From, http://soapoperadigest.com/news/breaking/

Soap Icon Dies

Jacqueline Courtney (ex-Pat, OLTL et al), best known to viewers as ANOTHER WORLD's über-popular Alice, passed away on December 20 of metastatic melanoma. "Any letter that she wrote to people recently ended with, 'Stay out of the sun. Wear sunscreen,' " her daughter, Jennifer, tells Digest. "She was very healthy her whole life and then suddenly everything just started snowballing. She went really quickly. She had just turned 64, so she was still pretty young." Jennifer reports that her beloved mother still kept up with the goings-on in daytime. "She still read Soap Opera Weekly. She loved her Soap Opera Weekly!"

I wonder if that "I will always love her" is a quote from GR re: her passing. That would be nice if they got in touch with him.

I think it must be - I hope they also interviewed some other co-stars. Unless they just used his quotes from WLS.

What a surprise. They could have just put Braeden on the cover and asked him about Jacquie.

I think it's because we see so little of her and hear so little about her run. She was on the show for like 7 years.

For all of Rauch's hostility towards her, I do wonder if deep down he knew how important her type of actress and look was to soaps - one of the reasons I have a fondness for Brenda Brock, who was sort of a Rauch find, is because she reminds me so much of Jacquie Courtney. That weird mix of toughness and fragility. She could punch you out but might cry about it later on.

Carl, You always remind me of such great things.

Brenda Brock was a wonderful, underrated actress. Very appealing and so different from any actress on OLTL at that time. Loved Brenda. And she was a truly good person. But never one dimensional or boring. She was a very comforting presence. And I loved her with Larry.

I bought the issue of SOD they have quotes from several people including Reinholt, Robin Strasser, Linda Dano Brynn Thayer etc. oh and something by Paul Rauch too. Yes that's right:

"Jacquie was such a beautiful girl and a wonderful actress. She was always there, always on time and always prepared. She was one of those professionals you could always count on to deliver a good performance. I could only say the best things about her and remeber her with great affection."

Courtney must be spinning in her grave already. If anyone else would like to what others said about her, the article on Courtney, or the write-up on Steve and Alice they did I'll gladly type it up for anyone who hasn't bought the mag.

I don't remember Lemay and Rauch being so kind when they fired her. But at least he was gracious in death.

Any other comments would be great. If you don't want to type them just summarizing would be great too. Anything. I meant to go and read this in a store but haven't seen it yet.

True, I'm glad Rauch was courteous. No quotes from Lemay but the article makes references to the past remarks of Lemay and Rauch, quoting Lemay from Eight Years and also quotes Courtney that 2004 letter countering Rauch to SOW I mentioned.

GEORGE REINHOLT

(ex-Steve, AW; ex Tony, et al)

"I loved Jacquie. At 64 she died way too young. Although I was not close with her after having worked with her on ONE LIFe, I will always love her. She, Robing Strasser[Dorian, OLTL; ex-Rachel, AW] and myself had a lot of fun together and did much to enhance the triangle between our characters early on in the days of soaps [on AW]. Jacquie was a sweet girl from Montclair, New Jersey and to be completely frank with you, there was an element at NBC that thought she was just that. She was not chic Manhattanite. And when I picked up on that, I loved her more! I think that because of her roots, she was very relatable to the audience and that's why the fans loved her, too. She was just very special. One of the funnier things that I remember about her was that when I first started working with her, I didn't realize she sometimes wrote her lines on her hands[laughs]. One time we were doing a scene together and in character, I began to rub her hands affectionately and she stiffened and went white as if to say "Don't erase my lines!" I got the message. After tape, she explained it to me and we had a good laugh. We had great fun and she was just full of joy."

ROBIN STRASSER

(Dorian OLTL; ex-Rachel AW)

"Jacquie was Linda Evans[ex-Krystle, DYNASTY] before Linda Evans was Linda Evans. She had that kind of beauty. It was very impressive and undeniable. A cheekbone you could set a glass on! She was 18 and I wasn't even 21 yet when I got the part [of AW's Rachel], but we were trying to be very grown up in terms of what one expected in the '60s of young women. At heart we were really kids--in the best sense of the word. Our synergy was never competitive. I really was in a straight-girl way, terribl crush-y about how professional, how beautiful, how knowlegable, how sophiscated she seemed to me to be. We saw each other for the time probably in 30 years at the funeral__oh I might start to cry-of a friend in 2004. We both went to Barbara Duggan's funeral. She'd been the associate producer of [OLTL] and a fabulous person. I had not seen Jacquie for decades and I was looking at the back of a blonde woman's head in this church and I realized it was Jacquie and said, "Hello Jacquie". And she reached around and pulled me to sit next to her. I was just floored. She was a pistol and she had a big crush on George Reinholt. He was so dashing and crazy, bad-boy, you know!"

I'll post the rest later and probably will scan in the other articles on Courtney. Its interesting Courtney was only 17 when she first started on AW, like a Martha Bryne or Heather Tom. I think Beverly Penberthy had it worse being only 19 when first hired playing wife to a man who in real life was twenty years older than her.

I absolutely love what they both had to say.

Thank you so much for posting!

I teared up just a little when I read Robin's comments. What an eloquent tribute, and so vivid. I love that - Linda Evans before Linda Evans. To think that Robin's last time seeing her was at a funeral, and now she is also gone. I'm sure that must hurt. I also love the image of these young women trying so hard to be more mature than they were. It's difficult to forget sometimes how innocent they must have been. I know Robin has said that Constance Ford was a huge help to her. I wonder if Constance, or Virginia Dwyer or Nancy Wickwire, did the same for Jacquie.

I love what George said too, that great anecdote, and talking about who she really was compared to a glam image.

I don't know if Beverley Penberthy was on any soap before AW, but of course Jacquie was on that show with Esther Ralston for a year or so. She then got to play a regular teen on AW for 3-4 years before moving up in the ranks.

Who was the first actress who played Pat? I can never remember.

Edited January 18, 201114 yr by CarlD2

I was a faithful listener to Robin's Hotline so reading her is like hearing her speak for me and I choked up just when she choked up, I could "hear it". I loved the Linda Evans comment too, of course it's been said that their triangle combined with the later Rachel/Mac/Iris one inspired the more famous triangle on Dynasty. It really does scan.

I'm not sure who played the first Pat, but back in my WoST days Beverly Penberthy was a fan-favorite of the AW "fans who were there" in the Golden Age. I realized she lived not far from me, though I've never had a grocery store run-in or anything like that.

I was going to ignore it, but you gotta just love how PR praises her for almost everything she was fired for.

Edited January 18, 201114 yr by SFK

When I have the chance, I'll scan in the cover SOD has included which Woods is talking about.

ROBERT S. Woods

(Bo, OLTL)

"The first big location shoot we on for [OLTL] was Pat and Bo go to Paris. We had a lot of fun, I kind of got spoiled early on. I was working with her and I thought that was the way it was always going to bem that they take you around the world! She was very warm to me. She was a veteran at the time and as a matter of fact, I found out we were going to be working together because we were shooting a cover of Soap Opera Digest. I had on a vest and some collar that couldn't get any wider open! She had big hair. I just thought that when somebody new came on a show, that they just put them on the cover with one of the senior cast members as an introduction. So I guess the beginning of our relationship centered around the cover of Soap Opera Digest! Something funny about her is that she could write an entire script on her hand, like five acts, one on each finger and then on the palm. In the scene, I'd try to take her hand and she was very protective of it. I think it was her left hand! I used to write mine on three pages of white labels! She was also late to work a lot. That was funny. I remember waiting."

LINDA DANO

(ex-Gretel, OLTL; ex-Rae, AMC/GH/OLTL/PC; ex-Felicia, AW et al)

"When I first came to ONE LIFE TO LIVE [in 1978] it was my first job after moving to New York. Jacquie had already joined the cast and had one of the biggest dressing rooms in the building. They doubled Lind the newbie with the big star, Jacquline Courtney. She wasn't thrilled, but we liked each other from the moment we met. Lots of laughing and crying. One day, my Frank came to the studio to surprise me with a big bouquet of flowers for a special occasion. I was up on the set and Jacquie was resting in our dressing room. Frank knocked on the door, walked right in. He thought it was me lying on the couch and did what any good Sicilian boy would do-use your imagination. When he realized it wasn't me, he and Jackie burst into laughter and it became part of the [OLTL] folklore. That cemented our friendship and we talked endlessly about the story."

BRYNN THAYER

(ex-Jenny, OLTL)

"My memory of Jacquie was her laugh. I think we all loved making her laugh. When I came to OLTL, I was a fan of the show and its characters. I was nervous to meet Jacquie, but she immediately put me right at ease and helped me in my first weeks on the show. Jacquie was one of the first great stars of the soap opera world and I feel fortunate to have met and worked with her."

Thanks for typing that up. Some great stories, especially the one from Linda Dano.

I second what Carl said, much appreciated! I can't really remark on it creatively, but cast-wise OLTL was poppin' back then, cool that soon-to-be daytime superstars like Dano and Zimmer were greasing their wheels.

Yeah...that was sort of a transition period for OLTL, in one sense, and you kind of wonder what was going on backstage - I know there have been comments that Judith Light's popularity was a shock to a number of people at the show, which must have caused some bruised egos - so this helps fill in some of the gaps. They don't try to say everything was wonderful, but they say they grew to care about each other, which makes it all seem more believable.

Have you ever noticed the looks on RS and JL's faces when JL won her first Emmy?

Who was the next best Alice? I know JC was fan favorite and loved by all, but were any of the recasts good?