Past Daytime Emmy Winners

Success and Past Daytime Emmy Winners

One of the great things about daytime television is that it provides a plethora of fine actors and actresses an opportunity to be featured on the small screen. More than one great actor can list a soap opera in his or her past credits. The following past Daytime Emmy winners are notable for their soap opera performances, as well as on other projects.

Judith Light as Karen Wolek

Judith Light won the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1980 and 1981. Her storyline as Karen Wolek (One Life to Live) remains amongst the most lauded in daytime television. Karen was a typical housewife, married to a doctor and she was bored. Her secret life as a prostitute was revealed while on the stand when Viki Lord was on trial for murder.

Since her time on OLTL, Light starred on the very successful Who’s the Boss sitcom as well as numerous made-for-television films. She is also featured on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Ugly Betty.

Ellen Wheeler as Cindy Parker

Ellen Wheeler won her first Daytime Emmy award as Outstanding Ingénue for creating and portraying the dual roles of Marley and Victoria Love on Another World. After leaving Another World, she portrayed the first HIV-positive character on daytime, Cindy Parker on All My Children where she won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress.

Wheeler actually returned to Another World shortly before it was canceled and reprised her role as Marley Love. It was an unprecedented move at the time because Marley and Vicky were still twins, but Jensen Buchanan (formerly Sarah on OLTL) was still playing the role of Vicky. During that last year on Another World, Wheeler took an interest in directing which lead to her directing several episodes of ATWT and Guiding Light. Currently, she is the executive producer of Guiding Light.

Genie Francis as Laura Spencer

Genie Francis and Anthony Geary, Laura and Luke on GH

Even though Genie Francis shot to super fame as young Laura Webber Baldwin Spencer on General Hospital by the time she was 18 years old, decades went by before she received an Emmy nod. Despite her enormous popularity and role as one half of the greatest super couples of all time, she did not receive a Daytime Emmy Award until 2007. Francis returned for just six short weeks to commemorate the 25 years of Luke and Laura and those six weeks earned her Emmy nomination and eventual win.

Francis, however, has played numerous roles in and around her signature role as Laura Spencer. She portrayed Brett Main in the mini-series North and South and North and South Book II as well as the role in the series Bare Essences. Her husband Jonathon Frakes worked on all three shows as well. Later Francis would portray Diana Colville on Days of Our Lives and Ceara Connor on All My Children and Loving. Currently, Francis is running a furniture shop in Maine and remains happily married to actor turned director Jonathon Frakes. You can also see Francis in the role of the reporter in her husband’s film Thunderbirds.

Jonathan Jackson as Lucky Spencer

Young Jonathan Jackson charmed everyone when he walked into Ruby’s coffee shop on General Hospital. The heir apparent to the Spencer charm, Jackson’s Lucky Spencer was a hit with the fans and earned not one, not two, but three Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Young Actor for his role. When Jackson left General Hospital in 1998 and Lucky ‘died’ in a fire, many fans mourned his loss and despite the valiant attempts of his recasts, he is still considered the quintessential Lucky Spencer.

Since leaving General Hospital, Jackson has been busy in multiple film roles and singing with his band. His more notable roles include parts in The Deep End of the Ocean with Michele Pfeiffer and Tuck Everlasting with Alexis Bleidel. More recently, Jackson appeared in The Sarah Connor Chronicles as another very recognizable genre character: Kyle Reese.

Anne Heche as Vicki and Marley Love

Anne Heche had the unenviable job of following up the uber-popular Ellen Wheeler in the dual roles of Marley and Vicki Love on Another World. She grew into both roles and won an Outstanding Supporting Actress Daytime Emmy for her parts in 1991. Heche left Another World in 1991 and launched a very successful film career that includes Wag the Dog, Six Days, Seven Nights and Donnie Brasco. Heche’s relationship with Ellen DeGeneres was tabloid front cover news for months and more recently, she is featured on the ABC television show Men in Trees.