Soap and Broadway Star, Pamela Blair, Has Passed Away At Age 73

Pamela Blair was part of the original cast of the ABC soap Loving where she played Rita Mae Bristow, but she also appeared on several other soaps and was part of the original cast of A Chorus Line on Broadway. She passed away on Sunday.

Remembering Pamela Blair

Her friend of 30 years, Megan McWilliams Bouchard, said on Facebook that “the world just got dimmer as my dear friend Pamela Blair took her sparkle and left the planet.” The actress died on Sunday, July 23, at her home in Phoenix at the age of 73.

Blair was born on December 5, 1949, in Bennington, Vermont. She got her start in the theater when she joined the production of the musical Promises, Promises on December 1, 1968, as Clancy’s Lounge Patron. Soon after, she was part of the ensemble of Wild and Wonderful in 1971 as well as the show Sugar the following year and Seesaw in 1973. In 1974 she was Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men but her next show would change everything.

On this very day, July 25, in 1975, she originated the role of Val in A Chorus Line on Broadway. Her big number was “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three,” extolling the positives of plastic surgery. She would continue to appear on Broadway in several more productions but in 1980, she got her first job on a soap opera — Ryan’s Hope, where she played Elizabeth Ryan.

In 1982, she made the jump to the big screen in Annie, directed by John Huston. The next year she was in the TV movie, Svengali with Peter O’Toole and Jodie Foster. In 1983, she joined the original cast of ABC’s then-brand-new soap, Loving. She was a breath of fresh air on the soap, playing the southern belle wife of Billy (Tom Ligon). She stayed with the show until 1985.

Guest spots in primetime followed on shows like The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The Cosby Show, and Law & Order. More soap roles also came her way, including two different stints on All My Children, as Mrs. Goodman and Maida Andrews, as well as Bonnie Broderick on Another World in 1994. Even more TV appearances came her way, with the last one in 2009 playing Cinnamon Mason in the TV mini-series Maneater.

On the personal front, she was once married to fellow soap star-turned-director Don Scardino (ex-Johnny Fletcher, Guiding Light; ex-Chris Chapin, AW) from 1984 until 1991.

Soap Hub sends our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Pamela Blair during this difficult time.