Sunday, January 17, 2010

50 Greatest Soap Actresses: #23 Constance Ford

NAME: Constance Ford
RANK: 23
SOAP ROLES: Ada Hobson, ANOTHER WORLD (1967-1992); Eve Morris, THE EDGE OF NIGHT (1964-1965); Rose Peabody, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW (1955-1956); THE WAY OF THE WORLD (1955); Lynn Sherwood, WOMAN WITH A PAST (1954)

COMMENTS FROM THE PANEL:
Roger Newcomb: Connie Ford's Ada was able to establish so many wonderful relationships and friendships over the years. I grew up watching Ada deal with raising her daughters but it was always nice to see her in other settings like her flirtations with Sidney Sugarman or Captain Delaney. I remember her husband Charley Hobson but have only seen clips of Ada's relationship with Gil. I would love to see that marriage play out and the birth of Nancy. It's hard to describe just how much Ford added to ANOTHER WORLD, but we all felt something missing after she was gone.

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): Vicky Wyndham and Connie Ford. Real women, real intelligence, amazing acting a deux as the moody Rachel and her blunt talking seamstress mother Ada on ANOTHER WORLD.

COMMENTS FROM CO-STARS/CO-WORKERS/INDUSTRY:
Harding Lemay: (wrote for Ford on ANOTHER WORLD) I was also taught a great lesson the first month I was at ANOTHER WORLD by Connie Ford, who played Ada. I had written a final tag speech in one of the crucial scenes. And when I got to the rehearsal, Connie cut the entire speech and did just one line from it. Now she was a wonderful actress, a very laconic actress, and didn’t need a lot of language. And I realized something: you write to what the actor does. And I never overwrote a scene for her again.

Kale Browne: (worked with Ford on AW) Hilarious, bawdy, profane, irreverent, hard-working, and the best showbiz stories I'd ever heard until I met John Considine.

Sandra Robinson: (worked with Ford on AW) Constance once gave me relationship advice, “A healthy relationship grows as two trees grow side by side. Both reaching for more light, but if one deliberately grows to hide the light from the other, the relationship ceases to be rewarding for both.” (a little leway here on the exact words... It’s been a while!) Simple, but I remember just relishing the moment that she had taken me under her wing and was giving me life advice! Then she went out and swore at all the people on set for running behind schedule! I loved her.

3 comments:

  1. Ada! I know Constance had a long body of work outside of AW but I will always see her as Ada, the epitome of tough but tender. Her smile, her laugh, her heartbreak. Ada and Rachel were the perfect mother/daughter combination. Ada always told Rachel what she needed to hear and yet no one was a truer friend.

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  2. One genius can always sense another:-

    "Judy Garland was performing one night on stage at the Palace when her exodus from the stage was brought to a grinding halt. She cried out to someone sitting in the theater, "I know you. I see you every day on television. You're Connie Ford... Ada!"

    from
    http://www.igs.net/~awhp/public4.html

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  3. I usto watch another world and when it finish I was mortified and sad till this day it's still my favorite soap to date. Sincerely Olga Carrillo

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