Elizabeth Hubbard, Emmy-Winning Soap Legend, Dead at 89: Read Martha Byrne’s Heartfelt Tribute
Her son broke the sad news on April 10.
If it’s true that legends never really die — and we believe that it is — then Elizabeth Hubbard hasn’t left us. She remains as vibrant and formidable as ever in our memories (and always will). But alas, on April 10, her son Jeremy D. Bennett took to Facebook to disclose that she had taken her final bow. “I’m sorry to say with a broken heart my mum passed over the weekend,” he wrote. “Thank you for being an unmovable rock that guided me through life.
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“I will try to honour your memory for as long as I live,” he added.
Playing Doctor
Daytime fans will have especially colorful recollections of Hubbard. After studying at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she became the first American to receive the school’s silver medal, she made her daytime debut as Anne Fletcher on Guiding Lightin 1962. The following year, she joined The Edge of Night as Carol Kramer. If you don’t remember those characters, that’s OK; they were just Hubbard’s opening act.
In ’64, the then-up-and-comer landed the part that really put her on the map, that of Althea Davis on The Doctors. Her refusal to play by the outdated rules of the old boys club, coupled with her popular pairing with fellow M.D. Nick Bellini, filled the prescription for drama that the year-old soap desperately needed. Hubbard’s work on the show also won her the first-ever Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
A Force to Be Reckoned With
Following the cancellation of The Doctors in 1982, the leading lady passed through One Life to Live as society dame Estelle Chadwick before scoring the role for which she is best known: that of powerhouse businesswoman Lucinda Walsh on As the World Turns. Over the next quarter of a century (and then some), the dynamo demonstrated jaw-dropping range as she played out Lucinda’s complex personal relationships (especially with on-again/off-again love interest John Dixon and adopted daughter Lily), outmaneuvered every businessman in Oakdale and reeled from one heartbreak after another.
— Martha Byrne (@MarthaByrne10) April 10, 2023
Hubbard’s last appearance on screen was in the web soap Anacostia in 2015.
Shortly after the news broke, the soap vet’s As the World Turns daughter, Martha Byrne, shared a message with the daytime icon’s legion of fans. “First and foremost, I want everyone to know I made sure she was aware of how much everyone loved her,” Byrne began. “I would share your comments from social media, videos and your fond memories of her as Lucinda [and] Althea every time I saw her. She loved the audience and fought like hell to bring truth and honesty to her performances.
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“On a personal level, there aren’t words to describe how much she meant to me. Only feelings, which override words in so many cases when it comes to love. I will be sharing more so we can all grieve together, but here are our last words together only just a few days ago. I said, ‘Liz, do you know how much you have done for me?’ She said, ‘You can do more.’ Because of what she has done for me over the last 38 years, the strength and fearless nature in how she lived her life, she is right, I can and will do more. I look forward to sharing more about her life, which encompasses so much more than her incredible career on daytime television.
“She also said to me when I told her how much the fans loved her… ‘I tried,’” Byrne concluded. “She more than tried. She left it all on the screen. I’ll miss her every day but grateful the universe gifted me with such a force of nature, of which the world will not see the likes of again.”
Pay your respects to all of the soap stars we’ve lost in 2023 via the below photo gallery.
