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Daytime Mourns the Death of the First Black Actress Ever to Score a Contract Role — in So Doing, Paving the Way for So Many Soap Legends
Wednesday, August 25th, 2021
On August 21, Micki Grant passed away at the age of 92.
If you’re a fan of Debbi Morgan (formerly Angie on All My Children), Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla, The Young and the Restless), Sal Stowers (Lani, Days of Our Lives) or Briana Nicole Henry (Jordan to General Hospital viewers) — for starters — you owe a debt of gratitude to Micki Grant. It was a long time ago that the erstwhile Minnie Perkins did soaps, so maybe you don’t remember her name now. But it was she who paved the way for so many of the leading ladies that came after her.
You see, Grant was the first Black actress ever to be cast in a contract role by a soap.
More: Soaps’ most prominent Black characters [PHOTOS]
Back in 1965, Another World was looking for just the right person to play legal aide (and eventual attorney) Peggy Nolan. And the powers that be auditioned lots of white actresses for the part. Why not? The character was envisioned as white. But when Grant came in, she so wowed the brass that, according to a memoir by Ellen Holly (once One Life to Live’s Carla), Peggy was reimagined as African-American, and the rest is soap history.
More: Remembering the soap stars we’ve lost in 2021 [PHOTOS]
Grant stayed with the NBC soap for seven years before passing through The Edge of Night, Guiding Light and All My Children. Outside of daytime, the three-time Tony nominee is not only well-known but revered for the 1972 musical revue Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, which made her the first woman to write both the music and lyrics to a Broadway show.
Since we’ve lost not only a daytime but an Another World legend, join us, won’t you, in strolling down Memory Lane with photos of the much-missed NBC soap.
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Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/20
<p>“You take me away to another world” went the Crystal Gayle/Gary Morris duet that served as the NBC soap’s theme song from 1987-96. Care to join us as we make a return trip to Bay City? Buckle up!</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
2/20
<p>Everyone remembers Irene Dailey as Aunt Liz Matthews. But for several years before she assumed the role in 1974, the buttinski was played by Audrey Lindley, who of course would go on to become a primetime icon as Mrs. Roper on <em>Three’s Company</em>.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
3/20
<p>So in love were Alice Matthews (Jacqueline Courtney) and Steve Frame (George Reinholt) that it seemed like nothing could stand in the way of their happiness. “Hold my beer,” said fate, sending to the couple’s engagement party an uninvited guest.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
4/20
<p>Shortly after Rachel Davis (Robin Strasser) married Russ Matthews, she realized that she wanted Alice’s boyfriend, not her brother. So the gold digger crashed their engagement bash and revealed that she was carrying Steve’s baby.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
5/20
<p>Early in his career, Eric “Brother of Julia” Roberts passed through <em>Another World</em> as Ted Bancroft, with Pamela Brook as Corinne Seton. And we do mean “passed through” — his stay in Bay City lasted less than a year in 1977.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/20
<p>Scheming Iris Carrington (Beverlee McKinsey) was as determined to drive a wedge between wealthy father Mac Cory (Douglass Watson) and Rachel (by then Victoria Wyndham) as Alice had been to keep Steve out of the social climber’s clutches.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
7/20
<p>Playing Edward Gerard in 1985, John Saxon — who racked up so many primetime credits in the 1970s that he was on TV practically daily — tried to entice romance novelist Felicia Gallant (Linda Dano) to write a new chapter with him. But as you can see, she had eyes only for Zane Lindquist (Patrick Tovatt).</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
8/20
<p>Keen on branding even before branding was a thing, Felicia wanted all the world to believe that she’d always been stylish and sophisticated. But when long-ago lover Lucas Castigliano hit town, he revealed that Bay City’s answer to Judith Krantz had been born plain old Fanny Grady.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
9/20
<p>Whether original portrayer Ellen Wheeler or successor Anne Heche was bringing to life good-and-evil twins Marley and Victoria Hudson, an expression like this one was your tipoff that you were watching the latter. Vicky was a surprisingly good liar for someone with no poker face whatsoever.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
10/20
<p>In the early 1980s, <em>Another World</em> had on its hands a new couple that was as popular as Steve and Alice in Catlin Ewing (Thomas Ian Griffith) and Alice’s adopted daughter, Sally. But when Mary Page Keller left the show, so did the magic; even a recast as estimable as <em>All My Children</em> star Taylor Miller couldn’t throw sparks the way Keller had with her future real-life husband.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
11/20
<p>Bad boys didn’t get much worse — <em>or</em> more irresistible — than Jake McKinnon (Tom Eplin), who had chemistry with everyone from Paulina Cory (Judi Evans, between her initial <em>Days of Our Lives</em> stints as Adrienne Johnson) to… Wait, can that be right?</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/20
<p>Jake even had a fling with Donna Love (Anna Stuart), the elegant mother of ex-wife Marley and sometime lover Vicky. And though viewers were scandalized by the May/December hookups, they couldn’t <em>quite</em> bring themselves to look away.</p>
Image: E.J. Carr/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
13/20
<p>After being killed off <em>One Life to Live</em> as Sarah Gordon, Jensen Buchanan took over the roles of Vicky and Marley. But unlike the Emmy winners who’d previously played the twins, she eventually cut down to just playing Vicky. What happened to Marley, then?</p>
Image: Arthur L. Cohen/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
14/20
<p>Wheeler stepped back in as Marley (opposite former real-life husband Eplin here). The fact that the twins no longer resembled one another was explained away by the extensive plastic surgery that Marley underwent after being disfigured in a fire. Why she came out of surgery a whole lot taller than before would remain an unsolved mystery.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
15/20
<p>After <em>Another World</em> struck pay dirt with the pairing of Sam Fowler (Robert Kelker-Kelly) and Mac and Rachel’s daughter, Amanda Cory, the budding artist’s portrayer replaced Peter Reckell as <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Bo Brady, then got invited back to Bay City to play the new role of race-car driver Bobby Reno. Who turned out to be Dr. Shane Roberts. But that’s a whole other story…</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
16/20
<p>Gabe McNamara (John Bolger) was a detective, but even if he hadn’t been, he probably still would’ve picked up on the subtle clues that he’d caught the eye of Felicia’s daughter, Lorna Devon (Robin Christopher, who, ironically, would also play Dano’s daughter when they were Skye Quartermaine and Rae Cummings, respectively, on ABC’s soap lineup in the early 2000s).</p>
Image: Robert Milazzo/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
17/20
<p>In the 1990s, Josie Watts (Amy Carlson, long before becoming <em>Blue Bloods</em>’ saddest casualty ever) and Gary Sinclair (Timothy Gibbs) policed the streets of Bay City. She also, apparently, sometimes checked to make sure that his hair was real; it was, BTW.</p>
Image: E.J. Carr/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
18/20
<p>The audience revolted in 1996 when the daytime drama turned beloved Frankie Frame (Alice Barrett) into the victim of a serial killer. Today, she’d probably just have been resurrected and reunited with true love Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer). But back then, the dead were at least a smidgen likelier to stay that way.</p>
Image: E.J. Carr/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
19/20
<p>In the late 1980s, Sharlene Frame (Anna Holbrook) did the impossible and softened the edges of war vet John Hudson (David Forsyth). But she was harboring a deep, dark secret: She suffered from dissociative identity disorder.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
20/20
