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Also from *welovesoaps* (here's the website link in case you want to leave a comment or reply for Marlena De Lacroix ~ there are three COMMENTS already posted and I have included them). I remember Marlena from the days when I used to buy the soap mags. She was a HUGE fan of Another World so, therefore, I was a HUGE fan of hers!

http://marlenadelacroix.com/?p=147

Irene Dailey: That Exquisite Pain, Aunt Liz

By Marlena De Lacroix

As you know, Tony and Daytime Emmy winning actress Irene Dailey died of colon cancer September 24th, 2008 in Santa Rosa, California. She was 88.

Her Aunt Liz on Another World (1974-86, 87-93) was a most memorable and invaluable supporting character on soaps, the epitome of a provocateur / Pain in the Ass. In other words, if you were a Matthews or a Cory and you were going through some kind of problem or crisis and saw her coming, you knew you were in for a real verbal wuppin’. Meddling was her game and no one, I mean no one, made trouble for characters on soaps better than Irene Dailey’s Aunt Liz. That’s because theater-trained Dailey played Aunt Liz as a living, breathing unhappy human being, not as a cartoon or caricature.

The first Aunt Liz on AW — I remember her well — was played very much in the comic vein by Audra Linley. Audra Linley, who later became infamous as Mrs. Roper on Three’s Company? One and the same! Lindley’s funny voice did it all. But when Dailey took over the part two actresses later, Aunt Liz became a real, multi-

Supporting characters like Aunt Liz used to make the tapestry of soap opera rich and textured. Today, hardly anyone like her is even considered for casting on a soap. Poor us!

dimensional person. Dailey was always so vital, so strong and so real on screen that her Aunt Liz became one formidable power in Bay City. Remember Dailey’s bright blue eyes, alive with anger and fight, her posture always proud, her chest ever thrust forward? Underneath that feisty surface, however, simmered a fierce inner turmoil mixed with a secret but intense vulnerability.

Such a powerful actress was needed to play up against the almost gigantic, multi-layered and very moody characters featured in Bay City in that classic “theater” era of AW, the earlier years written by Harding Lemay, and a great many of them produced by Paul Rauch. For example, there was the stubborn, proud Rachel, as exquisitely played by Vicky Wyndham; the stubborn, bigger than life Mac, played by the magnificent Douglas Watson.

Aunt Liz was Mac’s secretary in those days, but she clashed with everyone, especially the leftover members of her own Matthews family. Old AW fans, wasn’t it obvious sometimes that Liz had a crush on Mac? Could that help explain her ever frustrated personality, her non-stop angst and antagonism? Of course, even before Dailey played her, Liz always was a walking headache. Dailey’s Aunt Liz was a true supporting character in the best soap sense, her inner turmoil drawing out the worst in other characters, making for some many spectacular fights and on-going personality clashes. Good grief, was that woman unhappy!

Irene Dailey won a Tony winner for her performance in The Subject Was Roses. By the time she came to AW, she had dozens of theater and early TV credits. How deeply the theatrical talent pool enriched AW! Hardly anyone who is cast on soaps today has experience like this. And — gasp! — Dailey, who won a Daytime Emmy in 1979, was over 40 when she started on soaps! Supporting characters like Aunt Liz used to make the tapestry of soap opera rich and textured. Today, hardly anyone like her is even considered for casting on a soap. Poor us!

Here’s a quick personal word about Dailey. When I moved to my block here near Gramercy Park in Manhattan almost twenty years ago, I was thrilled to learn (somehow, I can’t remember now) that Irene Dailey lived right down the street from me, in the building over the Chinese restaurant on the corner of Third Avenue. I never saw her, nor met her, but I always think about her when I walk past the building. Of course, it’s nice that soap opera fan moi lives so close to Aunt Liz, but to tell you the truth, I was and still am in awe that I could live in a place so close to the former home of such a renowned actress, a total professional who was the best at what she did. Rest in peace, Ms. Dailey.

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COMMENTS:

Posted on October 8th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: MARLENA
3 Responses to “Irene Dailey: That Exquisite Pain, Aunt Liz”

1.
Leona, on October 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm Said:

That was a beautiful tribute. Thanks, Marlena, for paying tribute to a brilliant actress and character.

If there’s a heaven, I hope Hugh Marlowe (Jim Matthews) greeted Ms. Daily with a warm “Lizzzzzz…..”
2.
Damon Marstletoff, on October 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm Said:

Time for you, Marlena, to write several posts about the greatness of Harding Lemay and his writing. It has been strangely missing from this blog!

Marlena says: What???? Lemay was a long time ago; he was perhaps the only soap great headwriter I never got to interview. However, I learned all I wanted to about him in his book Eight Years in Another World, a real tell-all. Did you know that Lemay, Irene Dailey and Marlena all lived on the same cross-street near Gramercy Park? Lemay boasts about the fabulously cushy townhouse he bought with the dough from AW in his book. He since moved to the West Village; I recall years ago, being introduced to him outside his new home, which I think formerly was a church!
3.
esther, on October 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm Said:

Great tribute for a great actress. I remember when she popped up on AW after being gone for so long and I was just so happy — it suddenly felt like home again. She added so much while given so little.

Thanks for doing this tribute.

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Quote:

Supporting characters like Aunt Liz used to make the tapestry of soap opera rich and textured. Today, hardly anyone like her is even considered for casting on a soap. Poor us!

I soooo agree with Marlena on this one and that's why I no longer watch any of the soaps on the air today. I would rather watch 1981 or 1991 AW episodes or any of the AW vids on YT before I would turn on the TV and watch what passes for soaps in 2008.

A Cool

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