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Your Top 10 Favorite Soap Women - And Why!


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1. Reva Shayne - GL (My earliest soap memories revolve around watching Reva between 1989-1991 and being utterly fascinated by her, always my all time fave soap character. My grandmother would always tell me that Josh and Reva would find their way back to one another and they always did :) )

2. Sami Gene Brady - Dool (My 2nd fave soap character ever, I have always rooted for this girl even as she has become unrecognizable in the past few years or so)

3. Marlena Evans - Dool (I've always been drawn to the way Deidre Hall has portrayed Marlena with strength and grace)

4. Chloe Lane - Dool (I've always thought Nadia was the most gorgeous woman on soaps period, she was one of my major crushes an as a teen and I loved her initial storyline)

5. Kate Roberts - Dool (One of the few characters that I absolutely loved to hate, always loved the rivalry with Sami)

6. Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald - PSSNS (Similar to Sami, from the moment I started watching PSSNS I always rooted for her)

7. Natalie Buchanan - OLTL (I could identify with her position as a kind of black sheep in comparison with Jessica)

8. Cassie Layne - LW only (Loved Cassie and her relationship with Reva, and the sass that LW brought to the role)

9. Isabella Black - (I enjoyed both K.Storms and M.Madison's versions, especially her relationship with JKJ's Phillip and interactions with her family members)

10. Blair Kramer - (I was late to the Blair party becoming a fan within the last 6 years but I absolutely adore KDP)

10. Harley Cooper (What can I say, Harley has always been my homegirl)

HM:

Gigi Morasco (ducks tomatoes)

Viki Lord

Blake Marler

Nicole Walker

Vicky Hudson

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My Top Ten Soap Actresses (and Characters) of All-Time

I have chosen to do my list as a combination of actress & character (and not every character they played, but the only the ones that made & make me LOVE them). I'm also only including actresses/characters I actually watched in their original run on the show. Without further adieu:

1. Marcy Walker (Eden Capwell Castillo, Santa Barbara.........and Liza Colby, All My Children)- I think most who know me, my posts, and my avatar knew this would be my top choice. What can I say? I'm a fan of beautiful, talented blondes with husky voices who's talent some of the best soap writers in the business (Patrick Mulcahey, specifically) STILL rave about today!! She's one hell of an actress, fully deserves all 7 of her Daytime Emmy nominations, and I doubt you'll find one person in the business who doesn't think she was worthy of her single win, for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1989 as Eden Capwell Castillo on NBC's 'Santa Barbara.' She worked & acted her butt off in that rape storyline in 1988 (mostly while pregnant) and no actress's performance even touched hers that year. She beat out the likes of Susan Lucci, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Jeanne Cooper for the trophy and few were surprised. That's how good she was and still is.

2. Jess Walton (Jill Foster Abbott, The Young and the Restless)- Now this Runner Up was a pretty easy choice. Walton's Jill is mostly what hooked me on the show and she is BY FAR my favorite Y&R actress. I have never seen an episode where Jess phoned it in nor a scene that Jess didn't steal and make you take notice. She's amazing, underappreciated, and I'm SO glad she's back.

3.Marie Masters (Susan Stewart, As The World Turns)- Even though I, too, missed Masters in her initial heydey in the late 60s and 70s (and I'd KILL to see it!), I DID get to see her when I started watching ATWT off & on in 1994 and when they finally hooked me in 2000. She had some meaty storylines then, but even when she was supporting others, she elevated whatever scene/episode she was in and made the writing seem that much more interesting just with her own special line delivery. I particularly loved it whenever she shared scenes with Ben Hendrickson's Hal, which was fairly often in his final years. I wish the writers would have had a chance to pair them together, as I think they have been heading there.

4. Maura West (Carly Tenney, As The World Turns)- Hands down THE greatest actress of her generation and one of the best of all time. She certainly deserved the place she'd carved out for herself on ATWT by the end.

5. Anne Heche (Vicky/Marley, Another World)- Heche certainly was a revelation on AW and had me transfixed. I don't think I was every fully hooked on or as into AW than I was DAYS & SB until 1988, when Heche started driving story on AW and really started coming to her own. By the time she got that GORGEOUS short haircut in 1989, Heche was officially a soap star in every sense of the word, except the sense that told you that if she ever were to try & move on, she'd be one who would make it in Hollywood. It was nice to see raves about her movie performances in the mid-90s, when I knew that I had been faithfully watching her since 1987 and got to see her turn into the fabulous actress she truly is.

6. Robin Mattson (Gina, SB, Janet/Jane, AMC, and Heather, GH- Robin is one of those actresses who can do anything and make it look easy. I have now watched her on 5 different soaps, but these were the 3 roles where she stood out most for me. Her taking over as Gina on SB (along with the arrival of Justin Deas as Keith and Jed Allan as the 4th, final, and definitive CC) was just the shot in the arm the show needed, much like her return on GH. Hell, she pulled off the IMPOSSIBLE on AMC- she made the audience SYMPATHIZE with Janet Green. If that doesn't earn her spot on this list, I don't know what does.

7. Nancy Lee Grahn (Julia, Santa Barbara.......... and "alexis davis" on gh)- Nancy's Julia Wainwright was the final piece of the puzzle on SB, the 2nd tier lead they never even realized they were making until they started giving her scenes with Lane Davies and BAM! We had our other heroine of SB. The intelligent, political, fair, tough, feminist Julia Wainwrigt, who could be both brilliant & funny at the same time. Plus, any time you knew Julia was facing Lane Davies' Mason in the courtroom- whether it be while they were married, dating, or only had a child together, you knew that courtroom sequence was going to be magical.

8. Julia Barr (Brooke English, All My Children)- The actress that hooked me on AMC and my favorite character on the show. Most assume it's Marcy Walker's Liza, but Marcy wasn't even on AMC (she was playing Tangerine on GL). I remember Laura had already died, and Brooke was pregnant with Tad's baby, but it was a tubal pregnancy so it never had a chance. I'll never forget the scenes where Tad finds her and finally makes her realize that the baby has no chance of living and the longer she tries holding onto it, the worse the chances get that she'll survive either. Powerful stuff and Knight & Barr handled it.

9. Louise Sorel (Augusta Lockridge, SB and Vivian Alamain, DAYS)- Daytime's all-too underrated Queen of Comedy. Not one, but 2 CLASSIC soap characters on NBC. Give the woman an Emmy already (even if it's a Lifetime Achievement Award, just do it).

10. Anna Stuart (Donna, Another World and Mary, All My Children)- Ah, my personal soap diva. She's everything a great soap diva should be, except an unprofessional bitch.

Your top 5 is AMAZING!

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Impossible to reduce to just 10:

Caroline Spencer (Joanna Johnson, B&B)

Kate Dimera (Lauren Koslow, Days)

Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson, Y&R)

Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil, GH)

Vicky Hudson (Anne Heche, AW)

Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker, SB)

Julia Wainwright (Nancy Lee Grahn, SB)

Annie Douglas (Sarah Buxton, SuBe)

Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang, B&B)

Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery, B&B)

Drucilla Winters (Victoria Rowell, Y&R)

Jill Foster Abbott (Jess Walton, Y&R)

Anna Devane (Finola Hughes, GH)

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In no particular order.

Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang, B&B)

Olivia Richards (Lesley-Anne Down, SuBe)

Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow, Days)

Téa Delgado (Florencia Lozano, OLTL)

Sally Spectra (Darlene Conley, B&B)

Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown, B&B)

Annie Douglas (Sarah Buxton, SuBe)

Virginia Harrison (Dominique Jennings, SuBe)

Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker, Days)

Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak, OLTL)

HM: (I'm sure I'm missing a few people)

Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery, B&B)

Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz, B&B)

Francesca Vargas (Lisa Guerrero, SuBe)

Lexie Carver (Renee Jones, Days)

Celeste Perrault (Tanya Boyd, Days)

Taylor Hayes (Hunter Tylo, B&B)

Layla Williams (Tika Sumpter, OLTL)

Dorien Lord (Robin Strasser, OLTL)

Eve Russell (Tracey Ross, PSNS)

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Liza Colby

Liz Chandler

Julie Williams

Lexie Carver

Alexandra Spaulding

Iris Cory

Alice Matthews

Quin Harding

Vivian Grant

Gilly Grant

Doreen Jackson

Honorable mentions:

Drucilla Winters

Olivia Barber

Traci Abbott

Rachel Cory

Felicia Gallant

Dr. Marlena Evans

Anna DiMera

Anjelica Deveraux(Jane Elliott)

Melissa Anderson

Donna Love Hudson

Vicky Love Hudson

Marley Love Hudson

and.......CHARITY RAHMER'S Belle Black

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All My Favorite Soap Women are From Guiding Light:

1= Rita Stapleton Bauer (Lenore Kasdorf)

2= Bert Bauer (Charita Bauer)

3= Nola Reardon (Lisa Brown)

4= Holly Norris Bauer Thorpe Lynsey Reade (Maureen Garrett)

5= Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis Lewis Reardon Lewis (Maeve Kincaid)

6= Maureen Reardon Bauer (Ellen Parker)

7= Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkien Thorpe Foley (Beverlee Mckinsey)

8= Reva Shayne Lewis (Kim Zimmer)

9= Annie Dutton (Cynthia Watros)

10= India Von Halkien (Mary Kay Adams)

Honorable Mentions:

Meta Bauer(Mary Stuart)

Beth Raines (Beth Chamberlain)

Dinah Marler(Gina Tognoni)

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10. (tie) Ada McGowan and Liz Matthews (ANOTHER WORLD):

Try as I might, I cannot choose between two of the most disparate characters in Bay City . It does not help that each was played for decades by a couple of the most proficient actresses in the medium. For me, Ada was the matriarch of AW: strong, sensible, solid, reliable, and bearer of a nearly aggressive directness that elevated her somewhat above the more genteel mothers of AW’s sister soaps. Liz, quite to the contrary, was nosy, neurotic, interfering, and basically her own worst enemy. Her fear of being alone was pathological, yet in wonderful soap irony, she continually pushed everyone away from her because of an inability to just mind her own damned business.

9. (tie) Allison Hathaway Archer Jessup (WHERE THE HEART IS) and Meg Harper (LOVE OF LIFE):

These two ladies had much in common: a pair of bitchy, sarcastic society mavens saddled with unbelievably saintly sisters and far too much style for their humdrum suburban trappings. A collection of tailored fashions, frosty glares, and witty barbs, Allison and Meg could have settled quite comfortably in the Dobsons’ Santa Barbara. They were outrageous 80s soap divas, a decade ahead of their time.

8. Amy Ames (THE SECRET STORM):

Amy evolved from a fragile, waifish child of the 50s into the quintessential "girl next door" of 1960s soaps. However, unlike many ingénues who quickly grow tiresome with their goody two shoes, wishy-washy ways, spunky Amy’s dedication to convictions and unfailing sense of right and wrong established her as a welcome haven from the “storms” of Woodbridge , NY . The success of Amy lay largely with veteran actress Jada Rowland whose intelligent performances kept the character fresh and interesting even when the writing and direction waned in the final years.

7. Julie Horton (DAYS OF OUR LIVES):

Naughty Julie. She embodied a sensuality lacking in other soap ladies of her day. Whether locked in a bitter rivalry with her best friend for David Martin (or her own mother for Doug Williams!), Julie possessed rampant, uncontrolled psychosexual urges that often left her on the receiving end of beloved grandmother Alice Horton’s disapproval. In 1975, Julie miscarried Bob Anderson’s child while mourning the apparent death of her son David Banning in a jeep crash. Believing Julie had become pregnant by Doug while married to Bob, Alice coldly informed her granddaughter that God was punishing her for her sins, and she absolutely deserved it! In Julie, writer Bill Bell explored territory other soap scribes regrettably feared to tread.

6. Kelly Harper (CAPITOL):

The hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold is one of the hoariest clichés in drama, but Jane Daly and (more specifically) Jess Walton imbued Kelly with such warmth, energy, and self-respect, I could not help but love her. For me, the character was always a breath of fresh air, and her five year run all too brief. I wish Capitol were still running now, with Jess as Kelly and LaDickson devouring the proscenium on Y&R as Jill.

5. (tie) Kim Hughes and Dr. Susan Stewart (AS THE WORLD TURNS):

I am not referring to the toots-and-pal Kim of Marland’s era and her reactivated rivalry with Susan. Rather, I think of the original Kim and Susan characterizations of the 70s. Soap journalists compared Kathy Hays to Greta Garbo, and indeed, Hays’ subtle, carefully modulated performances were perfect for World Turns conventions such as pregnant pauses and extreme facial closeups. She was matched only by Marie Masters in her ability to tantalize viewers with thoughts of what might be happening beneath surface emotions and expression. Both actresses could speak volumes with just a closeup of their face, sans dialogue and underscore.

4. (tie) Maeve Ryan and Delia Reid (RYAN'S HOPE):

In a video landscape filled with mothers, Maeve was my favorite of them all. Warm, wise, loving, loyal, and earthier than her soap counterparts. She was a real flesh and blood figure. The kind of woman everyone wanted for a mother, and if you were a masculine child, so much the better because Maeve’s biggest flaw was her endless capacity to forgive her boys any transgression. Then we had Delia, who could not have been more different than Maeve. Selfish, spoiled, self-centered, vengeful. She probably wins the soap opera award for worst mother ever, going so far as to steal from Jill’s purse and frame John Reid in order to wring more attention out of Frank. Played by the brilliant Ilene Kristen or the charming Randall Edwards, Dee was infinitely fascinating to me.

3. Brooke English (ALL MY CHILDREN):

I loved the versatility of Brooke’s character. Julia Barr could play her as bitchy, sympathetic, humorous, sanctimonious, or victimized, and no matter what, it always worked for me –which is quite rare with a major, long-running character. No offense to LaLucci, but I felt Barr was vastly underrated and overshadowed in comparison.

2. Holly Norris (THE GUIDING LIGHT):

In many respects, Holly was similar to the aforementioned Brooke, the major difference being not Holly’s versatility over time, but rather her versatility within scenes. I have countless episodes of GL from Maureen Garrett’s second run, and her facility for taking Holly from zero to sixty and back again within a matter of a few lines is truly awe-inspiring. She is a superb actress, and perhaps it is her I adore more than the character itself. But, with Garrett in role, Holly was an unbeatable combination of intelligence, sexuality, and wry bitterness.

1. Karen Wolek (ONE LIFE TO LIVE):

It should go without explanation why Karen is #1 on my list. I count myself supremely lucky to have witnessed first hand Judith Light’s legendary performances. I wish all soap fans could view the full arc of Karen’s story start to finish because it is so much more than the infamous courtroom scenes. I do not think any American soap has ever documented human self-loathing and degradation with such honesty, and Light’s performances were so gut-wrenching even the more low-key moments were memorable.

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And another little tidbit about Bill Bell's DAYS is revealed. Alice told Julie she deserved to lose her baby! I hear so much how Alice and Nancy used to be and see how they became so watered down in their later years. It truly is a shame that these characters couldn't stay more complex.

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Great to see your list, saynotoursoap, especially since many of us will never see those you mention. I'd pay money to see WTHI.

I had no idea Alice said that to Julie - I thought she had a soft spot for Julie.

In no particular order:

1. Kathleen McKinnon, AW - funny, tough, sharp and spiky, with a big heart. An incredibly complicated character, played by a superb actress. I will always remember her smile.

2. Alexandra Spaulding (Beverlee McKinsey), GL - Beverlee's portrayal was so rich and ran from ice cold to boiling over. She always remembered Alex's pain, no matter how clever the quips were. She never let you forget that Alex had given up everything for love (and would do so again, and again) and was brutally betrayed, left with nothing.

3. Maureen Bauer (Ellen Parker), GL. Warm, but never a sap or a pushover, Maureen was the rare example of someone who slowly, effortlessly grows into a matriarch role, and actually becomes a more complex, compelling character in the process. Parker lit up scenes just by being in them. It's not an urban legend to say that a lot of GL died with Maureen.

4. Vanessa Chamberlain (Maeve Kinkead), GL. Stately, classy, but at her best, still strong, and relentlessly unsentimental. Vanessa did not believe in "fate" or "always" - she wanted what she wanted, she fought to keep it, but she moved on when she knew it was time to do so. Maeve was one of the most naturally stunning women ever on daytime; even at the end, in some moments she took your breath away.

5. Iva Snyder, ATWT. Yes, she was depressing. Yes, she cried. Yes, she was a martyr by her own choice, and caused a lot of pain in the process. I didn't care then, I don't care now. She was a painfully realistic character played by a phenomenal actress who never phoned it in. I always cared about Iva and wanted her to be happy. Iva stayed with Lisa long after Iva and Lisa left Oakdale.

6. Lucinda Walsh, ATWT. The opposite of Iva, but also eerily similar. Both martyrs, in different ways. Both lonely no matter how many were around them. Lucinda was a steamroller, she just lit up so many scenes and so many humdrum plots. As much as I love Marland's ATWT, I can't imagine what it would be without her. All that seriousness, all that repressed angst, and then you have Lucinda sprinting through, sputtering out comments on the dull stupidity of everyone around her. Lucinda's last year on ATWT was one of the nicest goodbye presents I ever could have asked for.

7. Nell Beaulac, RH. How I loved Nell, and how I cried with her, when she faced up to her inoperable brain tumors. She was what carried the show for me in the first months. A truly gutsy, tough, vulnerable girl-woman who embodied the female independence Claire Labine and Paul Mayer wove into RH's early years. As Nell said, in one of the most exquisite soap lines ever - "It's my dying."

If this isn't my very favorite soap scene ever, it's very close. I just could not deal with this.

8. Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge, RH. Delia represented the honesty of Ryan's Hope. As much as we were supposed to admire Jill (which I did) and Faith (no comment), even Mary, they did not grow up in poverty, with a mentally ill father and a mother who worked herself into an early grave. Delia's story told itself - she needed a family. She would do anything for a family. And she did just about anything. No matter what she did, no matter how many times she screeched, or told ridiculous lies, or degraded herself, I always rooted for her. I rooted for her to find happiness, whatever happiness meant to her. The concept of this character was so strong that she not only survived years of increasingly one-note writing, but also survived the departure of one of the most distinctive soap actors ever, Ilene Kristen. Randall Edwards' Delia was much more conventional, much less tough, but still, the essence remained, and I loved Randall almost immediately, in a different, but equal, way. What I always liked most about Delia was that she saw through the bull [!@#$%^&*] of "good" people and she saw the ugliness of Frank, Mary, and Faith, and later on, other characters, who were not seen as gutter trash, were allowed to speak the same words she'd once been struck down for.

9. Kim Hughes, ATWT. Kathryn Hays just lit up any scene she was in. She was a soap matriarch who was never stodgy, or dull, no matter how "good" Kim was supposed to be. Being good doesn't make you a pushover. It doesn't make you a hypocrite, or boring, or unworthy. Kim was tough and funny and sly and patient but never too patient. She was the woman you wished more of your family could have been.

10. Megan Gordon Harrison, OLTL. What a ridiculous, ridiculous character this was. She's a soap actress! She's a huge bitch! She's the long lost daughter, via hypnosis and secret tunnels, of the show's beloved longtime heroine! And Jessica Tuck made every bit of it work. Megan did EVERYTHING, and somehow it always worked. Such a completely honest character. Viewers always knew every emotion Megan was feeling, just from one glance or line of dialogue. OLTL was probably the most schizophrenic of any soap, and Megan somehow fit that perfectly, in a way which was a wonderful tribute.

11. Angelique, Dark Shadows. Angelique was a spark plug. If a story was tanking, then hey, let's bring Angelique in to clean the place up, take out the trash. You just couldn't hate Angelique. She did unspeakable things, to the point of killing off an entire family, but you still cared, still understood. You never forgot that a) Barnabas had treated her like crap and b ) She was never simply a bitch, or a thorn in his side. For some time Angelique was mostly carried by Lara Parker's ample talents and charisma, but starting in the 1897 story, Angelique became far more complex, and far more human. This started the long path toward what they would probably call "fan service" today - the show admitting, despite years of scripts which tried to deny it, that Angelique was Barnabas' true love, and had been all along.

My very favorite Angelique scene was in the Leviathan mess, when she went to hide out at the Old House, where she'd been married to Barnabas almost 200 years earlier. She triumphantly announced that she would be going to HER bedroom. No one was going to argue with her!

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1. Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery), B&B - cause she's da queen

2. Caroline Spencer Forrester (Joanna Johnson), B&B

3. Carly Corinthos Jax (Laura Wright), GH

4. Augusta Lockridge (Louise Sorel), SB

5. Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), B&B

6. Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot), GH

7. Drucilla Barber Winters (Victoria Rowell), Y&R

8. Sharon Newman (Sharon Case), Y&R

9. Kristen Blake DiMera (Eileen Davidson), DAYS

10. Nicole Walker (Arianne Zuker), DAYS

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My top 10 in no particular order:

Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn, GH)

Blair Cramer (Kassie dePaiva, OLTL)

Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow, Days)

Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliott, GH)

Nora Buchanan (Hillary B. Smith, OLTL)

Brooke English (Julia Barr, AMC)

Dorian Lord (Robin Strasser, OLTL)

Jess Walton (Jill Foster Abbott, YR)

Lindsay Rappaport (Catherine Hickland, OLTL)

Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner, GH)

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