Nancy Lee Grahn and Jack Wagner to guest star on "CASTEL"

Nancy Lee Grahn is set to guest star on ABC’s “Castle” this January 2013, reports TVLine. In the episode “Significant Others,” Grahn will play Samantha Voss, a wealthy divorcee caught in a “War of the Roses”-esque story line with her ex-husband. Former “Santa Barbara” co-star (and GH alum) Jack Wagner will also guest star in the episode (on SB they were aunt and nephew). Grahn is best known for her role as attorney Alexis Davis on “General Hospital.” After 16 years on the show and numerous nominations, the actress won her second Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress earlier this year.

Halloween 1984

- or "when Melissa Brennan Reeves was young and innocent...and she did not eat homophobic hamburgers." - 

Continuing with the Halloween Update, today I propose to you some scenes of the episode dated 31 October 1984: so this was the first Halloween in Santa Barbara. Nothing to do with Halloween night 1985. Here the tones are lighter, the characters are younger. In short, nothing memorable, but definitely something fun. And then there's the Dobsons’ touch. This makes it worth seeing. The short video that I propose to you is in French, but it is not necessary to know the language to understand what happens:

In full storm, Jade (Melissa Brennan) and Danny (Rupert Ravens) are once again confronted with the faults of their typewriter. Jade goes to the library and, armed with many works on black magic, organises with Danny a séance which succeeds to make the table move! Suddenly, on the music of the film Ghostbusters, a strange light appears in front of the bar of their hotel. Terrified, they leave the place by howling. But from their departure, everything calms down and two rather old men appear. They prove to be responsible for frightening Jade and Danny, trying to make them leave the place to search the hotel with ease, where a mysterious booty was hidden.

Synopsis from Santa Barbara: le site francais

Halloween in Capwell Mansion - 1985

Halloween is getting near, and Gina decorates the house with pumpkin heads and skeletons. When she sees Brandon hanging a skeleton on the door of CC's room, she takes it off, telling him he can put it anywhere in the house but in this room. While they are talking, Brandon asks her if she is planning on getting a costume for Halloween, and she tells him she will be dressed as a witch (referring to Eden of course).

"Let me die...Let me die..." - says the voice coming from Gina's tape. CC suddenly opens his eyes. Gina is terrified when she notices it. "My god!" - she whispers with horror. Eden, totally unstable and thinking she's hearing her father's voice, closes the door behind her. Sophia passes in the corridor outside CC's room, and notices Eden before the door is closed. "Poor daddy" - cries Eden as she approaches CC...

Can you see me?" - asks Eden, knealing near CC's bed. "My heart breaks everytime I see you like this. I know what you told me to do. Twice you told me, I didn't forget. Daddy, I'm here. Eden's here". CC just stares at her. "I love you daddy. I love you more than I love myself. I love you more than I love Cruz!". Gina is in the closet, hearing every word. "Go ahead Eden. Pull the plug! So I won't have to..." - Gina says in her heart. Eden continues to talk to her father: "I've been so tortured, I didn't know whether to disobey you, but now I've decided what I'm going to do. You've trusted me with the business and your life's work, and your life - you put them in my hands. I hate these machines daddy, I really hate them. They just go on and on. They don't care about the pain, the hopelessness..." - Eden bursts into tears again. "I wore this dress daddy because it was your favorite. In my dreams I'm always wearing it, and I've tried to get rid of it because it frightened me. I don't know why but I still have it!". Eden gets up. "In my dreams I just keep...I do...I do exactly what you want me to do..." - Eden approaches slowly to the plug. CC starts to blink, his pulse is getting rapid. Eden reaches a trembling hand to the plug. "Do it Eden. Do it now!" - Gina begs in her heart. "Do it! Pull it! You know you want it, so do it Eden, do it! Go ahead!" - hopes an anxious Gina, but Eden can't make herself pull the plug - and faints.

"Get up Eden, come one, get up! You can do it!" - thinks Gina, but Eden lies motionless on the floor. Gina decides to act, and goes out of the closet. Suddenly, CC's hand moves as if he was trying to grab Gina's arm. "My God! You moved!! Am I imagining this?!" - Gina panics and moves away, but CC follows her with his eyes. "Can you see me?" - asks a horrified Gina. "Eden, don't pass out on me now!" - Gina shakes Eden. "Finish what you've started, you were so close! Don't give up now! Eden, can you hear me?". Gina moves her look from Eden to CC, who is still watching her. "Your eyes...they move! Can you see me?! Can you see me??" - Gina can't bare to look at CC anymore. "I'm not doing anything! I didn't do anything, stop looking at me!". CC blinks. "Stop it, I can't stand it!!" - shouts Gina.

CC's life are still in danger. He looks at Gina, his heart beats very fast. "Stop looking at me like that! This is what you wanted, this is what you've asked for, so you're going to get it! Your darling Eden is going to do it. This is what you wanted, isn't it?" - Gina grabs Eden's hand, but can't face CC. "You have no right to look at me like this! I was the one who was hurt by this marriage, not you!". Then she takes a deep breath, and puts Eden's hand on the plug. "Goodbye CC. See you in hell...". Gina uses Eden's hand to pull the plug...

A moment of silence. The sound of the machine is no longer heard. The respirator stops working. Gina freezes. "It's done. It's over." - she says with a low voice. Then she hears a weak cough. She looks up at CC - and sees him moaning weakly for a few moments, then his eyes are closed. After a few seconds, an alarm breaks off. "No!!!" - Gina screams horrified.

It is the beginning of a nightmare for Eden, culminating in a marriage with Kirk Cranston. Everything happened on Halloween in 1985. In Santa Barbara. Can you imagine a story scarier than this?

Synopsis from Santa Barbara Home Page

Mary crushed by a C: the real story behind

- by Michael Logan, 1986 - 

Bridget Dobson, co-creator and co-executive producer of SANTA BARBARA, sheds a little light on behalf of the management. “When characters don’t spark story excitement, they tend to be used less,” she says matter of factly. “When they’re used less, it’s very expensive to just maintain them so, sometimes, if they haven’t been important to the story, they’re just sort of faded out rather than flashily done in.”

According to Dobson, who’s also written for GUIDING LIGHT and GENERAL HOSPITAL, the circumstances of a character’s vanishing act depend on the needs of the serial and not the emotional attachments of the actor or the audience. “If it’s a character we want to bring back, they’re often sent to Rio or their body isn’t found. On the other hand, getting rid of a character entirely can open up worlds of story. For example, we decided that our plot would leap ahead faster by killing off Harley Kozak.”

Kozak, who played Mary McCormack, is one actress who can’t complain that she didn’t get a snap, crackle and pop ending. In fact Dobson ordered up a lulu. “When they told me that I was going to get the Big C,” chortles Harley, “I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll slip into a coma and be good for another year or two on the show.”

Instead, Mary met her Maker when the capital C from the Capwell Hotel sign came crashing down on her head. “I was absolutely delighted!” says Kozak. “I thought it was so eccentric. I don’t know how they came upwith it, to tell you the truth. I think someone must have been doing hallucinogens.”

In fact, her adios was so splashy and so unheard of compared to the lackluster fates befalling other actors with pink slips that Harley plants her tongue in cheek and searches for deeper meaning.

“We all know there are no accidents in life”, insist the actress who, to this day, still wonders “what the C really stood for “cheap”, like maybe they wanted to get rid of me because I was too expensive. Then I wondered, maybe it stands for “cash”, because our lawyers are going at it and maybe they’ll have to pay me off. Then, when I was jogging, it occurred to me that it stood for “crap” – but then again, that’s too rude.”

What it did stand for – at least for Kozak’s fans – was finis, kaput, dead as a doornail, over and out. No questions asked.

We're the victims: storylines viewers will never see because of the Writers' Strike

- DaytimeTV, 1988 -

Who was the biggest loser in this year’s writers’ strike? We believe it was you – the viewers of daytime. From March 7 to August 8 of this year, the Writers Guild of America was on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the television networks. For five months, the soaps were written by unknown others (few still know their identities). Not only were the soaps affected by sometimes inconsistent dialogue and storylines that seemed forced but also there was an additional loss that has remained unbeknownst to the fans of daytime – until now. Our research has revealed a number of major storylines that were killed or altered as a result of the prolonged strike. According to our sources, a number of storylines were in the planning stages and set to air this past summer when the labor action took place. Other storylines that were already airing were changed either because of the replacement writers’ need to spice up their shows or because executives at a daytime drama chose to postpone major plans until the regular writers returned. What follows is a short list of those storylines with an accompanying explanation of what you missed:

When Marj Dusay (ex-Pamela) joined Santa Barbara, it was thought to be another example of masterful casting by the 1988 Emmy Award Winner for Best Soap. Rumours said that the character of Pamela would shake things up like never before and be a major character on the show for years to come. In four months, Pamela was gone and Santa Barbara lost one of the finest actresses in daytime. What happened? Well, it turns out the replacement writers needed to push ahead a storyline so they essentially sacrificed the character of Pamela. We understand the regular writers were aghast to learn that “their” newly-created character was being killed off, but they were powerless to do anything. Perhaps, this is daytime’s version of the power of the pen (or is that typewriter), but Santa Barbara, it may turn out, was hurt most by the strike because it lost what was to be a villainess extraordinaire. The strike also influenced the wedding dates of Keith and Gina. Santa Barbara held fast until the regular writers returned to give Gina and Keith (and its viewers) a wedding to remember.

Dumbest Storylines: A bounced check at the Sperm Bank

- Soap Opera Digest. May 6, 1986 -

It wasn’t the fact that SANTA BARBARA used a mythical country called New Stailand that we found ludicrous but rather what went on there. When Jack Stanfield Lee (Joel Crothers) refused to get involved in a plot to take over that island country, his devious cousin Jerry Cooper was happy to oblige. He locked Jack up, then had plastic surgery to make himself the spitting image of his cuz. Meanwhile Jerry oversaw the impregnation of Santa Barbara resident Amy Perkins (Kerry Sherman) with the sperm of the nowdead prince of New Stailand, which had been stared in a sperm bank there. The baby was eventually brought to New Stailand, where Jerry planned to kill the king and become ruler until the baby matured. His plan hit a snag when a suspicious Amy and her fiancé Brick (Richard Eden) followed “Jack” to New Stailand, found the real Jack locked up and Amy’s baby in the royal crib. Amy and Brick were asked to stay and let the baby inherit his true birthright. Amy chose to return to Santa Barbara to marry Brick. This turn of events was not as dumb as the entire story since Brick has turned out to be both a Capwell and a Lockridge and stands to inherit a sizeable fortune.

Where are they now: JAMES HEALY

- Derek Griffin on SANTA BARBARA (1990) -

James Healy grew up in both Ireland and Australia. He’s probably best known for playing Joan Collins' husband, Sean Rowan, on Dynasty in 1987/88 season. In January 1990 he came to Santa Barbara to play Derek Griffin: he appears first as a rich philanthropist businessman, before revealing his true face. Orphan since his birth, Derek turns out to share with the district attorney Ethan Asher, Craig Hunt and Stephen Slade the will to discover the identity of the murderer of Cassandra Benedict. That storyline called “The four orphans” was in my opinion one of the most boring stories of all time: I have never felt a real threat for the Capwells. By the way, Healy said about his characters:
“He really is a good person. There have been a lot of instances in his past that people have been bad to him. We are trying to make him likable, but his motives are pretty powerful - which give an edge to him. It will be like opening up a hornet's nest. One advantage of doing a show like this is that if you do get a good character, people like Sheri Anderson (the co-headwriter) will support you. Mr. John Conboy (the executive producer) has some great ideas. What confuses me is that Santa Barbara wins awards, but they don't have a large audience yet.” Healy represented Santa Barbara on Oprah Winfrey Show and was voted one of daytimes most popular actors. Then he left the show in July 1990. He rejoined Acapulco HEAT series in the re-occurring role of Strake. Currently he resides in Melbourne, Australia, where he returned in 1996 in order to care for his ailing father (now deceased). He continues to act write and produce films through his company Tri-Archer Film Productions. Ops, I almost forgot that, in true soap opera fashion, in February 1993 he was arrested with his sister and a friend in connection with the attempted murder of his sister's estranged husband. He allegedly forced his way into a Rosemead home with his sister and the friend and used a piece of glass to slash the throat of Jacob Benjamin Rivera. He was sentenced to several hours of community service. In the end he almost killed someone. Not Mason Capwell.

 

New Entry on "Santa Barbara": EILEEN DAVIDSON

- Sun Sentinel. December 24, 1991 -

 

When Eileen Davidson left The Young and the Restless after playing Ashley Abbott for over five years, she didn`t expect to return to daytime. Nor did she think she would be involved with co-star Don Diamont, who plays Brad on the CBS soap. Both have happened for Davidson, who recently began portraying Kelly Capwell on NBC`s Santa Barbara.

According to Davidson, ``My reason for returning to daytime was due to the Santa Barbara offer -- a nice salary, time out to pursue other things, and really create a role. They offered to do just about anything if I would work with them. That`s an offer that would make any actress feel very good.``

Davidson said only one thing changed. ``They decided to refocus the role of Kelly and asked me to take over the part. They`ve told me Kelly is going to be a totally different character.``

Prior to Davidson, the role, created by Robin Wright, was played by Kimberly McArthur and most recently by Carrington Garland. ``What I`ve decided to do is look at one page of back story for Kelly, then talk with the actors my character has related with. I`ve really done a lot of research on Kelly.``

After leaving Y&R Davidson made a movie with Jon Voight, and dropped out of another movie. ``I left because I didn`t like the way the project was going,`` she says. Davidson also starred in a short-lived Stephen J. Cannell series, Broken Badges.

It was an offhand comment about her TV family, the Abbotts, that brought Davidson together with Diamont, who she has been seeing for more than a year. ``I was having lunch with one of the makeup men on the show and he mentioned the Abbotts hadn`t heard from me in a long time. I replied, `Well, they can call me.` I was stunned when the person who called was Donald.

``When I was on Young and Restless, I really couldn`t stand him,`` she said.

But time had changed things for both of them.

``After that phone call, we decided to go to dinner. Then we`d spend lots of time talking on the phone when I was out of town. It just grew. In the beginning, we`d kid each other about how we couldn`t get along at first.``

As for her return to daytime: ``Donald and I talked about it and thought, `Gee! Why not?!` I realized I couldn`t return to Young and Restless since Brenda Epperson had stepped in as Ashley. Then came Santa Barbara`s offer.``

Will it be just like being on Y&R?

``With the Young and Restless schedule work was a piece of cake. You came in, you did your scenes, you went home. Santa Barbara`s not like that. You are literally there the whole day. I discussed this with A. Martinez, who plays Cruz, and he assured me it isn`t really a horrible schedule. It really gives you a chance to tweak your character. You spend that time on the set, hopefully running lines, finding some qualities in the scene and bringing them about in the character. Sometimes on Young and Restless you got the feeling you just did it and you left. Although, when I see some of the work turned out in prime-time and movies, I can`t tell you how much quality I think is done on television between noon and 3 p.m. Young and Restless had so many innovative story lines ... and I know the same will be true of Santa Barbara.``

FOCUS ON: Growing pains over for Santa Barbara

- by Connie Passalacqua, 1986 -

It may be cause to believe in miracles. After 18 months of agonizing public growing pains, NBC’s Santa Barbarais finally beginning to shape up into a fine soap. Amazingly, it has all happened in just the fashion the show’s creators/co-executive producers/headwriters, Jerome and Bridget Dobson, predicted it would just prior to its debut in July 1984. The Dobsons had said that their show would take time to gel. They said that the key to a good show would not be found in bikinied young bodies or exotic location shootings, but in finding the right performers to play original, distinctive characters. After dozens of hits and misses (at its first anniversary, the show had hired and fired 74 actors), that’s what has happened. The actors Santa Barbara found to best create the characters the Dobsons had in mind are all soap veterans. Four inept CC Capwells came and went before the show finally found its actor Jed Allan (who had spent a decade on Days of Our Lives as Don Craig). He’s just what the Dobsons had in mind from the start – Blake Carrington, with sex appeal to spare.

After many preposterous actress choices (including one blonde), the show finally found its fiery Mexican heroine, Santana Andrade, by hiring Mexican – American Gina Gallego, formerly of Rituals. Now Santana’s scenes with Cruz Castillo (A Martinez, one of daytime’s best leading men) in which they discuss their heritage finally make sense. Even Robin Mattson, who was grating as villainesses Heather Webber on General Hospital and Delia Coleridge on Ryan’s Hope has been made bearable on Santa Barbara as another bad girl, Gina DeMott. The Dobsons have made Gina both humorous and stupid – the latter trait surprisingly refreshing as a motivation for a soap villainess.
 

Perhaps the most interesting and typically eccentric Dobson character on Santa Barbara is Mason Capwell, superbly played by Lane Davies. Abhorrent as CC Capwell’s stuffed-shirt son for the first few months of the show, Davies has since made acerbic Mason sympathetic and compelling. Yet, Mason still has a sophisticated Noel Cowardesque wit, and he is perhaps the only daytime character who slyly gives asides to the soap audience.

Written and finally played with wit and sophistication, Santa Barbara is coming into its own. It’s ready to take on its two time-slot competitors, Guiding Light and General Hospital, both of which have been in a creative slump. It’s going to be quite an interesting soap summer.




 

Eileen Davidson: “What happened to me at Y&R was shocking!”

 

TV Guide Magazine talked with Davidson about her roller-coaster suds career. She also played the fourth Kelly Capwell on SANTA BARBARA from 1991 to 1993. You can fire her. But you can't stop her. Soap superstar Eileen Davidson, who returns to Days of Our Lives on Thursday, Oct. 11 as nutty hell-raiser Kristen Blake, hasn't been on the NBC serial in 14 years. And she wouldn't be on it now if she hadn't been unceremoniously dumped from her long-running role as heroine Ashley Abbott on CBS's The Young and the Restless. Here the main extract from the long interview:

 

Robin Wright, Carey Elwes Reunite for 25th Anniversary of The Princess Bride

It's been 25 years since The Princess Bride's magical tale first stole audiences' hearts. Robin Wright took a break from SANTA BARBARA to shoot this movie. Buttercup was the first major role in a movie for Robin Wright. Since then her career has taken off.

To celebrate the anniversary – and the film's Blu-ray release on Wednesday – the cast reunited for a screening at Alice Tully Hall in New York on Tuesday.
Robin Wright and Cary Elwes, whose on-screen love made the film a cult classic, joined Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya), Chris Sarandon(Prince Humperdinck), Wallace Shawn (Vizzini), Carol Kane (Valerie), Bill Crystal(Miracle Max) and director Rob Reiner. While the cast looked elated to be together again, the presence of Peter Falk (Grandfather) and André the Giant(Fezzik) – who have both passed away since the film's 1987 release – were sadly missed.

In this clip you can watch the event.

 

Netflix to stream Spacey, Wright series

Netflix says its Washington-set political drama “House of Cards,” starring Academy Award ® winner Kevin Spacey (Horrible Bosses, American Beauty), and Golden Globe ® nominee Robin Wright (who is also a three-time Daytime Emmy Awards nominee for her work in SANTA BARBARA), will begin streaming online Feb. 1.

The entire 13-episode first season of director-producer David Fincher and writer Beau Willimon's remake of the British series with the same name co-stars Kate Mara.

The show will be available to Netflix members in territories where the movie subscription service is available -- North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America and Scandinavia.

“House of Cards combines the best of filmmaking with the best of television. Beau Willimon's compelling narrative, David Fincher's unparalleled craftsmanship, indelible performances by Kevin Spacey and the rest of the cast unite to create a gripping story and new kind of viewing experience for Netflix members,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a statement Thursday. “In offering the entire season at once, Netflix is giving viewers complete control over how and when they watch the show.”

Season 2 is due to begin production in spring 2013, Netflix said.

Lane Davies from Santa Barbara visits Azerbaijan, holds acting classes

 

-BZ Film. October 2, 2012 -

Film and stage actor Lane Davies, mostly known for spending four years playing Mason Capwell in the world-famous “Santa Barbara” tv-series, visited Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku.

Davies has been invited here by the local ANS TV network, to hold acting master-classes for actors of “Baku Film” studio, that makes movies for ANS.

Davies arrived in Azerbaijan on September 19, and upon arrival he has received tons of calls to arrange fan meetings and hold press conferences.

“I first heard about Azerbaijan on CNN, and now I am here to hold the acting workshop,” Davies said upon his arrival.

Talking to the local media outlets, Davies noted that he liked the city very much, and he just might come back here again in the future.

Being a trained stage actor, Davies noted that as part of his workship and acting classes, the main thing is that the actors would feel completely relaxed in front of the camera.

Regarding the meetings with fans – one of such was eventually held prior to Davies’ leaving Baku, who spent 2 weeks in Azerbaijani capital.

Though perhaps best known for sardonic roles in television comedy and drama, during 30 years as a stage actor, Lane has performed such roles as Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, King Lear, Petruchio, Henry V and Cyrano de Bergerac in companies from San Diego to Providence, Rhode Island.

He was the original “Mason Capwell” on NBC’s 80s soap Santa Barbara, an international hit which has now played in over 53 countries worldwide. His credits include starring roles in four prime-time series, Good & Evil, The Mommies, Woops! and The Crew.

His Television credits also include seven pilots and some 50 guest-star appearances. Davies has also worked as a consultant, writer and producer for Walt Disney Attractions on projects for Tokyo Disney Sea and EuroDisney.

As Artistic Director for the Santa Susana Repertory Company, a professional resident theater company in Ventura County, Lane has produced and/or directed over 40 productions, and he has also founded the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival.

 

 

 

Henry Darrow made his mark as an actor

- The pioneering Latino TV star, who played Manolito on 'The High Chaparral' and the title character of 'Zorro,' recounts his career in 'Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle.' -

Not only was Henry Darrow the first Puerto Rican star of an hour-long TV series, playing the charismatic and devilish Manolito Montoya on the 1967-71 NBC western "The High Chaparral," he also was among the first to become a teen dream whose handsome visage adorned the pages of 16 and Tiger Beat magazines.

“I appealed to the more mature 12- to 14-year-olds,” Darrow said with a laugh over the phone from the home he shares with his second wife, Lauren Levian, in Wilmington, N.C. He added that his costar, Mark Slade, who played the brooding Blue on the sagebrush saga, "appealed to the 9- to 11-year-olds."

Darrow's appeal was international. He recalled a publicity tour of Sweden during the run of "Chaparral."

“I got together a guitarist and worked on a 25-minute act. It was wonderfully corny stuff,” said the New York-born actor of Puerto Rican descent. “I learned a few phrases in Swedish. I had about 17,200 people on closing night — more than Sammy Davis Jr.  had. I thought this was incredible!”

Darrow is traveling from North Carolina to L.A. to appear at several events this weekend to talk about his career and sign autographs of his book, "Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle," which he wrote with Jan Pippins.

On Saturday, which is also his 79th birthday, he'll be at the Autry National Center of the American West, which will be screening select episodes of The High Chaparral and his 1990-94 Family Channel series, Zorro, which marked the first time the famed hero was played by a Latino on U.S. television. Also on Saturday, the Inspiration Network begins airing The High Chaparral, which was created by David Dortort (Bonanza ) and also starred Leif Erickson as an Arizona rancher in the 1870s who is married to Manolito's sister, played by Linda Cristal.

On Sunday afternoon, Darrow will be signing copies of his book at the Kumaras Center for the Arts, Dance & Etiquette in Burbank, and that evening he will receive the Ricardo Montalban  Lifetime Achievement Award at the ALMA Awards, which honor the accomplishments of Latino performers.

Luis Reyes, co-author of Hispanics in Hollywood, said Darrow was an inspiration to Latinos.

"We felt proud. His character was so strong," Reyes said. "His character of Manolito, especially in the pilot, comes off at first as your typical Latino-stereotypical bandito, but during the course of the pilot, [you discover] this guy is not a bandito but the son of a wealthy land baron who is basically trying to find his own identity in his own way."

For actor A Martinez , who appeared with Darrow on the NBC soap Santa Barbara, Manolito “was this brown-skinned man as a power player with major grace — a dangerous man with a romantic heart standing down to no one. Like a lot of young dudes, a big piece of me wanted to be him. But the great thing to me about it was many of my Anglo friends wanted to be him as well.”

Martinez had worked with his idol twice before Darrow joined the cast of Santa Barbara in 1989. The actors, who played father and son, won daytime Emmys in 1990.

There was an ease working with Darrow from Day 1 on Santa Barbara, Martinez recalled.

“His energy and insight helped to open up my work in ways that were not previously imagined,” he said. “He not only showed up every morning with the script mastered but often with a tasty chunk of ideas for improvement as well.”

Quirky Santa Barbara

- Nancy Grahn Made A Small Part Big By Playing Julia As A Neurotic - July 29, 1992

 

On a recent visit to Skokie to see her family, actress Nancy Grahn slips into the deli in a floral shift, with no makeup and little fanfare.

Under normal show-biz circumstances, the actress would be swamped by fans.

Grahn stars as lawyer Julia Capwell on NBC`s ``Santa Barbara``, and though the soap has consistently ranked in the bottom one-third of daytime dramas over its eight years, the critics have raved and fans in 35 countries have clamored for its sophisticated humor and depiction of California lifestyles.

``I`m like Madonna in France,`` Grahn says, with a laugh. ``My pictures are plastered on the subways.``

Grahn, playing Julia for seven years, has transformed the role from a supporting role to an atypical romantic leading lady. Her character is grounded in reality and illuminated with quirks.

``People relate to my character so much. They say, `I know this woman!` I think it`s because I brought a neurosis to her,`` Grahn says, picking at a bialy.

``There`s so many characters in daytime, there`s just not enough situations to make everyone original. So making her somewhat neurotic made her look more film-like to me.``

Born and raised in Skokie, Grahn began her professional acting career when she landed a plum role at 19 in a Goodman Theatre production of ``Guys and Dolls.``

``It made me feel connected,`` says Grahn. ``I never saw myself married but I always saw myself acting. It was something I had command of. Besides, there was nothing else I could do. I can`t type, I can`t sew, I can`t cook.`` Grahn moved to New York the next year, where she studied with famed Method acting instructor Sandy Meisner and went on to play everything from Shakespeare to ``Little House on the Prairie.``

In 1985, Grahn moved to Los Angeles and joined the cast of ``Santa Barbara.``

``It was the only soap that I considered doing,`` she says. ``It was so witty and literate.

``We sort of catapulted females on soaps into the `90s,`` Grahn adds, noting that she and the show`s writing team were in sync.

``Usually a romantic lead is more of a heroine, the pretty princess. Julia had a baby on her own. She contracted for it even though she hated the man at the time; she thought he had good genes.

``She`s the most political female in daytime. She`s pro-choice, and a bleeding heart Democrat.``

Still it wouldn`t be soap without hyperbole, and Grahn`s character has had her share of troubles to endure: Julia has been held captive, raped by an environmentalist, lived with an alcoholic and married her baby`s surrogate father (Mason, played by ex-``Dynasty`` star Gordon Thompson), all the while practicing witty repartee as well as law.

Grahn, who won an Emmy in 1989 for her wide-ranging characterization, says with a laugh: ``We`ve kept her very versatile, from farce to very serious.

``It`s the only way you can do a character on a soap. Otherwise the audience will get bored. I don`t want anyone to ever anticipate what I`m going to do. I want them to be surprised.

``I try to act truthfully in imaginary situations,`` she adds. ``It`s like peeling the layers of an onion. You have to keep asking the question

`Why?` all the time. `Why would she say this, why would she do this?` ``

Why does Grahn ask why? To keep her character honest, she says.