A Look Back at Erika Slezak’s One Life to Live Run!

March 16, 2017

1–2 minutes

On this day in soap history; on March 17, 1971 fan favorite Erika Slezak made her debut as One Life to Live’s Victoria “Vikki” Lord. The character was created by Agnes Nixon with Gillian Spencer in the role, Slezak later stepped in as a recast on March 17, 1971 and played the role till the show’s ABC finale on January 13, 2012. Slezak reprised the role in The Online Network’s reboot of the ABC daytime serial which aired on Hulu, iTunes, FX Canada and OWN from April 29 , 2013 – August 19, 2013.

The character was a mainstay lead character of the serial with storylines focusing on drudgery, love and family issues. Victoria has been married and divorced a number of times, shot several times, been to jail, suffered a stroke, breast cancer, rape, heart attack, heart disease, heart transplant and more.

She was married to characters such as; Roger Gordon, Joe Riley, Steve Burke, Sloan Carpenter, Ben Davidson, Charlie Banks and Clint Buchanan [ex-Jerry Verdon]. Her tenure as Vikki Lord earned her numerous nominations and award wins at the Daytime Emmy’s.

Watch the videos below as we reflect on what would have been her 46th anniversary in the role, should the show had still been on air!