Helen Wagner (born September 3, 1918) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actressAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. She was born in
Lubbock, TexasLubbock is an American city in the state of Texas. Located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, it is the county seat of Lubbock County, and the home of Texas Tech University. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 199,564,...
.
Wagner has played matriarch
Nancy HughesNancy Hughes is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. Since the show's inception 53 years ago in 1956, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch. Since the fall of 1988 her full name has been Nancy Hughes McCloskey, but she is more known to longtime soap...
on the
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
As the World TurnsAs the World Turns is an American television soap opera that airs each weekday on CBS.Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on Monday, April 2, 1956 at 1:30pm EST. Prior to April 2, 1956 all serials were fifteen minutes in length...
(with only a few interruptions), since the show's debut in April 1956. She is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest-running character played by one actor on television. Wagner spoke the first lines of the program: "Good morning, dear."
On November 22, 1963, about ten minutes into that day's broadcast of
As the World Turns, a scene in which Wagner's character was conferring with her father-in-law ("Grandpa" Hughes, played by
Santos OrtegaSantos Ortega was an American actor.-Radio:Ortega was active in radio, starring in The Adventures of Nero Wolfe and narrating a popular radio show called Gangbusters as well as Stroke of Fate. Perhaps his most famous and notable radio role was Commissioner Weston on The Shadow...
) was interrupted by the first news bulletin that President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
had been shot in
Dallas, TexasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
.
Helen Wagner (born September 3, 1918) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actressAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. She was born in
Lubbock, TexasLubbock is an American city in the state of Texas. Located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, it is the county seat of Lubbock County, and the home of Texas Tech University. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 199,564,...
.
Wagner has played matriarch
Nancy HughesNancy Hughes is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. Since the show's inception 53 years ago in 1956, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch. Since the fall of 1988 her full name has been Nancy Hughes McCloskey, but she is more known to longtime soap...
on the
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
As the World TurnsAs the World Turns is an American television soap opera that airs each weekday on CBS.Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on Monday, April 2, 1956 at 1:30pm EST. Prior to April 2, 1956 all serials were fifteen minutes in length...
(with only a few interruptions), since the show's debut in April 1956. She is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest-running character played by one actor on television. Wagner spoke the first lines of the program: "Good morning, dear."
On November 22, 1963, about ten minutes into that day's broadcast of
As the World Turns, a scene in which Wagner's character was conferring with her father-in-law ("Grandpa" Hughes, played by
Santos OrtegaSantos Ortega was an American actor.-Radio:Ortega was active in radio, starring in The Adventures of Nero Wolfe and narrating a popular radio show called Gangbusters as well as Stroke of Fate. Perhaps his most famous and notable radio role was Commissioner Weston on The Shadow...
) was interrupted by the first news bulletin that President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
had been shot in
Dallas, TexasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
. Wagner later remembered that she and Ortega continued with the scene (which was being broadcast live as was the norm in those days) despite the broadcast interruption, unaware of the unfolding national tragedy until they were told about it once the scene was finished. (
http://tvfanforums.net/lofiversion/index.php?t93.html)
She has taken some breaks, both voluntary and involuntary. After six months in the role of Nancy, show creator
Irna PhillipsIrna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas. She is considered by many to be the "mother" of the genre....
fired her because she did not favor the way Wagner poured coffee. After an overwhelming consensus was reached to hire her back, Irna did so begrudgingly.
Wagner left the show again in the early 1980s. Then-producer
Mary-Ellis BunimMary-Ellis Bunim was an American television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules.-Biography:A native of Massachusetts, Bunim began her career in daytime dramas...
wished to take the show in a different direction; the show fell out of the top slot in the daytime
Nielsen ratingsNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, and Bunim wished to gear the program toward the younger generation by showcasing the Hughes family less. Wagner and co-star
Don MacLaughlinDon MacLaughlin was an American soap opera actor.He was born on November 24, 1906, in Webster, Iowa, under the name William Donald McLaughlin....
walked away from the show after vocal dissent in the press. However, she returned to the role in 1985, and in 1986 Wagner and an ailing Don MacLaughlin were prominently featured in the show's 30th anniversary celebration, where their characters, Nancy and Chris Hughes, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. After the death of McLaughlin in 1986, Nancy became a widow and later met and married Dan McClosky played by
Dan FrazerDan Frazer, , is an American actor best known for his role as Capt.Frank McNeil in the 1970s TV cop show Kojak, which starred Telly Savalas.Frazer has been playing character roles in various TV series and films since the 1950s...
. Wagner later was part of a storyline where Dan was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's DiseaseAlzheimer's disease , also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was...
. After many years of little to no part in the story, Wagner returned to the screen with a pivotal role in a 2004 storyline, revolving around her grandson's marriage to naïve teenager Alison Stewart (played by
Jessica DunphyJessica Dunphy is an American actress.Originally from Glenside, Pennsylvania, Dunphy's most prominent roles include Devin Pillsbury on The Sopranos and Alison Stewart on the soap opera As the World Turns from April 25, 2002 until her final appearance on July 20, 2005.She has appeared in the films...
). 2005, 2006 and 2007 also proved to big years for Nancy, as she averaged around three appearances a month. 2008 saw Wagner have a sharp decrease in the number of episodes she was featured in, only appearing twice that year. In 2009, Wagner was notably absent from April onwards and her character didn't even make an appearance when her son Bob had a brain tumour removed.
Although Wagner has played Nancy for more than 50 years, she has never won a
Daytime Emmy AwardThe Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming....
for her work. She was finally awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for her role on the show in May 2004. She was also prominently featured in the show's 50th anniversary episode in April 2006.
In 1988, Wagner's alma mater, Monmouth College (IL), awarded her with an honorary degree of "Doctor of Humane Letters". The following year, Wagner chaired a national committee that raised more than $1 million to replace the school's "little theater" with a state-of-the-art theater. On the opening night in Monmouth's new Wells Theater (
http://department.monm.edu/cata/theater/wells_info.htm), Wagner played the role of Eleanor in
The Lion In Winter.
Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the first few television years of
Guiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama and is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest-running soap opera in production and the longest running drama in television and radio history...
in the early 1950s.