Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

[DRW50]

January 1968 TV Radio Mirror

[danfling]

I think that Donna Mills and the late Shawn Campbell looked enough alike to be related in real life.

[DRW50]

You're right. They have the same smile.

[dc11786]

Thanks for posting this Carl. I never knew Mills last name was originally Miller.

I like how Mills actually talks about what is happening on the show (her character being in the hospital / the flashbacks related to Laura's decision to become a nun) as they are usually more personal than this.

I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Burr from his time on the show so it was nice to see tha Donnelly family pic.

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading. I'm sorry the picture isn't a little better.

I also appreciated her talking more about the plot details. I'm not sure if those were already known, but I hadn't heard about them. I never knew they had flashbacks to show why Laura wanted to be a nun. I wish I could see those.

[saynotoursoap]

This is a very interesting article, more detailed than one typically finds with stories from that era. Donna mentions Vic Vallaro, an actor/director and coach. Vallaro later appeared with Donna on Love Is a Many Splendoerd Thing. They remained together for many years, but he had a serious drug problem, and she ultimately left him when he refused to get help. He had a son he had virtually abandoned, and when Vallaro died, the son was not even mentioned as a survivor in the obituary. It was quite sad. It was nice that the author mentioned her part as Rocket on The Secret Storm, too. People seemed to enjoy the episode I uploaded.

Edited February 28, 2013 by saynotoursoap

[DRW50]

I never knew that about Donna. What a sad story. I guess she doesn't talk about most of this.

Who did he play on the show?

[danfling]

Donna was the original Laura Donnelly, one of the two Donnelly sisters (with Leslie Charleston playing the other one). They had a brother (originally played by Robert Burr), father (the late Judson Laire), and nephew (the late Shawn Campbell).

[DRW50]

Do you know who Vic Vollaro played?

[danfling]

I can't remember the name of the character, but he was a man who kidnapped Laura. I THINK this was just before Ms. Mills left the show, although I could be wrong.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

Sometimes I forget about the long delays with magazines. There was one from early or spring 1971 which talked about how Leslie Charleson definitely wasn't leaving the show. But she must have already been gone by the time it was even in print.

[saynotoursoap]

Did Vic kidnap Laura? I don't remember that. Granted, I was heavily into NBC at that time and did not watch Love Is regularly. My memory of it is that it was similar to what happened to Valene on Knots Landing when she lost her mind and wandered off to Schula, Tennessee. On LIAMST, Laura was pregnant. Her husband Mark had an affair with Jean Garrison, and Mark went on trial for murdering her ex-husband Steve Hurley. Mark and Jean's affair was exposed at the trial. Laura had developed a paranoia about Jean attempting to seduce Mark, and when she discovered that it was true, she miscarried the baby. The subsequent mental anguish resulted in a fugue state in which Laura developed amnesia and wandered off. Vic Vallaro played a seaman type who exploited Laura's memory loss to convince her to run off with him. I don't recall if he technically kidnaped her or not, but she eventually got her memory back. This was about a year before Donna left, maybe the autumn of 1969. After that, she and Mark moved toward a tentative reconciliation so that they could adopt Iris's baby. This is discussed in one of the episodes I have online. When Iris's vision was restored, Mark and Laura took a second honeymoon to Europe. David Birney left the series, and Michael Hawkins assumed the role when they returned in the summer of 1970. Laura developed a pathological obssession with Billy and kidnaped him. I have an episode of this online, too. Laura decided to return to San Francisco, but crashed her car. A few weeks later, in September 1970. Donna Mills left and was replaced by Veleka Gray. Regardless of who played Laura, the crux of her character was always her desire to be a wife and mother, but something always threw a spanner in the works.

[DRW50]

Thanks. It sounds like tough material. Did you think Donna did well?

[Paul Raven]

Michael Hawkins as Mark

Veleka Grey as Laura

Edited March 2, 2013 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

I'd never seen those before. They're gorgeous. Thanks.