Wolek family (One Life to Live)
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- For related performers, see List of One Life to Live characters
The Woleks were one of the fictional core families on the American soap opera One Life to Live when it debuted in 1968. They were the working class reflection of the affluent Lords, and early storylines explored the ways these families interacted and contrasted.
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[edit] Vince
In 1968, Vincent "Vinny" Wolek fell in love with fun-loving party girl Niki Smith; little did he know that Niki was an alternate personality of heiress Viki Lord — the girlfriend of Vinny's best friend, reporter Joe Riley. Eventually Vinny learned the truth and, though heartbroken, told Viki about her alter ego. Viki sought medical treatment 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.
In 1970, Vinny unwittingly became involved the Llanview drug trade, and was implicated in a drug-related murder. He was eventually cleared of wrongdoing, but not before Joe, investigating Llanview's increasing drug problem for The Banner, was presumed dead in California. Vinny (and Joe's sister Eileen) had refused to give up the hope that Joe was alive, and both were upset when Viki signed papers declaring Joe dead in 1972. They were vindicated when Joe reappeared; he had returned to Llanview ill, but had been nursed back to health by sassy waitress Wanda Webb. By the time Joe and Viki reunited in 1973, Vinny was a cop and had fallen in love with (and married) Wanda.
[edit] Larry
Vince's brother Dr. Larry Wolek had begun a relationship with Viki's younger sister, Meredith Lord, but her father Victor didn't approve of the match. In 1969 Victor pushed Meredith into an engagement with the more socially-acceptable Dr. Ted Hale. Meredith later called it 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] Anna
In 1970, Dr. Jim Craig fell in love with Vince and Larry's sister, Anna Wolek. They married, and Anna soon clashed with Jim's rebellious teen daughter, Cathy. Cathy soon started abusing drugs, eventually persuading Jim to take her to Odyssey House in New York City for treatment.
[edit] Jenny
Jenny, a distant cousin of Anna, Vince & Larry, came to Llanview in 1975. She was a novitiate nun who was preparing to take her final vows. Fate had something different for her though, and she fell in love with blue-collar worker (and half-jewish) Tim Siegel. When Jenny announced she was leaving the order to marry Tim, her cousin Vinny heatedly objected - he thought Tim was 'stealing Jenny from the church.' Vinny got into a fist-fight with Tim, one that aggravated a latent brain aneurysm in Tim. Jenny ended up marrying Tim on his deathbed! Even though it was an accident, it was a long time before Jenny forgave her cousin for his actions (or before Vinny forgave himself.)
No longer a nun, Jenny took a secretarial job with Dr. Will Vernon, and found herself in a tortured Oedipal love triangle as both Will (married at the time) and his son Brad fell in love with her. Jenny chose to be with Brad and married him. But only after vows were exchanged did Jenny realize what a cad he really was. Despite a rocky marriage, Jenny became pregnant and looked forward to motherhood. Unfortunately, she lost her baby under extremely bizarre circumstances (she went into early labor after discovering that Brad had raped her sister Karen). The baby died in the maternity ward, and sister Karen (displaying well-meaning, but remarkably misguided judgement) switched the dead baby with that of someone else's living baby. For several years, Jenny reared another woman's baby, actually thinking it was her own child. During that time, Jenny left Brad for good and married Dr. Peter Janssen, only to become widowed. It was only a short time after losing her husband Peter that Jenny learned the truth about Karen's baby-switcheroo, and made the extremely painful decision to give the child back to his rightful mother.
Jenny next fell in love with David Reynolds, the former lover of Dorian (and father of Dorian's daughter Cassie). Despite being married to Herb Callison at the time, Dorian did her level best to split up Jenny & David. After finally resolving that fued, Jenny & David wed. Only then did Jenny discover that David was a spy and a double agent, pretending to be working for the Soviet Union but actually reporting to the U.S. government on communist espionage activity. Jenny relocated to Switzerland with David in 1986. Years later, David Reynolds returned to Llanview with the news that Jenny had been killed while skiing by an avalanche. (By then, however, the Wolek family had largely been written out of the storyline and was a distant memory to most of the characters still on the show.)
[edit] Karen
Karen was Jenny's sister who arrived in town a year after her. Where Jenny was virtuous, kind-hearted and heroic, Karen was walking bundle of jangled nerves. Initially, she was a two-dimensional gold-digger, who sought an easy life as the wife of a rich doctor. The fact that the eligible bachelor doctor she sunk her claws into was her own cousin Larry (albiet a distant cousin, removed by a few generations) didn't bother her anywhere near as much as it did the rest of the Wolek clan. Anyway, as the kissing cousins' wedding approached, Karen had other problems on her mind - her former lover Marco Dane (who knew of Karen's past as a con artist and always threatened to expose her) arrived in town to torment her. The easy life that Karen expected as Larry's wife didn't pan out the way she planned. Larry was a responsible, fiscal family man who refused to shell out for Karen's extravagant purchases. Put on a budget by Larry, Karen took to having afternoon trystes with wealthy businessmen such as Talbot Huddleston in order to afford the expensive clothes she fancied. Marco then discovered Karen was carrying on afternoon dalliances, and blackmailed her into becoming a "housewife hooker" - turning tricks for him in the afternoon while Larry was away at the office.
At about this point in the storyline (1977), actress Judith Light assumed the role of Karen (from Julia Duffy, later famous for 'Newhart' and 'Designing Women'.) Early on, the character tended to be a typical soap opera gold-digging vixen. Light transformed the character into something never before seen on soaps, and rarely seen since. As portrayed by Light, Karen was no longer simply a schemer; she suffered from a pathological lack of self-worth, and was driven by an obsessive desire for love & acceptance. Her afternoon affairs were less about the money, and more about being made to feel desirable & wanted. (Actress Light, who would win an emmy for the role, was herself shorter and - at the time - a bit heavier than the usual soap star.) The viewing audience connected with this motivation in a big way. Despite Karen's horrible actions, she was greatly admired. In 1980, 'TV Guide' magazine ran a poll asking soap viewers who their favorite soap heroines were - Karen Wolek topped the chart by an enormous lead, beating out her nearest competitors by a wide margin.
As the storyline progressed, Karen at last confided in her friend Viki about the life she was leading. Viki kept Karen's secret, but waged a public campaign against Marco's modeling agency (a front for luring young girls into prostitution.) Marco Dane was murdered (actually, his twin brother was murdered in his place - but that fact wouldn't be revealed until later) and Viki found herself on trial. In one of the most legendary episodes in the history of daytime soaps, Karen testified in Viki's defense and was forced to reveal her secret life of prostitution - not only to the general public, but to her own husband Larry! Naturally, Karen & Larry broke up afterwards. While living in Ina Hopkins' boarding house, Karen discovered that Marco (who was trying to rehabilitate himself) was still alive and living under an assumed identity. During this time, Karen was raped by Brad Vernon and pulled the baby switcheroo that would be a central storyline for many years to come.
Karen was several times menaced by the creepy Dr. Ivan Kipling. Ivan, a surgeon, had been one of Karen's 'johns' (prostitution clients) and feared she might expose him. He attempted to kill her, but was placed in a bind when Karen (who survived, but was mortally injured in the attempt) was wheeled into his operating room! Ivan had an unhealthy infatuation with Karen, and couldn't bring himself to go through with killing her as planned. Instead, he fled Llanview. Years later, Ivan returned to Llanview to menace her yet again. This time, Ivan placed a mind-controlling implants in Larry's brain in order to toy with the Woleks. It was during this odd caper that Karen met government agent Steve Piermont. Karen said a final goodbye to Larry & Marco (who had become friends with her after turning over a new leaf), and left Llanview to enter the witness protection program alongside Steve. Her fate after leaving Llanview has never been revealed.
[edit] Danny
The son of Larry and Merrie, Danny appeared throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s as a youth/teenager, but had little impact on the storyline. That changed in 1988 when, after a case of SORAS, Dr. Dan Wolek became an intern at Llanview General Hospital, and a rival to his own father for the affection of nurse Brenda McGillis. Later, when the nefarious Michael Grande sought to woo Brenda, he rigged a malpractice case so that Dan was fired from the hospital. He then ran a clinic for low-income Llanview residents and fell for Laura Ellis, the estranged wife of one of Carlo Hesser's mob lieutenants. The Danny/ Laura pairing didn't elicit much fan interest, so the characters were dropped. That's the last anyone in Llanview has seen or heard of Danny since then.
