Lillian Russell

References: Lillian Russell (http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/R/RusslL.html). Additionally, she has won many Soap Opera Digest Awards, including one for Favorite Couple with Mark Derwin in 2000. On her passing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1922, Russell was interred in the Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. She has won the "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" Daytime Emmy in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, and 1996 (the most won by any daytime actress). She performed with a variety of opera companies including the company of the Casino Theater in New York and the company of Weber and Fields. Viki also found out that she had two long-lost daughters: Megan (played by Jessica Tuck from 1989 through 1992) and Natalie (Melissa Archer); this is in addition to her other children, Kevin (most recently played by Dan Gauthier), Joey (Bruce Michael Hall), and Jessica (Bree Williamson). Among her most well-known roles were in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience and The Sorcerer as well as Jacques Offenbach's The Princess of Trebizonde, The Brigands, and The Grand Duchess. She has also had to go through the process of many divorces (such that her full legal name is now Victoria Lord Riley Burke Riley Buchanan Buchanan Carpenter Davidson), the deaths of loved ones, breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

For years, Russell was the foremost singer of operettas in the U.S. Victoria, who is known as "Viki", has had to live with Dissociative Identity Disorder (also known as DID). For forty years, she was the companion of businessman "Diamond Jim" Brady who showered her with extravagant gifts of diamonds and gemstones. Slezak's character has gone through many tragedies. Since her first appearance at Tony Pastor's she was also the subject of a great deal fanfare in the newsmedia. She portrays Victoria "Viki" Lord on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live, a role she has depicted since March 17, 1971. Not only was her voice celebrated but her beauty caused quite a stir among the men and the women of the audience. She is the daughter of actor Walter Slezak.

Russell's appearance caused such a stir that she stayed on with Pastor and starred in some of his comic operas. Erika Slezak (born August 5, 1946 in Hollywood, California) is an American actress of Austrian descent. Tony Pastor, known as the father of vaudeville, was responsible for some of the biggest stars in show business. In 1879, under the new guise of "Lillian Russell", Helen made her first appearance on the august stage at Tony Pastor's Theater. This would serve as an inauspicious beginning to a dazzling career.

At the age of 18, she and her mother left for New York where Helen was offered a role in the chorus of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta H.M.S. Pinafore. Little is known of her early life except that she had some musical training in Chicago. Born in Clinton, Iowa in 1861, Helen Louise Leonard would become one of the most famous and beautiful actresses of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard) (December 4, 1861 - June 6, 1922) was an American actress and singer.