Lord family (One Life to Live)
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- For related performers, see List of One Life to Live characters
The Lords were one of the fictional core families on the American soap opera One Life to Live when it debuted in 1968. They were the affluent reflection of the working class Woleks, and early storylines explored the ways these families interacted and contrasted. The family is represented in current continuity by longtime heroine Victoria Lord Davidson and her nemesis (and onetime stepmother) Dorian Lord, who continues to use the surname Lord decades later.
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[edit] Lord of The Banner
Patriarch Victor Dalby Lord was the wealthy publisher of Llanview, Pennsylvania's newspaper The Banner. He lived at the ancestral 18th-century estate known as Llanfair, with his daughters Victoria (called "Viki" by all but her father) and Meredith; their mother Eugenia Randolph Lord had died decades earlier.
With no son to succeed him, Victor concentrated his efforts on Viki, grooming her under the strictest conditions. As a result of this lifelong pressure, Viki allowed herself little time for romantic entanglements, focusing her energy on her career and her father's approval. Conversely, frail and emotional Meredith, all but overlooked by Victor, sought escape from his oppression and the future he had laid out for her.
[edit] Viki
Businesslike Viki clashed with The Banner's star reporter, Joe Riley, but soon they started falling in love. Victor disapproved of his daughter becoming involved with the working-class Riley and did all he could to keep them apart. Torn between pleasing her father and following her heart, Viki began getting headaches — and mysterious, threatening notes telling her to end her relationship with Joe.
Joe's best friend, Vincent "Vinny" Wolek, soon fell in love with fun-loving party girl Niki Smith; little did he know that Niki was an alternate personality of heiress Viki Lord. Eventually Vinny learned the truth and, though heartbroken, told Viki about her alter ego. Viki sought medical treatment for her multiple personality disorder and, as her mental illness seemed under control, she went ahead with her plans to marry Joe. But during the wedding in June 1969, Niki reemerged and fled the ceremony with an ecstatic Vinny. When he urged Niki to marry him, however, Niki's own panic resulted in Viki regaining control. She returned to Joe.
During more intensive therapy, Viki remembered writing the notes (as Niki), and finally recalled the childhood memory that had apparently caused her personality to splinter. A five-year-old Viki had witnessed a heated argument between Victor and Eugenia at the top of the staircase at Llanfair. A furious Victor had accused his wife of being pregnant with another man's child, and Eugenia lost her balance and toppled down the stairs. She gave birth to Meredith and then died. To young Viki, it had appeared that her father had pushed her mother to her death, and her subconscious had blocked the memory and created an alternate personality to protect her from this and future traumas. Now freed by the truth, Viki married Joe.
In 1970, Joe began investigating Llanview's increasing drug trade for The Banner. While making inquiries in California, Joe's car went over a cliff; his body was never found, but he was presumed dead. Viki was devastated. In 1972, Victor hired Steve Burke as Executive Editor of The Banner, and soon hoped that Steve and Viki would get together. Victor's scheming was at first unsuccessful, but eventually Viki returned Steve's feelings and accepted his marriage proposal. Viki signed papers declaring Joe dead, which shocked Vinny Wolek and Joe's sister Eileen, both of whom had refused to give up the hope that Joe was alive.
Joe Riley reappeared in time to watch Viki marry another man. As she and Steve returned from their honeymoon, she got the news that Joe was alive, and fainted. In love with (and married to) two different men, Viki eventually chose to remain loyal to Steve in 1973. Heartbroken and still in love with Viki, Joe took up with Cathy Craig.
[edit] Meredith
Viki's younger sister Meredith had begun a relationship with Vinny's brother Dr. Larry Wolek, but her father Victor didn't approve of this match either. In 1969 Victor pushed Meredith into an engagement with the more socially-acceptable Dr. Ted Hale. Meredith later it called off, and when Ted fell down some stairs to his death while in Larry's company, Larry was arrested for murder. To complicate matters, nurse Karen Martin had overheard Larry and Ted arguing over Meredith, and Larry threatening Ted.
Larry stood trial and was nearly convicted, but it was revealed that Larry had threatened Ted because Hale had himself threatened to tell Meredith a terrible secret that Larry was keeping from her: Meredith was dying from a blood disease. Ted had fallen by accident. Larry was released and hoped to spend with Meredith whatever time she had left, but she had overheard the truth about her condition. Wanting to spare Larry the pain of watching her die, Meredith ran away to San Francisco and left him a letter telling him she didn't love him. A devastated Larry found solace in the arms of Karen Martin, and when Meredith returned and rejected him, he again turned to Karen.
Karen saved Larry from a fire that left him badly burned and bandaged for weeks; when he recovered, he gave in to her advances. Meredith's condition miraculously improved, and he hoped for a reconciliation; eventually she admitted that she loved him. Days later, however, Karen revealed to Larry that she was pregnant with his child. A heartbroken Larry married Karen to prevent her from having an illegal abortion. Karen miscarried in 1970; she and Larry separated, but Meredith had already become engaged to Tom Edwards. Loyal to Tom, she promised to stay with him, but after seeing the undeniable love between her and Larry, Tom let her go.
Meredith and Larry married, and in 1972 they decided to start a family. Though Meredith was pregnant with twins, only one, named Daniel, survived; she became deeply depressed, and was treated by Dr. Joyce Brothers. Tragically, in 1973, thieves broke into Llanfair, and Meredith fell and hit her head when one of the gunmen shoved her away from the phone. She died, but not before asking Viki to tell Larry how happy he had made her.
[edit] Enter Dorian
Dr. Dorian Cramer was suspended from Llanview hospital in 1974 for her involvement in the death of a patient, and she blamed hospital board member Viki (who had actually voted in Dorian's favor) for the decision. She and Viki sparred further when Dorian became Victor's private physician, but their rivalry was cemented when Victor announced that he had married Dorian. Viki also gained an enemy in Cathy Craig. After Meredith's death, Viki had divorced Steve and remarried true love Joe; however, in the interim he had conceived a child with Cathy. Tragically, Viki was in a car accident that killed Joe and Cathy's infant daughter, Megan, and Cathy swore revenge.
In 1970 it had been revealed that Victor had conceived a secret son with Dorothy Randolph (Eugenia's sister). Victor had never met the child, and had searched for him for years. Now, with his health failing, Victor was desperate to find his long-lost son. A man named Tony Harris came to town; Dorian was the first to realize that he was, in fact, Victor's long-lost son. He and Victor were eventually reunited, but Dorian, hoping to maintain her hold on Victor's fortune, soon manipulated events to make father and son bitter enemies. By 1976, the fued between Victor and Tony worsened, and Dorian persuaded Victor to make her the sole beneficiary of his will. Soon however, sensing his mortality, Victor began to soften towards Tony, and father and son made efforts to reconcile.
[edit] Prodigal son
In 1976 Tony Lord began a romance with fragile Cathy Craig who, still overwrought over the death of her child, began to lose touch with reality and raged over the news that Viki was pregnant. Meanwhile, Tony shared a past with new Banner editor Pat Kendall; she was still in love with him, but kept her distance. Pat had long kept a secret from Tony, which she confided in Viki: Pat's son Brian Kendall was Tony's son. Soon Pat had decided to fight for Tony, but he and Cathy had eloped.
Desperate to guarantee that she would inherit the Lord fortune, Dorian continued to alienate Victor from his son. But Tony discovered Dorian's machinations and told his father; when Victor confronted his wife, he was shocked to hear Dorian admit that she'd known Tony's true identity from the beginning. Luckily for Dorian, a sudden stroke left Victor unable to speak. As she schemed to keep him from recovering, Victor had a second stroke — he struggled to tell Viki what Dorian was up to, but before he was able, the Lord of The Banner was dead.
To everyone's surprise, Dorian was named executor of Victor's will, and Tony was excluded altogether. Viki gave birth to Joe's son Kevin Lord Riley, but soon sister-in-law Cathy kidnapped the child. When delusional Cathy was found, she had no memory of taking the infant or where she had left him. Tony and Pat could no longer ignore their feelings for each other and made love. By 1977, the loss of their son had taken its toll on Joe and Viki's marriage, and Dorian did all she could to keep the couple separated. But when Cathy finally remembered enough for Kevin to be found, Joe and Viki reconciled.
Tony stayed with Cathy until he felt she was well enough to handle a separation; in the meantime, Pat had told Tony that Brian was his son. When Tony and Cathy split, he and Pat were engaged, but Brian hated Tony and took the news badly. When Pat's dead husband Paul Kendall appeared very much alive, she sadly told Tony she was welcoming Paul back into her life for Brian's sake. But soon Pat and Tony had resumed their affair. Pat finally told Brian that Tony was his father in 1978, and an upset Brian ran out into the street, where he was hit and killed by a car.
Tony and Pat's relationship fell apart in the aftermath of Brian's death, and Tony left Llanview in 1979. The same year, Joe and Viki discovered that she was pregnant with a second child, but Joe soon died of a brain tumor before his son Joseph Lord Riley Jr. was born. Con man Ted Clayton insinuated himself into Viki's budding relationship with newspaperman Clint Buchanan in 1980, and it wasn't until after Ted was revealed as a criminal and killed that Viki married Clint in 1982. Tony returned in 1981, and befriended Bo Buchanan; Tony and Pat reunited and were married that year. In 1983, Pat got the news that Tony had been killed on assignment in Lebanon; she left town to accept a job in Chicago.
[edit] The truth about Tina
In 1984, Viki's former ward Tina Clayton returned to Llanview with shocking news for Viki. The daughter of Viki's deceased childhood friend Irene Manning Clayton, Tina had read her mother's diary and discovered that Ted Clayton had not been her father after all. Dorian's fortune was frozen when Tina found out that Victor had once married Irene; with no record of a divorce, Dorian's marriage to Victor was invalid. Soon Tina discovered a secret room under Llanfair, in which she found Nazi-plundered paintings from World War II and a letter written to Viki in which Victor admitted that Tina was his daughter.
[edit] Reunion
In 1987, Viki was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm; during surgery, she had an out-of-body experience which took her to Heaven. There she was reunited with former husband Joe Riley, mother Eugenia, sister Meredith, brother Tony and friends Irene Manning and Samantha Vernon.
[edit] The secret Lord heir
In 1994, new evidence surfaced that put Dorian on trial for Victor Lord's death in 1976. Sentenced to be executed, Dorian was later freed when a man named David Vickers came forward, claiming to be Victor's son by Irene Clayton. David wanted to secure the $27.8 million trust fund Victor had secretly left for Irene's son, whom the millionaire had hidden away. David produced Irene's diary, in which Irene admitted to killing Victor herself. Dorian knew, however, that the diary was a forgery, and paid David for his assistance.
David and his new "sister" Tina Lord couldn't fight their sexual attraction. To ease her revulsion over their incestuous affair, David admitted that he was not, in fact, her brother. He also revealed the shocking news that Victor and Irene's son was actually the reviled Todd Manning. Tina agreed to keep this secret so that they could get their hands on the inheritance due the Lord heir. With a new plan for Tina to claim the fortune, the couple married in Las Vegas; meanwhile, Dorian had discovered the truth about Todd and told Viki, who confronted Tina and David. Todd was soon revealed as the true heir.
[edit] Victor's darkest secret
Around the same time, Dorian revealed to Viki a secret she thought Viki knew: that Victor had sexually abused his daughter as a young girl. A traumatized Viki again succumbed to her DID, only this time more personalities emerged besides fun-loving Niki Smith: the icy Jean Randolph, vengeful Tori, violent Tommy, and Princess, the little girl who was molested by her father. "Gatekeeper" Jean kept Dorian a prisoner in Victor's reconstructed secret room under Llanfair. She blackmailed Dorian into ending her romantic relationship with Viki's son Joey (without telling him why) as a condition of her release, and compelled an imprisoned David to divorce Tina to avoid criminal charges (keeping Tina in the dark as well). Tori set out to destroy everything that Victor Lord had built in his lifetime — including Llanfair and The Banner. She set Llanfair on fire, only to discover that Viki and Clint's daughter Jessica was still inside. Momentarily turning back to Viki, she saved Jessica, but Llanfair was destroyed.
A final alternative personality emerged — Victor Lord — and Viki resisted his urges for her to kill herself. During therapy, Viki remembered the horrible truth that she, as Tori, had been the one who smothered Victor with a pillow all those years before. She was eventually absolved of wrongdoing due to her mental illness.
