Great Women of Soaps

[alphanguy74]

My favorite magnetic daytime diva of all time is of course:

If I thought I'd EVER see her giving a Nazi salute in court in a green velour jogging suit, I'd have dissmissed the thought as IMPOSSIBLE. But real life can really be a better soap than anything you could write!

[Sapounopera]

80's Lucinda Walsh was perfect. (Douglas Marland's women were perfect )

DAYS Kate Roberts started with a lot of promise, but the wacky storylines didn't help at all.

I wonder what Bill Bell's plans for JoAnna Manning where. I am sure he didn't hire Susan Seaforth Hayes to do nothing for a couple of years and then vanish.

Dina Abbott Mergeron, Iris Carrington Wheeler, Helena Cassadine, Cecile DePoulignac, Alexandra Spaulding, Renne Dumonde, Angelica Deveraux, Ann Alden Forbes, Ashley Abbott and Lindsay Wells are some of the names I love, but the name of Search of Tomorrow's Aza Doyan (sp?), a forgetable 1982 villainess who crossed paths with Travis and Liza has been quite unforgetable to me for some reason.

[EricMontreal22]

Do you think she even sits through the movies anymore?

[alphanguy74]

Of course she does, honey... she basks in every moment. it's a Hollywood premiere!

[Khan]

Kind of. Granted, her rep isn't as nasty as Joan Collins', but it's up there, lol.

The thing is, I'd be willing to work with divas such as DC, but only if they have the goods to back up the attitude. It's when a bitch is being a bitch on no talent that you have trouble.

Best female character ever, IMO, belongs to Angela Lansbury's character in "The Manchurian Candidate." Just wish someone in soaps would create a character half as poisonous, lol.

[DaytimeFan]

I think when women get labeled as bitches with bad reputations/attitudes it's often because they're women in a patriarchal business.

That said, Angela Lansbury's Mrs Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate is a faaaaaaaaaaaabulously evil characer. I think a lot of that had to do with Lansbury's committment to the role!

[Khan]

I'd put her performance right up there with Bette Davis' in "The Little Foxes." It isn't easy playing anyone who engages in venal behavior, but when you can do it and make viewers care (and even root!) for you? That's magic.

[Sylph]

I can't recall now , but were there women in daytime that loved their cigarette holders?

[DRW50]

We'd probably have to go back to the old soap days that are largely unavailable. I think the Carrie Nye characters on GL smoked, or at least Susan Piper did, didn't she? I can see Susan Piper with a gorgeous cigarette holder.

Laura Collins used to smoke on Dark Shadows, but then, she was a phoenix, so...

[Sylph]

Thank you, Carl, I knew you'd know!

I can't recall whether Piper used one...

[SFK]

The only soap diva with a cigarette holder that I can remember off the top of my head is Carmen Duncan's Iris in the "Who Shot Jake?" promo pic. Iris also smoked on AW when Mac died, but there was no holder (hell, there was no inhalation... she just held the sucker as it ashed away).

Not a holder, but of course Alexis had her brown paper Queen Size cigarettes, probably Nat Shermans.

[Sylph]

I don't smoke, but love the look of their Fantasia cigarettes.

[DRW50]

Oh that's right, wasn't she smoking in the poker dream sequence while Jake was flatlining?

[SFK]

Hm, I'm not sure Carl. I'm pretty sure I read an interview once where she was smoking IRL, so the show probably had more of a problem with her inhaling than she did. In the AW reunion, they were joking about how Constance Ford used to complain about crew members smoking on set ("PUT THAT CIGARETTE OUT!"). My how things have changed.

I've smoked a couple Fantasias, I used to get the Black and Golds from time to time. They are stronger cigarettes than they perhaps look. It is kind of surreal to walk into Nat Sherman where the folks working and behind the register are just puff-puff-puffin' away.

[Sylph]

That's interesting — because I was expecting them to be stronger.

And Black & Gold? Even stronger?

I can't resist, I have to post another pic!