescued her in Cinderella-like plot by spotting her lost evening slipper. “Delia has to get to where she is going by whatever way she can,” said Kristen, trying to justify Delia's dastardly tricks. And indeed she has. Every time one of her many husbands pan to remarry, Delia has sabotaged their affairs. She cunningly faked pregnancy and blindness to marry and then keep Patrick, the youngest son of Maeve and Johnny Ryan's clan. She repeatedly schemed to keep first husband Frank Ryan from his former fiancee Faith Coleridge and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jillian Coleridge. (Yes, in the incestuous world of soap opera they are all related.) And after failing to convince former third husband, Roger, that his new flame was less than virtuous, she plotted an engagement present to jump out of his cake at his bachelor party. In one of Edward’s final scenes as Delia, she performed an elaborate and lengthy dance routine that included the can-can, tango, and Irish gig.And for Kristen, returning to “ was like going home again in a very nice way” . Kristen jumped back to Ryan’s Hope after a few years in California and a brief tenure on ABC's “ One Life To Live”. “ I don't know if I was fired or let go (from One Life To Live)”, she said. She didn't have a contract with the soap and stayed for about two months before she was told her character “was going to be taken in a diffident direction.” I don't want to question it. Fate works in strange ways.” The character of Delia Reid Ryan Ryan is a pivotal as the Ryan clan, around whom the plot thickens. “Every time I think I figured her out, she comes up with something new,” lamented her exasperated former husband, Dr. Roger Coleridge. Labine, who along with Paul Mayer owned the soap until last year when they sold it to ABC, described Delia as someone “in whom the most dreadful early deprivation has caused a desperate need for love and attention.”
Another column
One of soap opera's most delightfully desperate and sometimes despicable femme fatales has reverted to her old self. Ilene Kristen, who created the role of Delia on ABC's "Ryan's Hope" has returned to the middle-rated show. She replaced Randall Edwards who took over for her three years ago. And although head writer Claire Lablne said she will ignore the change when crafting more romantic and devious plots for Delia, the viewers can't help but notice the difference. Each actress played the scheming Delia as an altogether different personality. "Ilene's is an earthy, fundamental, desperate Delia," explained Lablne. "Randall's is more of a mercurial, high-comedy figure. Ideally,Labine said with a chuckle, she would like to have Kristen play Delia for three years and then have Edwards back for another three. "I loved both of them. We had the best of all possible worlds because the actresses are so good but so different." Edwards said she wanted off the show when her contract expired.