Ms Slezak favors her mother . On some research I believe she replaced an actress named Joanne Dorian { no kidding on the last name ! } who later had some TV credits and was married to a known soap actor . Slezak was chosen because they probably wanted sombody of the dramatic ability to play split personalities . The overwhelming audience reaction made her a soap star and in time the matriach of OFTL . At the beginning of OLTL Gillian Spencer played Vickie Lord and Trish Van Devere played Meredith Lord her sister . Meredith was apparently the heroine of the show and Vickie was a sort of troubled villian . By the time Ms Slezak was established as Vickie OLTL had the Meredith character die off and Vickie became the heroine and eventually the matriach of OLTL .
This was very interesting to watch. I didn't know Walter Slezak committed suicide. Sad to hear. I'm surprised there was no mention of her audition for a role on All My Children. I wonder what her life (and One Life to Live) would have been like had she wound up staying in England.
@@carmenvitale855 From the research I have done it appears that Gillian Spencer aka Daisy Courtland on AMC was the first Vickie on OLTL followed by Joanne Dorian and then Erika Slezak as the third in that role . There may have other actors that pinch hit in that role . In an interview Ms Slezak mentioned that she and Ms Dorian had the same agent and OLTL wanted the agent to break the bad news to Ms Dorian about being dropped but the agent refused and told OLTL to do it themselves , Ms Slezak in the interview did not mention Ms Dorian by name out of respect .
