Marilyn Chris

Last updated
Marilyn Chris
Born
Marilyn Miller

1938or1939(age 84–85)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Other namesMarilyn Chris-Wallace,
OccupationActress
Years active1960–present
Spouses
  • George Christopoulos
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1957,divorced)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1967,divorced)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1975;died 2020)​
Children1

Marilyn Chris (born Marilyn Miller, [1] 1938 or 1939 [2] [lower-alpha 1] ) is an American actress, possibly best known as Wanda Webb Wolek on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live .

Contents

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jack Miller, an English-Scottish Mennonite and Sylvia Slavin, a Russian Jew, [5] Chris attended the High School of Performing Arts and City College of New York. [6]

Career

She began her acting career in the 1950s at The Living Theatre. [7] Prompted by the discovery that her birth name was already registered with Actors Equity, Miller devised a stage name simply by shortening her then-married name, Christopoulos. [1]

With appearances on television shows such as NBC's Law & Order and Fame , she is known by longtime soap fans as Wanda Wolek #1 on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live , a role she played from 1972 through 1976, and from 1980 through 1994. [8] Earlier in her career she played Edie Hoffman on the ABC soap opera All My Children .

She has appeared in such films as Love With The Proper Stranger (1963), The People Next Door (1970), The Honeymoon Killers (1970), The Black Marble (1980), and Trees Lounge (1996).

She has also acted and directed for the theater. Her Broadway credits include roles in Lenny and Brighton Beach Memoirs . [9] [10] She received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Variety Critics Poll for her performance in Kaddish, directed by Robert Kalfin at the Chelsea Theater Center. [11] [9]

Personal life

Chris has married three times, the first two ending in divorce: first, in 1957, to aspiring playwright George Christopoulos, with whom she had a son, Paul; [2] [1] [12] [5] next, on New Year's Eve 1967, to actor Ric Mancini; [13] [14] and finally—from December 14, 1975 until his death on December 20, 2020—to actor Lee Wallace. [3] [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ Two reference works concerning the history of daytime TV—each of whose Marilyn Chris entries includes a birthday without specifying the year—diverge widely as to the month and day of her birth. The Soap Opera Book : Who's Who in Daytime Drama, published in 1992 by Todd Publications, lists May 19 as her birthday, [3] whereas Daytime TV Star's Directory, published by Popular Library in 1976, has September 24. [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Hurst, Louise. (June 29, 1964). "How to Succeed in Acting and Making Home for Son". The Cincinnati Enquirer.
  2. 1 2 "Here's another weekly winner in our search for THE TYPICAL AMERICAN GIRL". New York Sunday News Coloroto Magazine. February 23, 1958. p. 2. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Rout, Nancy E., Buckley, Ellen, Rout, Barney M., ed. (1992). The Soap Opera Book : Who's Who in Daytime Drama . West Nyack, N.Y.: Todd Publications. p. 56. ISBN   0-915344-36-X.
  4. ↑ Denis Paul (1976). Daytime TV Star's Directory. New York: Popular Library. p. 187. OCLC   2518996
  5. 1 2 Nabakov, Peter (August 20, 1967). "Chris Versatile Actress With Myriad Faces". The Santa Fe New Mexican. p. 38. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  6. ↑ Soares, Manuela (1992). The Soap opera book: who's who in daytime drama. Todd Publications. p. 56. ISBN   9780915344239 . Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  7. ↑ Tytell, John (1997). The Living Theatre: Art, Exile, and Outrage. Grove Press. p. 308. ISBN   9780802134868 . Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  8. ↑ "One Life to Live Where Are They Now: Marilyn Chris!". Soaps.com. July 14, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  9. 1 2 "Veteran Actors Perform in "Awake and Sing"". Centre Daily Times. August 7, 1975. p. 5. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  10. ↑ Byrnes, Eileen (April 3, 1984). "Simon's 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' is a classic comedy hit". The Evening News. p. 7A. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Daytime doings on ABC". McKinney Courier-Gazette. November 5, 1972. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  12. ↑ "New York, New York City Marriage Licenses Index, 1950-1995," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLSR-V5BY  : 19 June 2017), George Christopoulos and Marilyn Miller, 1957, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States;Marriage, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, from Reclaim the Records, The NYC Marriage Index (http://www.nycmarriageindex.com  : 2016); citing New York City Clerk's Office.
  13. ↑ Newton, Jim (May 19, 1968). "Two Summer Drama Groups List Stars; City Artists Do Well in State Show". Albuquerque Journal. p. 26. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  14. ↑ Hirsch, Linda (October 28, 1977). "Daytime Dial: Jennifer Still Around". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 9D. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  15. ↑ McPhee, Ryan (December 28, 2020). "Stage and Screen Actor Lee Wallace Dead at 90". Playbill. Retrieved January 12, 2024.

Sources


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