She has been awarded the name of “Daytime’s Leading Lady” by TV Guide.

If there is a soap opera and culture icon of daytime television in the 20th century, it is Lucci. What would “All My Children” have been without Susan Lucci and her Erica Kane character? She recently showed up on a Progressive Insurance ad on TV. You knew this name was going to make the list. Perhaps one reason is that more women watched them in days gone by.

There will an attempt at balancing the number of men and women, but there seems to be a tendency for more women to stand out in soap operas. The fact that we can go back more than 50 years to come up with the list means that some worthy candidates will be left out. The genre of the soap opera goes back to radio broadcasts of the 1930’s, and the drama/melodramas got their name because the main advertising during their broadcasts came from soap companies. This list includes daytime and nighttime soap opera actors since as you will see, the best of the best sometimes will come from the late developing nighttime genre. So who are your favorite soap opera actors? Who are the best? This list includes actors and actresses, though many people aren’t aware that an actor technically refers to both men and women.

Soap opera digest she knows