Cliff and Nina Warner
Encyclopedia
Supercouple
A supercouple or super couple is a popular or financially wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or even obsessive fashion...
from the 1980s Cliff and Nina storyline on the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
daytime drama All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. Cliff was portrayed by Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman is an American soap opera actor best known for his portrayals as Dr. Cliff Warner on All My Children, as well as Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless.-Biography:...
, and Nina was portrayed by Taylor Miller
Taylor Miller
Taylor Miller is an American soap opera actress.-Acting:She is best known for her role as Nina Cortlandt on ABC Daytime's All My Children , which she played from 1979 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1989. Miller returned in cameos in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 2010...
.
The two characters were in a popular on-again/off-again relationship
On-again, off-again relationship
An on-again, off-again relationship is a form of casual relationship, usually sexual, between two people. It is where the couple concerned do not see their discontinuous affair as an ongoing or formal relationship...
that spanned the entire decade. Within the story, although the couple split up numerous times, they end up marrying one another in four separate ceremonies, one being titled as "the most sumptuous wedding seen on daytime television up to that date". For over twenty years, the pairing held the record for the most number of marriages to each other on a soap opera.
Storyline
Cliff Warner and Nina Cortlandt meet and fall in love while Cliff is working at Pine Valley Hospital in 1979. Nina's father, Palmer CortlandtPalmer Cortlandt
Palmer Cortlandt is a fictional character on the long-running ABC soap opera All My Children, played by James Mitchell from 1979 to 2010. A major character until 1982, when health issues forced him to reduce his work load, Mitchell continued to appear regularly on the show until May 2007 when he...
(James Mitchell
James Mitchell (actor)
James Mitchell was an American actor and dancer. Although he is best known to television audiences as Palmer Cortlandt on the soap opera All My Children , theatre and dance historians remember him as one of Agnes de Mille's leading dancers...
), disapproves of their relationship, and plots over the years to break them up and keep them apart. Nina is a diabetic and develops retinopathy
Retinopathy
Retinopathy is a general term that refers to some form of non-inflammatory damage to the retina of the eye. Frequently, retinopathy is an ocular manifestation of systemic disease.-Pathophysiology:Causes of retinopathy are varied:...
, which is making her go blind. Palmer refuses to let her know that there is a cure, knowing that she will break up with Cliff in order not to be a burden to him. Eventually, Cliff finds out about Nina's condition, and is able to get her treatment. They reconcile. In the meantime, Nina has met ne'er-do-well, Sean Cudahy (Alan Dysert), who works with Palmer to get Nina away from Cliff.
When nurse Sybil Thorne (Linda Gibboney
Linda Gibboney
Linda Gibboney is an American actress, best known for her roles on soap operas and serials. These roles included "Sybil Thorne, R. N." on All My Children and "Jenny Deacon' on Search for Tomorrow...
), notices that Cliff is falling for Nina, she plots to get him all to herself. Cliff and Sybil make love, and Sybil ends up pregnant with his child. She alerts him to the fact just before his marriage to Nina in November 1980. Sybil ends up giving birth to a boy, named Bobby, and Nina eventually finds out the baby's parentage from Sybil; Nina files for divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. Sybil is found murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed, and Cliff is arrested for the murder, but it is later found that Sean Cudahy is the killer.
Cliff and Nina reconcile and are remarried in 1982. Nina adopts Cliff's son, Bobby. However, Nina has started a secretarial job with Steve Jacobi (Dack Rambo
Dack Rambo
Norman Jay Rambeau , professionally known as Dack Rambo, was an American actor, most notable for appearing as Walter Brennan's grandson Jeff in the ABC series The Guns of Will Sonnett, as Steve Jacobi in All My Children, as cousin Jack Ewing on CBS's Dallas, and as Grant Harrison on the NBC soap...
), who is smitten with her. She battles with her attraction to him in an attempt to make her marriage to Cliff work. Nina is at Cortlandt Manor working with Steve one night when a thunderstorm causes a power outage. Despite her attempts to stay true to her husband, Nina and Steve make love that evening.
From then on, Nina becomes uninterested in Cliff and dreams about her sexual encounter with Steve, which leads to more lovemaking between the two. One day, Cliff catches Nina, but instead of making a fuss, he sneaks away. That evening, he informs Nina of what he knows and demands that they divorce.
Before going away on an assignment, Steve persuades Nina to go away with him so they can have some time alone. Their plane crashes, and everyone in Pine Valley, including Cliff, has assumed Nina is dead. She resurfaces unscathed in 1983, but Steve is very badly injured.
Nina tells Cliff that Kim McGuire, an associate of Steve's, has died, and she blames herself because Cliff was close with Kim. When Nina says that she should have died in the plane crash, Cliff takes her in an embrace and tells her, "I just thank God you're alive!" Cliff's new girlfriend, Devon McFadden (Tricia Pursley
Tricia Pursley
Tricia Pursley is an American actress.She is best known for her role as Devon Shepherd McFadden, the daughter of Ellen Shepherd , on the soap opera All My Children...
), sees the exchange of affection and runs off. Eventually, with her mother Ellen Dalton's (Kathleen Noone
Kathleen Noone
Kathleen Noone is an Emmy Award winning American film, stage and television actress , best known roles for Ellen Shepherd Dalton on the daytime drama All My Children , Claudia Whittaker on the primetime drama Knots Landing and Bette Katzenkazrahi on the daytime drama Sunset Beach .-Life and...
) urging, she leaves town to start afresh without Cliff.
Nina and Steve separate, but instead of being involved with Nina, Cliff becomes involved with Dr. Amy Stone (Catherine Christianson). When Dr. Stone is seriously injured by a drunk driver, Cliff is the only surgeon available to operate on her. Unfortunately, he cannot save her, and blames himself. However, Nina is there to pick up the pieces. They marry for the third time.
In 1987, Cliff becomes involved in an international rescue for a war-torn South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n nation. He is reported killed while attempting to deliver medicine. Nina goes to Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
to grieve, but an old friend, Matt Connolly (Michael Tylo
Michael Tylo
-Career:Among his numerous soap opera roles, he is best known for his portrayal of Quinton Chamberlain on Guiding Light. He played the role from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1996 to 1997. He was half of the very popular supercouple Quint and Nola, with the role of Nola played by actress Lisa...
), is there, and they make love. By the time they return to Pine Valley, Nina and Matt are married. Cliff shows up, having been only held prisoner, and he and Nina have a wild night of passionate lovemaking. When he finds out that Nina has been involved with Matt, he leaves her.
Nina finds out she is pregnant, a paternity issue arises, but Cliff is proven as the biological father of the child, and over some months a few more problems arise, including Cliff's abortive engagement to his doctor colleague Angie Hubbard (Debbi Morgan
Debbi Morgan
Deborah "Debbi" Morgan is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Dr. Angie Hubbard on the ABC soap opera All My Children, and for her role as The Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed.Morgan joined the cast of The Young and the Restless as...
), but in the end, the Warners marry for a fourth time and leave town for a new life in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
.
Nina briefly returned to Pine Valley as part of All My Children's 40th anniversary celebration, which aired on January 5th, 2010, and again on April 20th, 2010 with her mother Daisy (Gillian Spencer) for Palmer's funeral.
Reception and impact
Cliff and Nina's romance enthralled viewers. Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, stated, "Nina's wedding to Cliff Warner is regarded as one of daytime's most-watched moments." The pairing is considered to be one of soap opera's most notable romances. Within a year, Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman is an American soap opera actor best known for his portrayals as Dr. Cliff Warner on All My Children, as well as Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless.-Biography:...
had been voted 'Most Promising Newcomer' by Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
magazine and enjoyed publicized attention as part of the couple. Following on the success of the Luke and Laura storyline on General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
, the writing staff at All My Children heavily promoted the star-crossed
Star-crossed
"Star-crossed" or "star-crossed lovers" is a phrase describing a pair of lovers whose relationship is often thwarted by outside forces. The term encompasses other meanings, but originally means the pairing is being "thwarted by a malign star" or that the stars are working against the relationship...
romance. Soap Opera Digest noted Cliff and Nina as one of daytime's classic supercouples. Soapdom.com listed Cliff and Nina's love story twice in their article The Exciting 80's.
Victoria Gardens Theatre, when announcing their world premiere of ensemble member Claudia Allen’s play Unspoken Prayers, featuring Taylor Miller
Taylor Miller
Taylor Miller is an American soap opera actress.-Acting:She is best known for her role as Nina Cortlandt on ABC Daytime's All My Children , which she played from 1979 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1989. Miller returned in cameos in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 2010...
, stated that Miller "reached into the hearts of millions of viewers as Nina, and to this day, long after she is a daily presence on the show, she is constantly stopped on the street, asked how she is, and engaged in 'best friend' conversations."
Public fascination with Cliff and Nina's romance was theorized by the All American Speaker's Bureau. The bureau commented on Bergman's soap opera history