I was reading the thread here with the subject "Favorite Soap Villains or Villainesses", and one of the replying posts said that their favorite one was Aunt Liz. I watched this soap started in 1983 or so, and Aunt Liz was never a villainess from that point on. So they must have tamed her down. When was she a villainess, and what did she do?
Also, who was the one who killed Alma Rudder?
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
Liz was a rich bitch villainess from Day One ( 1964 ) , selfish, domineering, lording over her children, nephews, and nieces. The Liz you knew (Irene Dailey) played her the longest ( off and on from 1973 until 1994 ) Liz would lie, try to break up marriages, try to push the young ones into dating higher class dates, but she never did anything violent ( like murder, poisoning, catfights) other than push her daughter-in-law Missy down the stairs at Jim & Mary's, but that was argued/dismissed as an accident. Like Iris and Donna, she would try to pay people off to leave town or cause trouble for her enemies. She could still be a snobbish, meddlesome gossip as she aged.
sharecool thanks so much. What became of Liz?
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
According to the Another World Anniversary Book (released mid 1999, just before the cancellation), Liz did all sorts of things to her daughter-in-law Missy before she married Bill and after but did come to accept her, probably because Missy gave her a grandson. When Liz was in love with Walter Addison (during the time Nancy Wickwire played her), she was a suspect in his murder, but jealously made it appear that Lenore Curtin was the killer. A picture of Irene Dailey and Victoria Wyndham makes it appear that Liz was ready to "knock her lights out" for stealing Mac from her, as Beverlee McKinsey's Iris tried to get Mac and Liz together and they did go out together for a long time. Hearing this makes Liz sound like a variation of Phoebe Tyler which is ironic considering that Rachel was originally based on Agnes Nixon's book character of Erica. Liz mellowed by the time I watched the show (after 1983) and was sometimes a comic relief busy body. But old episodes prior to 1982 indicate that she was a woman to be reckoned with until the Matthews family was disceminated. I don't think Liz ever got a write-off, sadly, but my guess is that she was one of those characters who still remained in Bay City but was just never seen or went to live near one of her other family members. After Nicole (Liz's business partner) and Olivia were written out, Liz only popped in for special occassions, sad because Irene Dailey was a major scene stealer, and made you want more of her just by walking into a room and asking, "Am I interrupting something?" One of her greatest moments was when she posed as a Russian countess, complete with Natasha style accept, to fool Drew Marsden who was involved in some sort of business scheme involving Nicole's dress shop and Cory publishing.
"Great theater makes you smile. Outstanding theater may make you weep."
Regarding Irene Dailey as Aunt Liz, there is a fantastic scene on YouTube from the mid 1970s where she introduces herself to Olive, a conniver in her own right, and it is awesome- Olive says something like, "Hi, I'm Olive," and Aunt Liz says "I know who you are" with such conviction and bitchiness. Definitely a premiere example of the great acting that won Irene Dailey as Emmy (beating out Victoria Wyndham as Rachel and Beverlee McKinsey as Iris, no less)!
As for who killed Alma Rudder, that was Larry and Blaine Ewing's mother, Jeanne. Virtually everyone was a suspect, but I was stunned when the truth came out, and it was one of the best reveals I'd ever seen on a soap- for weeks, Jeanne had complained to Larry and Clarice that her back was bothering her, but she refused to go to a doctor, which they assumed was her pride. But one day when Jeanne was finally admitted to the hospital, Clarice did Jeanne's laundry and started to fold a shirt and realized it was horribly ripped in the back. . . like maybe someone had stabbed her in the back with a knife! And then it became obvious that Jeanne and Alma had argued/fought over a knife, and Alma had stabbed Jeanne, who in turn stabbed Alma (or maybe it was the other way around). Anyway, it was a classic Another World freeze frame at the end of the episode, with Clarice holding the shirt up with a look of horror as she (and the audience) realized the truth.
Liz was written as the show's heavy from its start in 1964 through her first departure in 1971. Audra Lindley played Liz for most of those years and was descried by one reviewer as "a cunning villainess." She was sly, shrewd and scheming but would become hysterical and loud once caught or her back was up against a wall. Her counter was John Randolph, Pat's husband, who was a crusading, moral leading man, as well as lawyer. John came from $$, so, Liz approved of his union with her niece Pat. Rachel basically took over as chief villainess after Liz went away in '71. (She returned by the end of '73). Liz would scheme to embarrass Rachel, who was of the lower class, and also of low character, but Rachel would battle Liz brilliantly. Cat and mouse, but Rachel always was instinctively shrewd and conniving. This was in the '60s. In the mid '70s, Liz and Mac were engaged, and Rachel, in a plot with Carole Lamonte, broke up the couple. Rachel was supposed to help Carole get Robert from Lenore but backed out of the scheme after she landed Mac. To me, Liz was at her utter worse when she helped get Lenore arrested and tried for the murder of Wayne Addison, who had been Liz's boyfriend. Liz could be an absolute monster and indeed a mother from Hell. (Poor Susan, her daughter. She caught it big time.)
shareI totally remember her as a trouble-making villainess. She can also be seen in FIVE EASY PIECES as the snooty intellectual who is condescending to Rayette (towards the end of the movie). She's great in that, too.
share