Susan Lucci
Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946)[1] is an American actress and television host. She is known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama All My Children during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considered an icon,[2][3][4][5] and she was called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide, with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television.[6][7] As early as 1991, her salary had been reported as over $1 million a year.[6][7] During her run on All My Children, Lucci was nominated 21 times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won only once, in 1999, after the 19th nomination; her status as a perpetual nominee for the award had attracted significant media attention since the late 1980s.[6]
Susan Lucci
- Actress
- television host
- author
- entrepreneur
1969–present
2, including Liza Huber
Lucci has also acted in other TV series, as well as occasionally in film and on stage. She had multi-episode guest appearances on the series Dallas, Hot in Cleveland and Army Wives. Lucci hosted Saturday Night Live in 1990. After the cancellation of All My Children, she hosted the 2012-2014 true crime series Deadly Affairs and starred (as Genevieve Delatour) in the 2013–2016 Lifetime series Devious Maids.[8][9][10]
In 1996, TV Guide ranked her number 37 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.[11] She was named one of VH1's 200 Top Icons of All Time and one of Barbara Walters's Ten Most Fascinating People.[12]
Early life[edit]
Susan Lucci was born in Scarsdale, New York, to parents Jeanette (1917-2021) and Victor Lucci (1919-2002).[1] Her father was of Italian ancestry, and her mother was of Swedish descent.[13][14] She lived in Yonkers, New York, before moving with her family at age 2 to Elmont, New York, and then at age 5 to another Long Island town, Garden City, New York.[15] Lucci graduated from Garden City High School in 1964 and from Marymount College, Tarrytown in 1968, with a BA degree in drama.[16]
Business ventures[edit]
Lucci also has her own line of hair care products, perfumes, lingerie and skin care, called The Susan Lucci Collection.
Personal life[edit]
Lucci married Austrian-born chef and food-service manager Helmut Huber on September 13, 1969.[33] They are the parents of two children: actress Liza Huber and a son, Andreas Huber.[1] The couple were married 52 years until Helmut's death on March 28, 2022; he was 84 years old.[34]
Lucci's autobiography, All My Life: A Memoir, was published in 2011.[35] She is a registered Republican and has hosted fundraising events for Rudy Giuliani.[36] She is a supporter of LGBT rights and equality, her support spurred by an All My Children storyline in 2000 in which her character Erica's daughter, Bianca Montgomery, came out as a lesbian.[36]
In late 2018, Lucci had an emergency procedure to place two arterial stents in her heart after blocked arteries were discovered due to chest pain. Lucci postponed making her experience public until shortly before the American Heart Association's annual Go Red for Women fashion event in February 2019.[37]
Other awards and honors include: