SUSAN LUCCI Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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SUSAN LUCCI

Name: Susan Victoria Lucci                                                             
Born: 23 December 1946 Scarsdale, New York, U.S.                                       
                                                                                       
Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning           
American actress. Lucci has been called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide,           
with New York Times and Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor         
in daytime television. Her salary is reportedly over $1 million a year.                 
                                                                                       
Susan Lucci was born to Jeanette and Victor Lucci. She attended Garden City High       
School in Garden City, New York, graduating in 1964. She then attended Marymount       
College at Fordham University, and graduated from Marymount in 1968.                   
                                                                                       
Lucci is best known for playing the larger-than-life diva Erica Kane on the ABC         
television soap opera All My Children, on which she has appeared since the show's       
inception on January 5, 1970 (38 years and counting). She and Ray MacDonnell,           
who plays her former father-in-law, Dr. Joe Martin, are the show's only original       
stars left on the show today. Lucci's long tenure on the show has made her an           
iconic presence on daytime; she is closely identified with both the role of             
Erica and with daytime television itself.                                               
                                                                                       
Lucci was nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for         
her work on All My Children almost every year since 1978. When Lucci didn't win         
the award after several consecutive nominations, her image in the media began to       
be lampooned, as she became notoriously synonymous with never winning an Emmy.         
NBC's Saturday Night Live exploited this by asking her to host an episode (unusual     
for a daytime serial actor), where her monologue parodied the cast, crew, and           
even stagehands carrying Emmys of their own in her presence. She also appeared         
in a 1989 Sweet'n Low TV commercial, intended to portray her as the opposite of         
her villainess character, yet throwing one of Erica Kane's characteristic               
tantrums, shouting "11 years without an Emmy! What does a person have to do             
around here to get an Emmy?"                                                           
                                                                                       
After 18 failed nominations in a row, it came as a shock to both her and the           
viewing audience when she finally won in 1999. When presenter Shemar Moore             
announced Lucci's name, the audience erupted in a standing ovation, lasting             
several minutes. As the sobbing actress took to the stage, cameras caught All My       
Children co-stars Kelly Ripa and Marcy Walker weeping openly, and actor Ingo           
Rademacher bowing in the aisles and talk show host Oprah Winfrey rushing the           
stage cheering from the wings. Lucci's win and subsequent teary-eyed speech made       
headline news on television and in print for several weeks thereafter.                 
                                                                                       
Lucci has appeared in a number of television shows and made-for-TV movies. In           
1990, she began a series of guest spots on the popular nighttime soap Dallas and       
hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live in October of the same year.                           
                                                                                       
In 1995, Lucci appeared in the Lifetime television movie Ebbie. This film was an       
updated version of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Lucci played a Scrooge-like   
department store owner visited by Marley and the three ghosts on Christmas. Many       
critics praised her performance and the film has become a holiday favorite.             
                                                                                       
Lucci starred in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun in 1999 to 2000,           
taking over from Bernadette Peters.                                                     
                                                                                       
In 1991, she launched the Susan Lucci Collection of hair care products. Her             
career as a businesswoman continues, with many lucrative skin care, fashion,           
jewelry and makeup lines selling on HSN.                                               
                                                                                       
For much of the 1980s and into the 1990s, Lucci did many commercials for the           
local Ford dealers in the New York City area.                                           
                                                                                       
In early 2005, Lucci earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Another source       
of fame is Lucci's name often cropping up on trivia or fun facts internet sites,       
claiming that she is the daughter of comedienne Phyllis Diller.