THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL — and the entire soap world — lost one of its best and brightest when Darlene Conley died Jan. 14 of cancer. She was 72.
The veteran actress of stage and screen found a daytime home in her later career. After brief roles on several soaps she took the part of Sally Spectra in 1988, a role written especially for her. “Darlene was a beloved member of the CBS family for many years,” remarked Barbara Bloom, CBS’ Senior Vice President of Daytime. “Her talent, wit, and energy made her a force to be reckoned with and her loss is immeasurable. She’ll be greatly missed but also greatly remembered.”
While the cast and crew of B&B and its fans mourn her loss, those who worked with Conley have had their spirits buoyed by fond recollections of the light, love and humor she brought to every scene onstage as well as to her offstage relationships.
Winsor Harmon (Thorne) recalls Conley’s comedic pairing with Phyllis Diller (ex-Gladys) for the birth of Thorne’s baby. “Darlene comes in the delivery room and Phyllis comes in with the camera. She made pom poms out of gloves, and she starts to faint when Darla starts having her contractions. She’s making the same noise that Darla’s making when she’s going through the contraction. The whole thing is hilarious. Sally was trying to tell her to do certain things and, of course, going through labor, she got to add that extra craziness to it. It was like the Three Stooges in there. It was so fun to work with Phyllis and Darlene at the same time.”
For her part, Diller found her comedic match in Conley. “She and I were like Laurel and Hardy — we were a TEAM,” stressed Diller, who, sadly, had sent Conley a note on the day she died. “They used us very well together [on B&B]. I admired her so much. She also had a very dramatic singing voice. She used to travel through Europe and sing, when she had a hiatus. I don’t think people knew that. But boy, was she fun to work with.”
Tippi Hedren had a blast working with Conley, as well. Although she was in a different storyline than Conley on B&B (ex-Helen), the two enjoyed a close friendship since they did Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic The Birds. “Working with her on that was most interesting,” Hedren recalled. “She always kept everyone laughing. I’ve watched B&B religiously ever since I was on it. During the last six months or so they didn’t use Darlene as much, and I thought, ‘Oh, something’s wrong,’ but I had no idea she was [that ill]. She was always an absolute delight onscreen and off.”
Hedren’s comments are echoed by Conley’s B&B co-star John McCook (Eric). “It’s not just a time for sadness; we’re really enjoying talking about Darlene and how fun it was to have her here,” McCook declares. “The thing that I loved about Darlene is that she brought with her vaudeville, musical comedy, theater and voice (singing) experience. It was a patina around her that was in all of her scenes. Whether she was doing comedy or serious drama, all of those things were always present in a scene of hers, and I always respected and loved that about her.”
Reflecting on her career, Conley once told Weekly that her greatest achievement was “the fact that I’ve been a professional actor for most of my life, and I’ve never been out of work. I started when I was 15 and it’s been an amazing thrill. I owe a lot of that to soap operas. They caught onto me when I was young.”
In contrast, her biggest regret was that “I was never able to spend enough time in the theater to get a big Broadway career going. I was always looking for the next job. That’s the only thing I regret and I really don’t regret that too much, because here I am!”
Assessing the modern world of acting, Conley surmised “it takes the same thing it took when I started all those years ago. You just have to keep doing it until someone pays attention. The biggest problem that actors, writers and creative people have is that they give up too soon. They get kicked out once and they don’t go back. You would have had to burn the building down to keep me from going back!”
