‘All My Children,’ ‘General Hospital’ Soap Star From Massachusetts
Before over-the-air networks, ABC, NBC and CBS became concerned about budgets, they provided viewing audiences with soap suds in the afternoon.
Not many daytime soap operas are in production these days, but the few that remain have loyal followings.
Soap operas first appeared on the radio in the 1940s and transitioned to television when it became popular in the 1950s. Television soaps were in their heyday during the 1970s and '80s.
Three of the most popular daytime television drams of that era were ABC's All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. Only General Hospital remains on the air today.
An actress who appeared on all three of those popular soaps was Robin Christopher, who was born and raised right here in Massachusetts.
Not only did Christopher appear on all three of those classic daytime dramas, but she played the same character, Skye Chandler, on all three shows. It was the only time an actor played the same character as a regular cast member on all three ABC soaps.
Christopher was nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Christopher also appeared on NBC's Another World, several prime television programs including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, worked as a model, and appeared on the cover of romance novels.
Robin Christopher was born on June 18, 1965, in Revere, Massachusetts. A graduate of Revere High School, Christopher turned down an arts scholarship from Boston University to go to New York to pursue an acting career.
In an interview with the Vancouver, Canada publication The Province, Christopher said, "I had this real blue-collar, middle-America upbringing." Her father worked as a security guard for the government and her mother worked in a bank.
Christopher said she yearned to be one of the wild girls back home in Revere.
"Girls wearing high heels with their bikinis, with bleach jobs in their hair," she said. "I used to wear really dark eyeliner."
"I think I really could have ended up like a lot of those girls, but I escaped," Christopher said.
Christopher married Another World co-star Matt Crane in 2000. The couple has two children.