Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is an American actress, television host, author and entrepreneur, best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama All My Children during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considered an icon, and Lucci was called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide, with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television. As early as 1991, her salary had been reported as over $1 million a year. During her run on All My Children, she was nominated twenty-one times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won only once, in 1999, after the 19th nomination; beginning in the late 1980s her status as a perpetual also-ran for the award attracted significant media attention.
Lucci has also acted in other TV series, as well as occasionally in film and on stage. She had multi-episode guest appearances on the series Dallas, Hot in Cleveland and Army Wives. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1990. After the cancellation of All My Children, she hosted the 2012-2014 true crime series Deadly Affairs and starred (as Genevieve Delatour) in the 2013-2016 Lifetime series Devious Maids.
In 1996, TV Guide ranked Lucci number 37 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list. She was named one of VH1's 200 Top Icons of All-Time and one of Barbara Walters's Ten Most Fascinating People.
Last Updated: June 9, 2021
