Susan Lucci

Petite, dark-haired, and beautiful Susan Lucci is best known for playing one of the most famous characters in American television soap opera history, the sexy, conniving, but somehow lovable vixen Erica Kane. Her work has won her numerous industry awards, including a People's Choice Award (1992), the 1993 Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, a Crystal Apple (1994), a Best Soap Actress award from a People magazine poll in 1985, a Canadian TV Guide People's Choice Award for Best Soap Actress (1989), and more. She was even voted the Italian-American Welfare League's Woman of the Year she has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy 16 times, and has won once. Lucci was quite young when she was hired to play precocious, self-centered teen Erica Kane in 1970. In 1973, she appeared in Secret Passions, the first of many television movies. During its final season, Lucci joined the cast of the nighttime soap Dallas. When not acting, she exploits her glamorous image by hawking her own collection of beauty products, the Susan Lucci Collection, on cable TV shopping networks. She has two children and, unlike her alter ego, Erica Kane, has been married to the same man, Helmut Huber. - Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide