Maeve Kinkead
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Maeve Kinkead (born May 31, 1946) is an American actress, born in New York City.
[edit] Acting
After numerous roles on stage, Kinkead's first major role was as Angie Perrini on the soap Another World. She portrayed Angie from 1975 to 1980. However, Kinkead is best known to television audiences for her role as Vanessa Chamberlain on the soap opera Guiding Light. She played the role from 1980 to 1987 and from 1989 to 2000. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 1992.
Vanessa was a popular, central character; the character's rivalry with Nola Reardon (Lisa Brown), the wife of her brother Quint (Michael Tylo), was a popular storyline. Memorable scenes from this storyline included a public fight at the Civil War-themed Antebellum Ball, in which Vanessa and Nola showed up in the same dress. Years later, Vanessa renewed her rivalry with Nola when she married Nola's nephew Matt Reardon (Kurt McKinney).
After two decades of being a front-burner character, Kinkead decided to leave. A published report at the time suggested that she was unwilling to continue to dye her hair (it had become naturally gray), which caused an issue at the network. She also had a contentious history with then-Executive Producer Paul Rauch, who joined the show as executive producer in 1996.
Since her departure from the show, Kinkead has returned for short-term appearances and special events, such as Josh and Reva's most recent wedding in 2002. She has appeared in several episodes during 2005 and 2006, including a recent episode dealing with the apparent death of longtime character Ross Marler, with whom Kinkead's character was involved and had a child. Since fall 2006, she has not been on a guest-star basis anymore but on a recurring one. She was even included on the 70th Anniversary cast photo.
[edit] Personal life
Kinkead lives in New York City with her husband Harry Streep, the brother of Meryl Streep, and their children.
Kinkead was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago (time frame unknown). In 2006, she appeared on the PBS program The New Medicine, hosted by Dana Reeve, in a segment that discussed the comfort level patients have when they are interacting with physicians, and how empowered they feel about talking to their physicians about health issues.
