| Victoria Lord | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| One Life to Live character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Erika Slezak as Victoria Lord | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by |
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| Duration | 1968–2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | July 15, 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | August 19, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Final; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Agnes Nixon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by |
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| Book appearances | Patrick's Notebook | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Victoria Lord is a fictional character and matriarch of the Lord family on the American soap opera One Life to Live, played for over 41 years by six-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Erika Slezak.
The character was created as one of the protagonists by series creator Agnes Nixon, and first cast to Gillian Spencer on the pilot aired July 15, 1968.[1] Nixon later recast her with Slezak, who became synonymous with the character role following a continual portrayal spanning her debut March 17, 1971 through the ABC Daytime finale January 13, 2012. Slezak reprised the role in The Online Network continuance of One Life to Live aired on Hulu, iTunes, FX Canada, and the Oprah Winfrey Network from April 29, 2013[2][3] through the final episode released August 19, 2013.[4]
The role of Victoria is the mainstay original lead character of the serial, and her storylines focus on drudgery, love, and family troubles. One of the longest-running characters on American daytime television, Victoria weathers widowhood (three times), divorce (four times), a brain aneurysm, a near-death out-of-body experience (three times), being shot (two times), sent to jail, suffering a stroke, breast cancer, rape, recovered memories of being molested as a child, a heart attack, heart disease, a heart transplant, the abduction of three of her five children as infants, discovering she has four half-siblings, the deaths of two siblings, and the death of her daughter from lupus. Most notably, she suffers recurring bouts with dissociative identity disorder throughout the show narrative.
Slezak's tenure as Victoria earned the actress a reputation as a leading actor in American serials,[5][6][7][8][9] with her portrayal becoming one of the most lauded and longest-running in American soap operas.[10]
- ^ Schemering, Christopher (September 1985). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. Ballantine Books. pp. 158–166. ISBN 978-0345324597.
- ^ Hal Boedeker (January 25, 2013). "All My Children, One Live to Live reborn via Hulu". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ Jolie Lash (January 25, 2013). "One Life To Live, All My Children – New Episodes On The Way This Spring Via Hulu, iTunes". Access Hollywood. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ James, Meg (September 3, 2013). "Reviving canceled ABC soap operas becomes a real-life drama". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
- ^ Tanya Barrientos (May 23, 1996). "Slezak Wins Emmy; Lucci Shunned For A 16th Year Puppeteer Shari Lewis And Oprah Winfrey's Show Are Also Winners". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ Michael, Fairman (March 17, 2011). "It's Erika Slezak Day! OLTL honors her with 40th Anniversary Surprise Party!". Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ Coulton, Antoinette Y.; Pham, Thailan (2012). "Farewell to One Life to Live". People. 77 (2). Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ Logan, Michael (2012). "Erika Slezak Goes to Heaven One Last Time on One Life to Live". TV Guide. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ McConnell, Michael (2011). "The View Plans One Life to Live Special for Series Finale". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
- ^ "SOAP STAR STATS: Erika Slezak (Viki, OLTL)". SoapOperaDigest.com (Internet Archive). Archived from the original on March 30, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2010.