MelindaMelindaMelinda...

Yeah, I had the same thought process as you, thought it might be Claire but then saw what Claire's wearing in the other pic. The only Melinda I've ever really known save for a couple of clips is NOP's. Really wish I could catch some of the early Dorian/Melinda relationship, the original Cramer Women (decades before that phrase was coined).

When I've read about Lee Remick and Sheree North being the next "Marilyn" I kinda go on that too, I don't really see it. Not that Marilyn didn't become a great actress once she got with Strasberg, but I think even Erika would rather be compared with ladies like Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave. Okay, but truthfully, what woman wouldn't be flattered by a MM comparison?

Jacquie and Joe's shared activities went beyond cake cutting...

Jacquie and Joe's shared activities went beyond cake cutting...

Didn't she have a thing with Paul Rauch too?

Hey fellow OLTL fans! I have tons of old printed stuff I could post...If I knew how. Can anybody give this tech challenged poster some tips or instructions?

Is that Jane Badler (Melinda) on the far right?

I think that is the actress who played Dr. Pamela Shepherd (Kathleen Devine). She was involved with Dr. Will Vernon.

Oh okay, thanks Dale!

Well, for starters, do you have a scanner?

It took me ages to remember how to use a scanner and then to figure out how to crop - I hope it works out for you

October 1971 TV Dawn to Dusk (Ideal Publishing).

This article is the bomb. "Erika Slezak" and "hot pants" in the same sentence, an award for diction at RADA (well of COURSE!), all this talk of her sex appeal, a fag in her hand!? Too much!

Edited December 5, 201015 yr by SFK

family until I was too old for it to make any difference. As far as I was concerned, I had parents like everybody else and that's all that mattered. I did seem to travel a lot more than my friends, but I didn't really know why except that my father had a job that took him travelling. I went to a lot of different schools, but it didn't harm me at all. It didn't hinder me from making friends; I just had friends everywhere and that was exciting and fun.

"But I never actually realized that my father was in show business until I was 12 or 13 when a friend of mine said, 'Gee, I saw your father in a movie last night.' I never thought that was anything out of the ordinary because I was never taught to believe that acting was such an extraordinary profession. But my friend told me she was vastly impressed that my father was in the movies. So I went home and told my mother and she explained to me that my father was a film star. It still didn't make much of an impression on me. It just never occurred to me that I was any different from anyone else. In retrospect, I think I did grow up a little quicker than other children and became more responsible earlier, but I didn't miss out on anything either."

Perhaps because Erika never really considered doing anything else (except for a period of about two hours when, as a very young girl attending Catholic school, she contemplated becoming a nun), she was able to examine the darker side of an acting career without becoming discouraged. Although she is well aware that at any given time two-thirds of the actors in the United States are out of work while those who are lucky enough to be working probably pounded the pavement for months before getting their jobs. Erika has been extremely lucky. She's never been out of work for more than two-and-a-half weeks. Lucky as she is, however, she admits that the thrill of getting the chance to work at her craft can sometimes be difficult to maintain.

Erika has been living by the show biz adage "The show must go on" for the last five years. After graduating from the Royal Academy in 1966 she joined the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and appeared in their productions of Electra, Hedda Gabler, Othello, The Skin of Our Teeth and many other classics. Joining the North Central Michigan Playhouse in 1969, Erika tried her hand at light comedy, appearing in their productions of Barefoot in the Park, The Music Man, Don't Drink the Water and Mr. Roberts. Her next stop on the repertory circuit was Houston's Alley Theatre where she added starring roles in Blithe Spirit, Charley's Aunt and Tartuffe to her long list of credits. After an extended vacation on continent with her parents, Erika did a stint at Buffalo, New York's Studio Arena Theatre as Desdemona in Othello before finally entering the world of daytime television as Victoria Lord Riley on One Life to Live.

Working in television means a whole new way of life for Erika. "At the beginning it was very difficult," she said. "I was a theatre person before joining the show, which meant I got up late, didn't get home until 11:30 at night and never went to bed before 2:00 a.m. Now I have to get up at 6:45 a.m., so if I go to bed late I'm kaput the whole next day."

Erika found changing her established routine somewhat difficult at first. But she feels it was well worth the effort. "I like doing this serial because it's a complete change from the theatre, the money is terrific and the other actors on the show are all great people," she says enthusiastically. "I love playing the part because Victoria's not a simple person. She's a good person, but she's terribly complicated and very neurotic. Two years ago she had a complete mental breakdown and was schizophrenic for a while. She has all kinds of problems that I don't have - like having so much money she doesn't know what to do with it and a father who wanted her to be a son and treats her like one. And her life style - that of a super rich Philadelphia Main Line type of girl - is so different from mine. It's fun to play this kind of role because I'm not at all like her. But I understand and like her very much."

Erika also seems to understand herself pretty well - she's yet to lie on an analyst's couch. Married at 21 and divorced three years later, she is not at all bitter about the experience. "The divorce was my decision because I was it wasn't working, and I didn't think it was fair to either of us to drag it out any longer," she admits. "My parents were pleased that I made the decision because they were against the marriage from the start. They had nothing against my ex-husband as a person. In fact, they thought he was delightful and charming. But he's an actor and my father always told me, 'Don't marry an actor. Even if he's a genius, you will never have financial security.'

"My father, being an actor and always having had to worry about money wanted his children to have as much security as possible. Like almost every father, he was hoping I would find someone who would take care of me so that I would never have to work. I'm hoping for that, too. Because I enjoy my work so much, I don't want the pressure of having to work put on me."

Erika would love to remarry and has some definite ideas about what she wants in a man. Besides hoping to snag one who can provide her with financial security, she wants "someone I can respect. That's the most important thing to me. And I want a man who would know how to be stronger than me when necessary, and yet someone who will lean on me equally. Gentleness is another quality I look for. It is rare to find a person of strong character who also has gentleness."

In Erika's free time she likes to cook, read and travel. When she takes to the kitchen, she's apt to prepare Italian and French dishes. But like most gals, Erika has to watch her weight. Lean steak, therefore, is often on her menu for dinner. After dinner she's likely to curl up with a book of non-fiction, although there was a period in her life when she read nothing but novels. Inside the Third Reich, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (a history of the American Indians) and Inside Prison American Style are three books she recently devoured and highly recommends. Travelling, however, is what really excites Erika. She's seen most of Canada and the United States and has been all over Europe countless times. Currently she's reaming of going to Africa, Russia and the Far East. But those exotic excursions will have to wait for the time being. Erika wouldn't think of leaving One Life to Live for quite a while.

By Linda Rosenbaum

Really nice article, a great glimpse of where she was, especially knowing where she would be. Have you watched her TV archive interview? She talks a little more about her early life in the theatre and her first marriage, I think it's one of the better-paced and interesting of those interviews.

Oh okay, thanks Dale!

Well, for starters, do you have a scanner?

Yes, I do! So now what?

SFK is probably going to explain this better than I can, as I am awful at explaining things, but what I did was scan a page onto my computer, then crop the page to the section which I most think is interesting (I usually just post photos and type up articles if they don't have photos). After the photo is saved, jpeg or jpg or whatever it would be, I go to Photobucket (there are others too - I haven't gotten around to trying those yet) and upload the photo there. On the page for the photo at Photobucket, you can click on the link given for IMG code, and it will cut and paste. Then you cut and paste that link here, and the photo will come up here.

Edited December 6, 201015 yr by CarlD2

From the August 29, 1995 Weekly (K-III Magazines). Pat Elliott interview. Written by Valerie Davison, Photography: Robert Milazzo. Hair: Karen O'Connell/ABC Makeup: Annette Lorant

Edited December 25, 201014 yr by CarlD2

Her eyes are a dark, dark blue - so dark, they at first seem brown. Her pixie haircut brings into bold relief the gamin aspects of her nature; but many other aspects loom large and amenable as well, ministered in turn by a voice both lush and obedient. Her chatty demeanor bespeaks intelligence and grace, and elicits the suspicion that, in addition to being fun, she may well be one of the most balanced people you're likely to meet. Much of this - maybe all - has been evident in One Life to Live's Renee Divine Buchanan since Patricia Elliott brought her to Llanview seven years ago and gave Asa Buchanan the most believable mate he's ever had.

By the time this Colorado native did daytime, she had done everything else. Her resume reads like a guidebook of theatrical imperatives, criss-crossing media and genre and including a Tony award for her very first Broadway show (A Little Night Music, 1975). The story of how all this happened, however, is as improbable as that of the understudy who goes on for the star. Unlike most actors, Elliott never aspired to the theater and never performed in high-school plays, even though she did have an aunt who had attempted a film career. "When I was 4 I would get up on the tables and tap dance," this self-avowed showoff recounts. "In high school I did variety shows, dance lines and musicals, but not plays. I knew there was something I wanted to do creatively, but I didn't have a clue as to what it was. I thought actors were very odd people who did odd things." Unbelievably, Ellott's love affair with acting began at Harvard, not as a student in the drama department, but in the public relations department, where she was working.

Her interest in the craft was sparked at a time when she was making major changes in her life, somewhat mirroring the social upheavals happening in the '60s. She was living in Connecticut, a long way from the little trout-fishing village where she was born, and from the University of Colorado, where she majored in English. One of those changes was Elliott's decision to leave her husband. She didn't want to go back to Colorado, however. "I thought I wanted to be a writer," she says, "and the only place I could get a job remotely involved with publishing was in the hometown-news office at Harvard. There's a very active theater there," she explains, "and all the students who worked on the paper were in the theater, so I did a little revue at the Loeb Center. I had some lines, and it was great fun. Someone saw me in that - which has been the pattern of my career - and asked me to read for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. I auditioned, and they said, 'Well, now that was very good. Are you a quick study?' I said sure, walked out and asked this friend of mine, 'What's a quick study?'"

She got the part in Cat and was accepted by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) in England. When she returned she was instantly hired by the Cleveland Playhouse, a post followed by the Guthrie in Minneapolis, the O'Neill Center in Massachusetts, Lincoln Center in New York, off-Broadway, film and television - you name it. "I fell into it," she marvels, "but I fell forever, insatiably in love. It was as if I'd found what I'd been looking for all my life."

Even so, the wondrous garden that Elliott had discovered was not without a few rocks to climb, and the move from stage to camera was negotiated with some unease. "When you're a theater actress you have control," she explains. "When you walk onstage everything happens according to your timetable, what you decide. Nobody says, 'Cut,' nobody says, 'Five, four, three, two, one.' I found the spontaneity of the situation threatening. I was accustomed to repetitive, rehearsed perfection, where i knew exactly what was required of me. The camera was a mystery to me. I couldn't warm up to that cold thing just sitting there, staring at me; I didn't know what it wanted me to do. And then there were the people touching you all the time, which drove me crazy - fussing with your costume; everybody on you - picky, picky, picky!" Elliott credits Jeff Bridges, her co-star in her very first film (Somebody Killed Her Husband, 1978) with helping her adapt. "Here I was, performing Tartuffe onstage at the same time, which is nothing but talk in rhymed couplets, very bravado, like opera." She demonstrates: "And here's Jeff, whom I can barely hear, moving his lips! I say to him, 'How do you do this? You've gotta show me how you do this.'"

He did, or somebody did, because now she's not only good at it, she's wildly enthusiastic about it. "It's a dance, a pas de deux," she states simply, nabbing a metaphor. "I did a pilot where I was sitting on a couch, doing my lines, and there was this very complicated camera maneuver going on. I could feel the camera doing what it was supposed to do - swoop down around and come up to me while my emotions were doing the same thing - and for the first time I understood why so many people loved the camera: It's so much more intimate! I also realized that all of those people are there because we're all working together, at the same moment."

As for playing OLTL's aptly named Miss Divine, Elliott now claims the thing she loves about soap is that, of all forms, it is the most spontaneous. "I'm now totally addicted to playing the same character day after day, and under different circumstances," she insists. "Sometimes you don't know what's going to happen because you haven't had enough rehearsal. But I just adore it. I love it!"

If you're getting the idea that this woman is high on life, you're right. She loves that medium, too, and has probably mastered it, as much as any person can. She studied with an Indian guru for a time, and came out the other side with her own ideas. I was in kind of a gray wasteland where there were no ups or downs," she says, describing the condition which set her on her personal spiritual journey. "There were no great dramas, no great highs or terrible lows, just an existential angst. I do believe in karma, that we come here again and again, and what we must do is confront our illusions, try to overcome them and get to the truth behind them." She also believes in synchronicity, which she defines as "several things coming together all at once," a kind of fortuitous irony. For instance, one thing that did inspire her early on was seeing Julie Harris in The Lark. "I won the Tony award the same night Julie won for The Last of Mrs. Lincoln," she says, still thrilled. Also, her actress-aunt had known Antoinette Perry, for whom the award was named, land wrote Perry that her niece was coming to New York to be an actress. Perry, in turn, wrote to Elliott, encouraging her and wishing her luck. "So here I was," she continues, "winning the award named after her, five years after she died. I never got to meet her, but I have this cherished letter." She smiles a child's smile, throws up her hands and exclaims, "Who knew?"

While Renee is definitely back-burner on the show right now, Elliott is hardly idle. She's very active in an organization called Plays for Living, which commissions short plays on topical subjects and presents them to a wide variety of audiences. The current one, logically, is on domestic violence. She's turning her attention to writing and photography, as well as the three-year soap contract she just signed, and about which she whispers with gusto. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Everybody on a soap at some point has to sit in the back row for a while, but I certainly would like to be used more. Absolutely. And even if Asa doesn't realize it, and I think he does," she muses confidentially, speaking for Renee, "somewhere in the back of his mind, Renee is his best woman friend. They will be friends no matter what; he'll always call on her because she'll give him the straight skinny. We all need somebody in our lives like that." Renee - or is it Elliott? - has another idea for Asa. "I think Renee and Asa should have an affair," she proposes, and then adds provocatively, "Speaking from personal experience, there's something very sexy about having an affair with your ex-husband."