Susan Haskell got her job
because someone was dying. Someone on One Life to Live. And from
a life-threatening disease: lupus. The producers, however, did not want
viewers to think that lupus, in which the immune system attacks its own
tissue, is always fatal, so they decided to introduce-temporarily-a second
character who survives the disease. Enter Haskell, who has been playing
that "temporary" character, Marty Saybrooke on the ABC soap for nearly
three years. "The character was planned to be part of just one story line,"
says Susan Bedsow Horgan, OLTL's executive producer "But Susan is
such a wonderful actress that we wanted to write more for her."
Write they have. During Haskell's'
years on the show, her rich orphan character has suffered through not only
lupus but a gang rape and the ensuing trial; the murder of her boyfriend
plus an unconsummated relationship with a married minister. The endless
suffering helped earn Haskell a Daytime Emmy last May for best supporting
actress. And recently, was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest award
as younger lead actress.
But the actress sees Marty
as more than the sum total of her disasters. "She's strong and tough, and
she really doesn't trust anyone. She just wants to love and be loved, but
that hasn't worked for her yet," Haskell says. "I always that if she'd
had the life I had, we'd probably be very similar."
Haskell grew up in Toronto,
the second of three children of American parents Roger Haskell, president
of an industrial-products company, and his wife, Marilyn, an actress who
had put her career on hold to raise a family. (She now manages her daughter.)
"Our house was where everyone came to hang out, says Susan, recalling how
she, her younger sister Carolyn and her older brother Roger often shared
rooms with troubled kids who became unofficial foster siblings.
 Haskell
began modeling at 16 but had no plans to follow her mother into acting.
At Tufts University outside Boston, "I was premed," she says, "but watching
people work on cadavers gave me a funny feeling." After graduating cum
laude with a degree in biopsychology, she moved to New York City, where
she modeled, did TV commercials (Oil of Olay, Burger King) and found her
way to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After studying one year,
she appeared (briefly) in the syndicated series My Secret Identity,
and (even more briefly) in the movie Strictly Business.
By Betsy Israel and Toby
Kahn |
