| Lord | |
|---|---|
| Ethnicity | English, Welsh, Dutch |
| Current region | Delaware Valley |
| Information | |
| Place of origin | England |
| Notable members | Victor, Sr., Victoria, Meredith, Tina, Todd, Victor, Jr. |
| Connected families | Woleks, Cramers, Buchanans |
| Distinctions | Mass media, publishing |
| Estate | Llanfair 1177 Regency Drive, Llanview, Pennsylvania |
| Name origin and meaning | Welsh for "the church of St Mary's," a common nominal village prefix |
The Lord family is the core legacy family on the American soap opera One Life to Live, having appeared since the series debut in summer 1968. Initially introduced as the affluent WASP foil to the working class Wolek family, early storylines explored the ways these families interacted and contrasted. The lives and relationships of Victor Lord, Sr. and his children Victoria, Meredith, Tina, Todd, and Victor, Jr. serve as the primary plot narrative throughout the series.
Contents |
Patriarch Victor Dalby Lord, Sr. was the wealthy publisher of the regional newspaper, The Banner, in the fictional Philadelphia Main Line town of Llanview, Pennsylvania. 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 while giving birth to Meredith. 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.
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. Also, in 1970, 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.
Meredith "Merrie" Lord Wolek is a fictional character who is the daughter of Eugenia Randolph Lord and (presumably) Victor Lord. She is present from the series inception through 1973, reappearing on-screen 1987.
Dr. Dorian Cramer (then, played by Nancy Pinkerton) was suspended from Llanview hospital in 1973 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 in 1975, and Dorian was the first to realize that he was, in fact, Victor's long-lost son, Tony Lord. 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 feud between Victor and Tony worsened, and Dorian persuaded Victor to make her a main beneficiary of his will. Soon however, sensing his mortality, Victor began to soften towards Tony, and father and son made efforts to reconcile.
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 Ashley 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. He later returned in 1981, and befriended Bo Buchanan;[1] Tony and Pat reunited and were married that year. In 1983, Pat got the news that Tony had been killed on assignment in Lebanon while doing a story on a terrorist group; she soon left town to accept a job in Chicago.[2] However to this day, Tony's body has never actually been found.
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 (it was later revealed that Victor had indeed divorced Irene several years before his marriage to Dorian, making that marriage legal). 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.[3]
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. She also had a conversation with one of her alters, Niki Smith, who explains what her reason for being was, and the two forge an amicable existence.
| Megan Gordon | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jessica Tuck as Megan Gordon (1989) | |||||||||||||||||||
| One Life to Live | |||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Jessica Tuck | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1988–1992, 1993, 1999, 2004, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | July 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | January 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Appeared as a spirit | ||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | S. Michael Schnessel | ||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||
| Aliases | Megan Gordon Harrison | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cause of death | Died from complications of lupus | ||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Actress on Fraternity Row | ||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Llanview, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||
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Larry tries to talk Viki out of attending her high school reunion in 1988; it is soon revealed that Viki had left school and had a baby — delivered by Larry. Viki's father Victor had sent her to a hypnotist, who had wiped away all memories of the experience. Viki is determined to find her daughter; meeting Roger Gordon ultimately brings Viki's memories flooding back in 1989. Roger and Viki had fallen in love, but his apparent death had shocked Viki into reverting into Niki Smith; Niki had been in control during the pregnancy, with Viki reemerging briefly during childbirth. One of Roger's daughters is Viki's child; unfortunately, it is not sweet family friend Sarah, but her self-absorbed sister Megan Gordon — despised by Viki since Megan's appearance in Llanview in 1988. Megan, a soap opera star and major diva, has a passionate romance with Max Holden and feuds with rival actress Summer Skye while working on Bo Buchanan's soap Fraternity Row. Later, Megan softens towards Viki and develops a close relationship with her mother, then settles down with dashing international man of mystery Jake Harrison, her true love. But love can't save Megan from the ravages of lupus, which takes her life in early 1992. Surrounded by friends and family, Megan dies in Jake's arms, and later appears as a blithe spirit to help Jake and her loved ones through troubled times. Megan's most recent spiritual visitation was in 2004, when she helped Viki cope with the loss of her husband Ben Davidson.
In January 2012, Megan will reappear.[4]
Powell Lord III, the grandson of Victor Lord's brother Powell (and Viki's first cousin once removed), was one of several Llanview University students who participated in the 1993 gang rape of Marty Saybrooke. Viki's son Kevin was also implicated but ultimately exonerated; the rape had been led by Todd Manning, and a guilty Powell had participated due to peer pressure. Powell received a lesser sentence and later fell in love with Rebecca Lewis, who herself had seen a softer side in the imprisoned Todd and was in love with him. A subsequent series of rapes is initially blamed on Todd, but it is revealed that Powell is the culprit, believing that he could win Rebecca's love if he became a rapist like Todd.
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. In 2011, avery much alive Irene Manning reveals that she bore Victor two sons, twins: Todd and Victor Jr. When Irene told Victor she was pregnant for a second time, Victor disgarded her and his heirs. Irene gave Todd to her cousin, Peter and his wife to raise while she kept Victor Jr.
Around the same time, Dorian revealed to Viki a secret she thought Viki knew: that Victor was sexually abusive to Viki starting when she was just seven years old. It is said that she is repeatedly raped by her father for years, and it is implied by both Dorian and Viki that the abuse went on until Viki went to college. Dorian asks Viki how many years the abuse went on and comes to the conclusion that it didn't stop until Victor found a "suitable replacement". The so-called suitable replacement was apparently Irene Manning, Viki's childhood friend. Dorian goes on to say that she found out about the abuse through Victor himself after listening to him talk in his sleep about being in bed with his own daughter. Dorian tells Viki that she confronted Victor about what she'd heard and was horrified to realize that her suspicions were correct. Dorian goes on to mention that Viki's mother Eugenia suspected that Victor had an unhealthy attachment to Viki. Viki repeatedly tries to deny the truth and insists that she loves her father, and that he never made her do anything that she didn't want to do. In this same conversation, Dorian goes so far as to claim that the real reason Viki first began to hate her was because Dorian came between Viki and her close relationship with her "precious daddy". Dorian says that Victor both "raped" and "seduced" Viki. Viki furiously denies everything and continues to insist that Dorian murdered Victor, but Dorian won't let up. She insists on making Viki face the truth and after listening to Dorian go into awful details, a traumatized Viki again succumbs 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 into 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 remembers 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. Because of the revelations and the pain she had to deal with, Viki, who had once idolized and idealized her father, now has nothing but rage, hatred and contempt for him and his depraved actions. Her relationship with Dorian, while still acrimonious at times, had now softened to where the two women are mainly frenemies, getting on one another's nerves one minute, teaming up against the common enemy, the next. All the while, there has been respect from both sides, and while neither Dorian or Viki would ever admit it, especially to themselves or one another, the two women are more alike than they realize.
In early 2003, Viki's world turned upside down as everything she knew about the death of her father was revealed to be wrong. When Mitch Laurence abducted Viki's long-lost daughter Natalie, Viki and Jessica followed him to a mysterious piece of farmland, "the Champion Noble Clinic," only to discover Mitch prepping Natalie for an amateur heart transplant in an old barn. The recipient: A wizened old husk of a man lolling in a wheelchair - Victor Lord himself!
As Viki stalled for time, Victor explained his bargain with Mitch to his daughter: He lived still (with no explanation as to how he had survived being suffocated by Tori), but needed a young, healthy heart to sustain his life, and the amoral monarch was determined that that heart must come from one of his own grandchildren. In return for delivering Natalie to him, Mitch would get the Lord fortune signed over to him by Victor. Victor pushed Viki to choose which of her daughters would be sacrificed: Natalie or Jessica? Before Viki could be forced to make the horrible decision, the authorities arrived. Mitch was arrested, and Victor was taken to Llanview Hospital for treatment. Viki and Todd grappled with the knowledge that the darkest demon from their past was alive after all, and visited with Victor, struggling for closure from a man they found disgusting yet desperately wanted to understand. As Todd demanded answers from Victor about his affair with Todd's mother Irene, Victor proudly said that though he tried to deny it, Todd had "the heart of a Lord," and had he raised him, he would have named him "Victor Jr.", an idea which repulsed Todd. When Viki confronted him about her abuse, an incoherent Victor remained unresponsive and delirious. In his final moments, Victor seemed willing to comply with Viki and Todd's request that he film a videotaped new last will and testament in order to keep Mitch from acquiring the Lord millions. Unfortunately, Victor expired before he could do so. In a death rattle, he strained to say something to "Victoria", but never finished.
With Victor's death, Mitch Laurence gained control of the entire Lord estate and fortune, driving Viki and her family from their ancestral home of Llanfair and taking it as his own. It was only after Dorian Lord returned, gained his confidence, and then betrayed him that Mitch was able to be ousted and finally killed by his own daughter, born of his rape of Viki - Jessica Buchanan. With Mitch gone, Viki and her children reclaimed Llanfair and what was rightfully theirs.
In the summer of 2007, Viki and Dorian were trading blows again over Dorian's renewed relationship with Clint Buchanan. Following Asa Buchanan's funeral in mid August, they once again found themselves locked away and trapped together, this time in the Buchanan wine cellar. Dorian and Viki raged at each other, with Dorian challenging Viki to face the emptiness in her own life. Dorian also made a startling claim: That she had killed Victor Lord after all! Viki reminded Dorian that Tori had "killed" Victor and that Victor had in fact never been dead after all, but Dorian dismissed the Victor that appeared in 2003 with "if that was him."
During an interview with TV Guide Canada in February 2009, Dorian's portrayer, Robin Strasser, offered a belated explanation for the recent reversal about Victor's murderer:
| “ | I was so happy that [head writer Ron Carlivati] addressed that mythology [during the July 2008 40th Anniversary episodes]. I was very invested in the hopes that Ron was going to dismantle [former writer Michael Malone’s] revised back story. This is just my opinion as Robin: I believe Dorian killed Victor. I didn’t play the part then, but I watched those scenes, and I thought they were wonderful, in a Little Foxes sort of way. Dorian just didn’t give Victor the medicine fast enough.
When Michael was head-writing our show, Viki and Dorian had been simmering on the back burner. They didn’t quite know what to do with us at that time. At the time, I was doing research on multiple personalities for an acting class, which prompted me to suggest to Erika Slezak that over 90 per cent of DID cases have multiple personalities, not dual alters. Also, DID almost always results from childhood abuse. The next day, we pitched it to Michael Malone. What ensued was that Michael took the story on, but it was also at that point in which Michael had re-wrote history, revealing it was Viki who had killed Victor, not Dorian. That led to my no-good-deed- goes-unpunished moment. Oh, nuts! But I have quietly held the opinion that that decision was revisionist history, and hopefully one day that will be straightened out. I’m sure you have seen the intensity in which I play Dorian protecting and guarding the Cramer women. That’s the luggage I bring to the show. You can’t erase that kind of history because it’s embedded in the tapestry of the show. I always played that Dorian killed Victor because she knew he was a pedophile and suspected him of abusing Viki. |
” |
The notion that Dorian is Victor's true murderer is bolstered in the August 16, 2011 episode of One Life to Live. When David Vickers Buchanan mentions that the (albeit forged) entry from Irene Manning's diary cleared Dorian of a murder she did not commit, Dorian comments to herself, "... or so Viki chooses to believe."
Randolph Lord
m. Virginia "Ginny" Fletcher
c. Unknown man
m. Unknown woman
c. Powell Lord Sr. (deceased)
m. Margaret Maiden name Unknown
c. Powell Lord II (deceased)
m. Trish Maiden name Unknown
c. Powell Lord III (died 2009)
c. Victor Lord, Sr. (born 1916; died 2003)
a. Dorothy Randolph (deceased)
c. Tony Lord (born 1944; died 1983)
a. Pat Ashley
c. Brian Kendall (born 1967; died 1978)
m. Cathy Craig [1976-1977; divorced]
m. Pat Ashley [1982-1983; dissolved]
m. Eugenia Randolph [1940s-1950; dissolved]
c. Victoria Lord (born 1946)
m. Roger Gordon [early 1960s; annulled]
c. Megan Gordon (born 1963; died 1992)
m. Jake Harrison [1991-1992; dissolved]
m. Joe Riley [1969-1971; annulled]
m. Steve Burke [1972-1974; divorced]
m. Joe Riley [1974-1979; dissolved]
c. Kevin Buchanan (born 1976; adopted by Clint)
m. LeeAnn Demerest [1992-1993; divorced]
c. Duke Buchanan (born 1992; died 2006)
a. Kelly Cramer
c. Zane Buchanan (born 2006)
m. Cassie Callison [1998-1999; annulled]
m. Kelly Cramer [2003-2004; divorced]
c. Kevin Buchanan, Jr. (stillborn; 2004)
c. Joey Buchanan (born 1980; adopted by Clint)
m. Kelly Cramer [2000-2001; divorced]
m. Jennifer Rappaport [2003-2004; divorced]
m. Aubrey Wentworth [2011; divorced]
m. Clint Buchanan [1982-1985; divorced]
r. Mitch Laurence
c. Jessica Buchanan (born 1986; adopted by Clint)
a. Will Rappaport
c. Megan Buchanan (stillborn; 1999)
m. Tico Santi [2004; annulled]
a. Nash Brennan
c. Bree Brennan (born 2006)
m. Antonio Vega [2006-2007; divorced]
m. Nash Brennan [2007-2008; divorced]
c. Chloe Brennan (stillborn; 2008)
a. Robert Ford
c. Ryder Ford (born 2011)
m. Robert Ford [2011; annulled]
m. Cutter Wentworth [2011; divorced]
m. Clint Buchanan [1986-1994; divorced]
c. Natalie Buchanan (born 1986; stolen at birth)
m. Mitch Laurence [2002-2003; annulled]
m. Cristian Vega [2003-2005; divorced]
m. Jared Banks [2009; dissolved]
a. John McBain
c. Liam McBain (born 2011)
m. Sloan Carpenter [1994-1995; dissolved]
m. Ben Davidson [2000-2004; dissolved]
m. Charlie Banks [2009-2011; divorced]
c. Meredith Lord (born 1950; died 1973)
m. Larry Wolek [1970-1973; dissolved]
c. Daniel Wolek (born 1971; twin)
c. Unnamed daughter (stillborn 1971; twin)
m. Irene Manning [1960s; divorced]
c. Tina Lord (born 1962)
m. Cord Roberts [1986-1987; divorced]
c. C. J. Roberts (born 1987)
m. Cord Roberts [1988-1990; divorced]
m. Cord Roberts [1991-1993; divorced]
c. Sarah Roberts (born 1991)
m. Cain Rogan [1994; invalid]
m. David Vickers [1995; divorced]
a. Irene Manning
c. Todd Manning (born 1970; twin) {put up for adoption}
m. Blair Cramer [1995; annulled]
c. Unnamed child (miscarriage)
m. Blair Cramer [1995-1997; divorced]
c. Starr Manning (born 1996)
a. Cole Thornhart
c. Hope Manning-Thornhart (born 2008)
m. Téa Delgado [1997-1998; divorced]
m. Téa Delgado [1998-1999; annulled]
m. Blair Cramer [2001-2002; divorced]
c. Jack Manning (born 2001)
a. Téa Delgado
c. Danielle Manning (born 2003)
c. Victor Lord, Jr. (born 1970; died 2011; twin)
m. Blair Cramer [2003-2004; annulled]
m. Blair Cramer [2007-2008; divorced]
r. Margaret Cochran {she raped Victor}
c. Sam Manning (born 2004; adopted by Blair)
m. Téa Delgado [2009; invalid]
m. Téa Delgado [2010-2011; dissolved]
c. Gwendolyn Lord (deceased)
m. Jonathan Abbott [dissolved by his death]
c. Richard Abbott
m. Becky Lee Abbott [1978-1981; divorced]