Sunday, August 31, 2014

Former 'The Young and the Restless' Actress Victoria Mallory Has Died at age 64

Former The Young and the Restless actress Victoria Mallory died on August 30, 2014 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Mallory was known for her work in the theater and on television. On TV, she starred as pianist Leslie Brooks on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1977 to 1982, visiting again in 1984. Later, she played Dr. Denise Foxworthy on NBC's Santa Barbara. Her other television credits included guest starring roles on Everwood, Touched By An Angel, Promised Land, the female lead in the made-for-television movie Unabomber: The True Story, and three CBS musical specials, The Emperor's New Clothes, Aladdin, and After Hours: Singin', Swingin' and All That Jazz, which won an Emmy Award in 1978 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Daytime Programming.

Mallory made her Broadway debut when Richard Rodgers chose her to star as Maria in the first revival of "West Side Story" at Lincoln Center. She then went on to play Lili in City Center's revival of "Carnival." Mallory originated the role of Young Heidi in the Harold Prince/Stephen Sondheim production of "Follies" as well as the starring role of Anne Egerman in "A Little Night Music."

On December 6, 1977 CBS aired "Singin', Swingin' and All That
Jazz" which featured Y&R stars Victoria Mallory
(Leslie), John McCook (Lance) and Beau Kazer (Brock)  who were
joined by As the World Turns' Don Hastings and Keith Charles.
Throughout her career, Mallory has graced the stages of the nation's major summer stock and regional theaters. The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, the Pittsburgh CLO, the St. Louis Muny Opera, Atlanta's Theater Of The Stars, Kansas City Starlight, Dallas Summer Musicals, Utah's Pioneer Theatre Company, The Irish Theatre in NYC, and others have presented her in virtually every Leading Lady role in musical theater. Among these, she has appeared as Christine/Carlotta in "The Phantom of the Opera," Magnolia in "Showboat," Kate in "Kiss Me Kate," Marian in "The Music Man," Lili in "The Secret Garden," Sarah in "Guys and Dolls," Maria in "The Sound of Music," and Abigail in "1776."

Mallory continued to perform in recent years, while teaching professionals, adults and youngsters at The Voice Studio in New York City.

She leaves behind her husband Mark Lambert, and daughter Ramona Mallory Lambert, also an actress.

In the 1984 promo clip below, Mallory and the Brooks sisters returned to Y&R for Victor and Nikki's wedding.

4 comments:

  1. RIP. About a month ago, Seth Rudetsky (of Broadway Chatterbox) put up his hour-long interview (from 2009) with Mallory and Kurt Peterson where they talked about their long careers and working together, also performing "Tonight" from West Side Story.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw4CeskLSrg

    RIP.

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  2. I can remember her character playing the piano on Y&R.

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    Replies
    1. While the character of Leslie had always been a classical concert pianist, Bill Bell really let Mallory perform when he had amnesiac Leslie wander into Jonas' nightclub, and Jonas (Jerry Lacy) turned her into a blonde, piano bar singer named "Priscilla." In that identity she got to sing and play more popular torch songs.

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  3. Bless You Victoria & Rest In Peace!

    Brian :-|

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