Erica Kane
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- "Erica Kane" is also the title of songs by Aaliyah and Urge Overkill, both written about this character.
Erica Kane is a long-running character on the American soap opera All My Children. The character has been played by Susan Lucci since the show's premiere in 1970. Erica is considered by many to be the most popular character in daytime history, and Susan Lucci has said that she considers Erica the greatest role ever written for a woman.
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[edit] First scene
Erica Kane's first scene in Pine Valley will live in infamy. In a self-centered rant, she spelled out to her mother everything she was looking for in a husband, establishing her ambition and her love for rich men. But deep inside, Erica was nursing the scars of the abandonment by her father, successful film director Eric Kane. At the same time, her father's life in Hollywood was the driving force for her longing to leave Pine Valley.
[edit] Abortion and controversy
In 1973 Erica made the decision to have an abortion -- the first legal abortion on television after Roe v. Wade was decided. What made the abortion extra-controversial was Erica's reason for doing it. She wasn't having it done because her health was in jeopardy, it was because she wanted to keep her modeling job. Erica developed a potentially fatal infection after having the abortion, and the switch-boards at ABC lit up with calls from doctors and nurses, offering their medical opinions on how best to treat the character's case. Erica's mother Mona went to Erica's husband Jeff Martin at the time of Erica's convalescence to beg his (and, by extension, the audience's) forgiveness for Erica's actions. The controversy didn’t hurt ratings in the end, which rose from 8.2 to 9.1.
[edit] Family
A model-turned-makeup executive, Erica always had a challenging relationship with her mother, Mona Kane (Frances Heflin). Erica loved Mona but resented the restrictions to her free spirit that Mona tried to implement. Erica took it very hard when Mona died of cancer in 1994.
Erica has three children:
- Kendall Hart (most recently played by Alicia Minshew), who was the product of a traumatizing rape by movie actor Richard Fields on the night of her 14th birthday. Through her, she has a grandson Spike Lavery, Kendall's son with Ryan Lavery.
- Bianca Montgomery (most recently played by Eden Riegel) Bianca is Erica's only child born in a traditional manner and whom Erica raised from childhood. In 2000, Bianca came out as a lesbian, and only recently has Erica fully come to terms with the revelation. Through Bianca, she also has a granddaughter, Miranda Mona Montgomery, the result of Bianca's rape by Michael Cambias.
- Josh Madden (most recently played by Colin Egglesfield) In 2005, Erica was shocked to discover that the doctor who performed her abortion in the 1973 (see above) actually performed an experimental fetal transplant - placing the fetus in another woman (his wife) and raising the child as his son.
Erica also has a half-brother, Mark Dalton (played by Mark LaMura). In 1977, Mark and Erica had begun a romance of sorts, which led Mona to divulge the secret that they both shared the same father: Eric Kane. Erica's father had an affair with his secretary Maureen Dalton while working in Hollywood. In 1982, while working in New York City as a model, Erica discovered she had a half-sister named Silver. Like Mark, Silver was the product of an affair Eric Kane had (this time with a woman named Goldie). Tad Martin later exposed Silver as an imposter named Connie, but the real Silver showed up soon after, only to be killed later on.
[edit] Activities
The Erica character has done everything from staging a helicopter prison break to hunting down terrorists in Bosnia. She even confronted a grizzly bear while in the forest. For a brief time, Erica was a Las Vegas showgirl.
In 1983 she fled Pine Valley for the Hollywood Hills, posing as a nun. She did this because her former lover, Kent Bogard, was killed in a struggle with a gun. Erica committed no crime, but her jealous "half-sister" (actually Connie) accused her of murder. In 1989 she went undercover in a traveling circus to locate her missing father, who had faked his own death years before. She discovered him working as a clown named Barney.
The character has written three bestselling books: "Raising Kane" (her autobiography), "Erica Kane: Beyond the Pain", and "Erica Kane: Having It All". She has hosted her own talk show, was addicted to painkillers after a debilitating fall from the catwalk in 1995 (later receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center), kidnapped Edmund and Maria Grey's baby in 1997 after having a miscarriage, and received an intervention for alcohol abuse in 2004.
For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Erica ran Enchantment, a cosmetics company. After losing it to Cambias Industries in 2003, she focused most of her attention on her relationship with Jackson. In the fall of 2005, however, she returned to work, this time as the host and executive producer of her own talk show, New Beginnings.
[edit] Marriages and Relationships
Erica Kane is notable for her numerous marriages. Erica has been married ten times, some valid, some invalid. Erica's marriages are almost a daytime record; only Adam Chandler, also of All My Children, and Asa Buchanan, of One Life to Live, have been married more times (12 and 14 respectively). Her valid marriages were with Jeff Martin, Phil Brent, Tom Cudahy, Adam Chandler, Dimitri Marick (twice) and, as of May 2005, Jackson Montgomery. Her invalid marriages were with Travis Montgomery (twice) and Adam Chandler (their second ceremony was actually a renewal of their vows, since they had never been legally divorced years earlier).
Erica has also had many relationships with various other men in Pine Valley (too numerous to list), and also has the distinction of bedding three generations of the same family: her mother's best friend Nick Davis, his son Phil Brent, and Phil's son Charlie.
Erica has had many rivals over the years -- her most famous being with the character of Brooke English.
[edit] Trivia
- Because of her many marriages, Erica has the longest name for a television character:
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- Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery.
- It is worth noting, however, that the character of Erica Kane has always, despite her marriages, remained Erica Kane, and due to four of her marriages being invalid (her marriage to Mike Roy, both her marriages to Travis Montgomery, and her second marriage to Adam Chandler which was in actuality a vow renewal), has never legally held some of those names.
- In a sketch on Saturday Night Live, Erica Kane was a contestant on the fictional game show "Game Breakers." She seduced fictional game show host Jack Morgan (portrayed by Phil Hartman), thus enabling her to soundly beat her opponent. Morgan came close to marrying Kane (in a ceremony presided over by Don Pardo), but the wedding was interrupted by real-life game show host (and "current husband") Gene Rayburn. The sketch ended with Kane being mauled by a panther owned by Siegfried and Roy (portrayed by Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey).[1]
- She popularized the catchphrase "I am Erica Kane!", said whenever Erica was afraid, challenged, or threatened.
- Because of the drama that she causes, Aaliyah recorded a song about it called Erica Kane.
[edit] Marriages
- Jeff Martin (married 1971; divorced 1974)
- Phillip Brent (married and divorced in 1976)
- Tom Cudahy (married 1981: divorced)
- Adam Chandler (married 1984; divorced 1993)
- Mike Roy (invalid 1987)
- Travis Montgomery (invalid 1988)
- Travis Montgomery (invalid 1991)
- Adam Chandler (invalid; 1993) [Adam and Erica still legally married]
- Dimitri Matrick (married 1994; divorced 1995)
- Dimitri Matrick (married 1996; divorced 1999)
- Jackson Montgomery (married 2005 to present)
