Felicia Gallant is a fictional character on the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
''
Another World'', played by
Linda Dano
Linda Dano (born Linda Rae Wildermuth) is an American actress. She is well-known for her roles in daytime drama, in particular Rae Cummings on ''One Life to Live'' and Felicia Gallant on ''Another World (TV series), Another World''. Dano was no ...
. The character debuted on the episode broadcast January 6, 1983, and stayed until the show's final episode on June 25, 1999. Dano won a
Daytime Emmy award
The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...
for her portrayal of Felicia in 1993.
Casting
Actress
Anna Stuart
Anna Stuart (born November 1, 1948) is an American actress. She has primarily played roles in daytime serials.
Career
Stuart began her career on '' The Doctors'' as lab technician Toni Ferra, a role she played from 1971 to 1976. Her characte ...
auditioned for this part but lost the role to Dano. Producers were so impressed by her audition that they created for her the role of Donna Love.
Character Development
The character of Felicia is a professional
romance novel
A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...
ist who lives in Bay City. The character was modeled after real-life romance novelist
Jacqueline Susann
Jacqueline Susann (August 20, 1918 – September 21, 1974) was an American novelist and actress. Her iconic novel, '' Valley of the Dolls'' (1966), is one of the best-selling books in publishing history. With her two subsequent works, '' The Lov ...
. Head-writer
Robert Soderbergh had been friends with Susann before her death in the 1970s and regularly spoke at length with Linda Dano about Susann's passion for living.
Her character was brought on to bring an element of glamour to the ailing show. She was widely embraced by the fans immediately and became a beloved character on the soap until its end in 1999.
Storylines
Felicia was introduced as a glamorous romance novelist, who wrote for Cory Publishing (Dano wrote romance novels that were published under her character's name). Felicia had affairs with
Cass Winthrop, who later became her best friend, and Carl Hutchins. She married Louis St. George, Zane Lindquist, Mitch Blake, Lucas Castigliano, and Sergei Radzinsky. Lucas was, out of all the men she married, the true love of her life. When Lucas came to town, he came looking for the daughter he knew was alive, but she thought was stillborn (Felicia and Lucas had been lovers when they were teenagers). By extension, he revealed that she was born Fanny Grady and from a tempestuous family background. Since Felicia had taken a long time to build up this wealthy and glamorous reputation, it embarrassed her horribly to have other people know her business.
Over time, her marriage to Mitch hit a rough patch, and each cheated on the other. They both accepted their marriage was over and they had a mutual, amicable divorce. With Lucas back in her life, she fell for him all over again, and they were married. However, Lucas was shot by a jealous ex-lover and died in hospital weeks later, leaving Felicia heartbroken.
However, by this time, Felicia had found her daughter, the nasty vixen Lorna Devon (
Alicia Coppola
Alicia Coppola is an American actress. She became known for playing Lorna Devon in the soap opera '' Another World'' from 1991 to 1994. Afterwards, she made regular and guest star appearances in various television series, notably ''Jericho'' an ...
). Felicia and Lorna were adversaries for a very long time, but eventually warmed to a mother-daughter relationship. Lorna also made enemies with Felicia's adopted daughter, Jenna; one memorable stunt involved Lorna replacing Jenna's boyfriend's music video with a never-before-seen porn tape with Jenna as the centerpiece, mere seconds before it was to air live on Felicia's talk show.
A later romantic interest for Felicia was John Hudson, as he was having troubles with his marriage to wife Sharlene. Her final marriage was to Sergei Radzinsky, whom she married to keep him in the country; he was receiving treatments for
aplastic anemia
Aplastic anemia is a cancer in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood ...
as a result of exposure to
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
.
Novels by Felicia Gallant
Felicia has published at least 53 books, all gothic romance, except as noted.
* ''Beyond Paradise''
* ''The Bride of Bombay''
* ''The Bride of Waverly''
* ''The Cannons of Newcastle''
* ''Castle of Desire''
* ''Damned by Desire''
* ''The Daring Heart''
* ''Doctor's Desire''
* ''Driven to Passion''
* ''Ebony Heartbeat''
* ''Embers in the Snow'' (1985)
* ''Endless Journey''
* ''Every Heart Knows''
* ''Fallen Females''
* ''Flames in the Night''
* ''Forbidden Flower'' (1994, rejected)
* ''Forbidden Passion''
* ''For the Love of Poppy''
* ''Gardenias for Gwendolyn''
* ''Gone with the Dawn'' (1983, first for Cory Publishing)
* ''Handmaiden's Heart''
* ''The Heart That Heals'' (1996, contemporary)
* ''The Heart's Own Music''
* ''Into the Fire'' (1994, semi-autobiographical)
* ''The Lady and the Laborer'' (1989)
* ''Liza''
* ''Lock Out the Night''
* ''Lonely and Unloved''
* ''Love Beneath the Stars''
* ''Love on the Moors''
* ''Lust in the Kremlin'' (1980s)
* ''The Manly Heart''
* ''The Mistress of Orleans''
* ''Moonlight Desires'' (1983)
* ''My Finest Hour''
* ''Paradise Delayed'' (1998)
* ''Passion's Progress'' (1983)
* ''The Pauper's Ransom''
* ''The Rebel Princess''
* ''Rive Gauche Serenade''
* ''Rocky Mountain Miracle''
* ''Sands of the Desert''
* ''Sands of the Heart''
* ''Savage Love'' (1983)
* ''Shimmering Love''
* ''Sweet Captive''
* ''Torrid Tundra Nights''
* ''Untold Secrets''
* ''Walking in the Light: The Story of Frankie Frame Winthrop'' (1997, biographical)
* ''White Snow in Hell''
* ''Windblown Rose''
External links
* (official)
Felicia Gallant character profileat SoapCentral.com
WorldCat search: author Felicia Gallant– the first three hits are ''Dreamweaver'' in English, Japanese, and Italian-language editions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallant, Felicia
Another World (TV series) characters
Television characters introduced in 1983
Fictional writers
Female characters in television