Buffalo Courier Express September 7 1980
Actress Kathleen Noone Overjoyed At Turn in ‘All My Children' Role
NEW YORK - You can go home again in soap opera land. Or, at the very least, you can return to a plot that once didn’t “work” for the audience. Actress Kathleen Noone, an Emmy nominee this year for her portrayal of Ellen Shephard on ‘‘All My Children,” is clapping with joy that the show’s writers are resuming Ellen’s December-May relationship with young college teacher Mark Dalton.
‘ABOUT A year ago. the relationship simply vanished in a matter of days. ‘ remembers Kathleen. “I don’t know whether the audience disapproved of the older woman-younger man story, but my mail was positive and encouraging and I was sorry to see the plot dropped so inexplicably. In any event, Ellen began falling in love with lawyer Paul Martin. The audience definitely liked that story, until Paul’s wife Anne, who was in a mental hospital, began appearing on screen after a four-year absence. “I find it strange and confusing that the audience shifts loyalties, but they now certainly demand that Paul reconcile with Anne And since poor Ellen is left out in the cold, her former lover Mark is coming back into the picture. “This time, though,” says Kathleen. “I hope the age difference isn’t beaten into the ground. The characters have been through all that already, and if they’re willing to resume a relationship, there must be other difficulties, new problems they must surmount. At least to me, the age thing doesn't matter at this point.”
KATHLEEN also is concerned about the glut of “sex and violence scenes that seem to be overtaking daytime television. I can understand that, since that’s what ‘sells* to the audience. Our show, for example, has never had higher ratings than we have had In the last few months. But look at our stories. One guy is burying a girl alive. Another is beating his wife and teen daughter. And there’s rather explicit sex practically every day. I can understand that the audience is merely being given what it wants, but that doesn’t mean I approve of it. I’d rather see a return to grand old-fashioned romance.” Kathleen is no stranger to soap-like experiences in her own life. She was one of four musically-trained daughters, and by the time she was in grade school she was toting a trombone in a case bigger than she After acquiring a BFA degree in music at Ithaca College and West Virginia University, Kathleen embarked on a career as a nightclub and dinner-theater singer. When Jimmy Dorsey asked her to go on tour with his band, Kathleen decided she had had enough of one-night stands. She returned to school and f>erfected her acting skills. After acting in regional repertory productions, she landed bit roles on “Love of Life,” “As the World Turns.” and “One Life to Live” before she became Ellen on “AMC.”
DURING that time she divorced her childhood sweetheart. “We simply grew apart in different directions,” says Kathleen, "but we parted amicably and still keep in touch.”
Then followed the “great love of my life. He was an older man. but be was also the gentlest, most caring human I'd ever met. I was shattered when he died in my arms suddenly day.”
HER SUCCESS “AMC” has softened heartache. Today Kathleen's involved in several causes, principally as a spokesperson for the Special Olympics for the handicapped and a governmental commission on solar energy Tune in tomorrow to catch Ellen’s energy as she re-embarks on an affair with Mark.
By
Paul Raven ·
