Soap Icon and Daytime Emmy Winner Susan Lucci Celebrates Her Birthday

She’s been called an icon, Daytime’s Leading Lady, and one of Barbara Walters’s 10 Most Fascinating People. And now, actress, television host, author, Daytime Emmy winner, entrepreneur, and All My Children great Susan Lucci is poised to celebrate yet another milestone accomplishment.

Happy Birthday, Susan Lucci

And that’s because she was born on December 23, 1946, in Scarsdale, New York, which means that this genre giant is turning 77 years old today! Lucci began her acting career with several uncredited, bit parts in films like Goodbye Columbus (1969), and Me, Natalie (1969), and episodes of the daytime soap, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1969).

In 1970, Lucci was cast in what was to become her most well-known role: Erica Kane on All My Children. Lucci would remain at the soap from its January 16, 1970 premiere until its final episode on ABC some 41 years later.

In the interim, the fictional Erica would become defined by her multiple marriages to a whole host of suitable and unsuitable men. Off-screen, the very real Susan Lucci would become known for her status as a perpetual nominee in the race for Outstanding Lead Actress at the Daytime Emmy Awards. Out of a total 21 times, she won the statuette once, in 1999. In 2023, she also received the Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. (Find out what she said about returning to daytime here.)

Lucci’s other acting credits have included recurring roles on series such as Dallas (1990-1991), Hope & Faith (2004), Hot in Cleveland — where she played an exaggerated version of herself — (2010-2014), and Army Wives (2012).

She has also guest-starred on The Love Boat (1982), Fantasy Island (1983), The Fall Guy (1984), and That’s So Raven (2005). Lucci’s feature film roles include a cameo appearance in the soap spoof Young Doctors In Love (1982), and the character Danica in the Jennifer Lawrence vehicle Joy (2015).

Lucci has also appeared in a plethora of made-for-TV movies — Mafia Princess (1986), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), Haunted by Her Past (1987), Lady Mobster (1988), The Bride in Black (1990), and Ebbie, an updated version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Between 2012 and 2014, Lucci served as hostess of the true-crime documentary Deadly Affairs, and from 2013-2016 she played Genevieve Delatour on Devious Maids.

Lucci lost her longtime husband, Austrian-born chef and food-service manager Helmut Huber in late March of 2022. The couple are parents to two children: a daughter, retired actress Liza Huber (ex-Gwen, Passions), and a son, Andreas Huber.

Soap Hub would like to wish Susan Lucci a very happy birthday, and you can, too, by clicking on the Twitter link below. Also, share your favorite memory of her work or if you’ve met her personally in the comments section.