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Gillian was part of the original cast of One Life to Live as the original Victoria Lord from 1968 until 1970, and it was during her stint that Viki's split personality was introduced. While Erika Slezak would become famous for this part, Gillian and Lee Patterson (Joe Riley) were fan favorites and the show's first major romantic couple.
After the show lost its original Viki — Gillian Spencer, now perhaps better known for her stint as All My Children ’s Daisy Cortlandt — Joanne Dorian stepped in but didn’t quite take. So...
- Charlie Mason
From the debut episode, One Life to Live centered on fictional character Victoria "Viki" Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer), portrayed by six-time Daytime Emmy Award winner Erika Slezak for longer than any other One Life to Live series actor, from March 1971 through the series finale January 13, 2012, as well as the 2013 web revival.
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- Character Background
- Storylines
- Alternate Personalities
- Reception
- External Links
Conception
One Life to Live series creator Agnes Nixon conceived the central role of Victoria "Viki" Lord inspired by her relationship with her domineering father, Harry Eckhardt, and her own married family life along the Philadelphia Main Line in Bryn Mawr. Nixon took further inspiration from lead protagonist Tracy Lord of the 1939 play The Philadelphia Story, portrayed on stage and film by actress Katharine Hepburn.
Casting
The role of Victoria was originally cast to Gillian Spencer, who appeared from the July 1968 debut until 1970. Joanne Dorian replaced Spencer from October 1970 until March 16, 1971, when established theater actress Erika Slezak stepped into the role in the following day's episode. Slezak was told she was auditioning for a new character, but when offered the role she learned she was replacing someone else. The producers informed Ernest Graves and Lynn Benesch, who played Viki's father Victor L...
Characterization
At the debut episode of One Life to Live July 15, 1968, twentysomething recent college graduate and heiress Victoria "Viki" Lord is described by author Martha Nochimson as "blonde [and] ivory-complexioned ... the clichéd American princess," personifying the "woman on a pedestal" archetype. The show's heroine from the outset, ingenue Victoria initially harbors a strong Electra complex and suffers a bout with multiple personalities prompted by her mother Eugenia's absence from childhood and fat...
1960s and 1970s
The eldest child of domineering millionaire publisher Victor Lord (Ernest Graves), Victoria Lord, often nicknamed "Viki," (originally Spencer) has little time for romance when One Life to Live begins in 1968. She clashes with reporter Joe Riley (Lee Patterson), but they soon fall in love; Victor disapproves and tries to keep them apart. Torn between pleasing her father and following her heart, Viki develops a wild alternate personality named "Niki Smith", who falls in love with Vinny Wolek (A...
1980s
Widowed Viki gives birth to her second son, Joe Riley Jr., in January 1980.After a disastrous relationship with con man Ted Clayton, who brainwashes and drugs her in an attempt to get his hands on her fortune, Viki marries newspaper editor Clint Buchanan (Clint Ritchie) in 1982; he adopts both of her sons. Echo DiSavoy (Kim Zimmer), seeking revenge on Clint for her mother's murder, seduces him in 1983 to ruin his marriage, then fakes her own death and frames him for it. Clint is later exonera...
1990s
In 1990, Viki is elected mayor of Llanview, but a shooting and subsequent stroke leaves her paralyzed and in a wheelchair; Niki Smith emerges to aid a paralyzed Viki stand up and shoot Johnny Dee Hesser (Anthony Crivello) when he attacks Tina. Viki recovers and later donates a kidney to daughter Megan suffering terminal lupus, but Megan dies, leaving Viki devastated. Growing ever-distant from Clint, Viki engages an extramarital affair with Sloan Carpenter (Roy Thinnes); she and Clint divorce...
As of the final ABC episode, all of Victoria's six alternate personalities are integrated with her baseline psyche. At times during the series, Viki has been forced to impersonate one of them, particularly Niki and Jean. In order of their first appearance on One Life to Live, they are: 1. Nicole "Niki" Smith – a devil-may-care, sexually promiscuous...
Series fansite Llanview Labyrinth remarks that although Gillian Spencer's Victoria is featured at the show's outset, "the obviousness of Viki being the show[']s unquestioned 'lead' did not smack the viewer quite as hard as it later would [with Erika Slezak's portrayal]," with Spencer's Victoria melding into the ensemble cast. Joanne Dorian briefly ...
"One Life to Live Timeline: Cult of Personalities". SoapOperaDigest.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009.- July 15, 1968
- Agnes Nixon
- August 19, 2013
- Lord
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Victoria "Viki" Lord (formerly Gordon, Riley, Burke, Buchanan, Carpenter, Davidson, and Banks) is a fictional character, the main protagonist and matriarch of the Lord family on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live .
Taped in New York City, One Life to Live was the last American daytime soap opera based outside the Los Angeles area. On April 14, 2011, ABC announced the cancellation of One Life to Live, citing low ratings, high production costs and viewers' changing tastes.
