Marilyn Chris (born May 19, 1938) is an American actress, possibly best known as Wanda Webb Wolek on the ABC

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, '' One Life to Live''.

Education

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Chris attended the High School of Performing Arts and City College of New York.

Career

She began her acting career in the 1950s at

The Living Theatre The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/p ...

. With appearances on

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

shows such as

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's '' Law & Order'' and '' Fame'', she is known by longtime

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

fans as Wanda Wolek #1 on the ABC

, '' One Life to Live'', a role she played from 1972 through 1976, and from 1980 through 1994. Earlier in her career she played Edie Hoffman on the ABC soap opera '' All My Children''. She has appeared in such films as '' Love With The Proper Stranger'' (1963), '' The People Next Door'' (1970), ''

The Honeymoon Killers ''The Honeymoon Killers'' is a 1970 American crime film written and directed by Leonard Kastle, and starring Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco. Its plot follows a sullen, overweight nurse who is seduced by a con man, with whom she embarks on a ...

'' (1970), '' The Black Marble'' (1980), and '' Trees Lounge'' (1996). She has also acted and directed for the theater. Her Broadway credits include roles in ''Lenny'' and ''

Brighton Beach Memoirs ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes ''Biloxi Blues'' and ''Broadway Bound''. Productions ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' had a pre-Broadway e ...

''. She received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award and a

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

Critics Poll for her performance in ''Kaddish'', directed by

Robert Kalfin Robert Zangwill Kalfin (April 22, 1933 – September 20, 2022) was an American stage director and producer who has worked on and off Broadway and at regional theaters throughout the country. He was a former artistic director of the Cincinnati Pl ...

at the

Chelsea Theater Center The Chelsea Theater Center was a not-for-profit theater company founded in 1965 by Robert Kalfin, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. It opened its doors in a church in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, then moved to the Brooklyn Academy ...

Personal life

She had been married to her second husband, actor

Lee Wallace Lee Wallace (born 1 August 1987) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He represented the Scotland national team with 10 caps. Wallace started his career Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in 2005 at age seventeen, and joined Ran ...

, since December 14, 1975 until his death in on 20 December 2020; the couple had one child, Paul.

References

Sources

* '' Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater,'' Davi Napoleon. Includes discussion of

's off-Broadway multi-media production of ''Kaddish''.Iowa State University Press. , 1991.

External links

* Actresses from New York City American soap opera actresses American television actresses American film actresses American stage actresses Obie Award recipients People from Brooklyn 1938 births Living people 21st-century American women {{US-screen-actor-1930s-stub