Publication: Parade
Author: James Brady
Date: June 13, 1999
Catherine Hickland, singer and soap star, owner of cats and a dog that she says "all look like me," has herself had more than "One Life To Live."
This was down in the basement of the ABC Studios in New York where the popular soap opera One Life to Live is produced and where the actress Catherine Hickland has worked for the past year. We were in her cramped dressing room, and we had to borrow an old chair from the actor Robert S. Woods, who plays Bo Buchanan on the soap. So much for showbiz glamour, I said. "You should have seen it before I decorated," said Catherine, laughing.
On One Life, Catherine plays the villainous Lindsay Rappaport. "I came in and right away made everybody's life miserable," she said. "I like playing the villains, because they're unpredictable."
Catherine is a veteran of the soaps (Loving, Capitol), and I asked about what happens when the show is pre-empted by live TV coverage. "The O.J. trial nearly did us in," Catherine replied, "But fortunately, the Clinton impeachment hearings didn't. Frankly, I don't think people cared anymore. Not people who watch the soaps."
How does she like One Life? "For 18 years I wanted to be on this show," she said. "I thought its cast was the best and its stories the strongest. I'd be shocked if anyone said, 'We're just one big happy family.' Twenty people have difficulties and work them out. As a family does."
As for talent, Catherine is the whole package. She sang with a symphony orchestra in France, studied in Italy (and speaks Italian), made movies, starred on Broadway as Fantine in Les Misèrables, writes a beauty column for Soap Opera Digest and has a cabaret act. "I think I'm a better actor than a singer," she said. "But it's my dream to be a singer. Les Miz was the pinnacle."
Catherine has also suffered some low points, including anorexia. "It's about control," she said. "You're out of control, so the only thing you can control is what you eat." And then she had to overcome stage fright. "I'd never been on a Broadway stage before [Les Miz], and I had terrible stage fright. Even doing talk shows."
Does she ever take a break?
"I take naps occasionally on the dressing room," she said,
"but on my back, so I don't spoil my makeup." Catherine does
her own makeup and plans to co-launch a line called Angelface Cosmetics.
"Every woman has beauty in her and ought to be able to bring it
out," she said.
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Personal: Born Feb. 11, 1956 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Married to Richard Knowlton, 1978; David Hasselhoff 1984-88; Michael E. Knight 1992-.
Television: Includes The Seeding of Sarah Burns, 1979; To Race the Wind, 1980; Texas, 1980-81; Capitol, 1982; The Bold and the Beautiful, 1987; Loving 1993-95; The City, 1995-97; One Life to Live, 1998-.
Films: Includes The Last Married Couple in America, 1980; Taxi Killer, 1988; War Zone Zero, 1988; Witchery, 1989; Millions, 1991; Sweet Justice, 1992.
Theater: Includes Run for Your Wife, 1992; Les Misérables, 1995; Boys on the Side, 1996.
Brady's Bits
Ms. Hickland, who takes the bus to work every day, lives in Manhattan with her husband, Michael E. Knight of the soap
All My Children, as well as "six cats and a dog, all of which look like me." She was born in Fort Lauderdale (her late father was a dentist, her mother a dental ceramist) and began acting at 19. "I never went to college and have regretted it ever since," she said. She's been married before, briefly as a kid and then to David Hasselhoff of Baywatch fame. I told her I liked David. "He is one of the kindest, most generous people, and very sincere," she said. As for her anorexia, "I slipped back twice since 1981," Catherine told me, "the last time was in '88, when I was going through a divorce. You don't know how awful you look, but everyone else does." During our talk, the TV monitor was on in Catherine's dressing room. "Michael works down the street [at another ABC studio]," she said, "and I can turn channels and watch them tape and goof around." After our chat I lugged Bob Woods' chair back. And got a hug for the lovely Ms. Hickland in return.
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