Dorian Lord

Dr. Dorian Lord
One Life to Live character
File:DorianLord.png Robin Strasser as Dr. Dorian Lord
Portrayed by	Nancy Pinkerton Claire Malis Robin Strasser Elaine Princi
Duration	1973–1987, 1989–2000, 2003–present
First appearance	April 1973
Created by	Agnes Nixon and Gordon Russell
In-universe information Occupation Physician (non-practicing) Current mayor of Llanview Member of the Board of Directors of Llanview Hospital Parents Lou Cramer (deceased) Sonya Roskova (deceased) Siblings Addie Cramer Melinda Cramer (deceased) Spouse Victor Lord (1975-1983, widowed) Herb Callison (1981-1985, invalid) Manuel Santi (1987-1989, annulled) David Vickers (1995, divorced) Mel Hayes (1998-1999, widowed) Mitch Laurence (2003; annulled) David Vickers (2009, annulled) Children Victoria Lord (stepdaughter) Cassie Callison Adriana Cramer Langston Wilde (adopted) Grandchildren William Sloan Carpenter (deceased) River Carpenter (adopted) Aunts and uncles Betsy Cramer (deceased) Nieces and nephews Blair Cramer Kelly Cramer Paul Cramer (deceased) Starr Manning (great niece) Jack Manning (great nephew) Kevin Buchanan, Jr. (great nephew, deceased) Zane Buchanan (great nephew) Hope Manning (great great niece)

Dr. Dorian Lord (née Cramer; previously Callison, Santi, Vickers, Hayes, and Laurence) is a fictional character on the American ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. She is currently portrayed by Robin Strasser, who is best known in the role and has played her on and off since 1979. For most of the show's history, the character has been the show's primary antagonist and Byronic hero.

Strasser won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series in 1982 for her portrayal of Dorian, and was also nominated for the award in 1981, 1983, and 1985. Strasser has been nominated for Soap Opera Digest Awards for Dorian in various categories in 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, and 2005, winning in 1996 as "Outstanding Lead Actress." Princi was also nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award as Dorian for "Outstanding Villainess: Daytime" in 1992.

Casting

The character of Dorian was originated by Nancy Pinkerton in 1973, and was subsequently played by Claire Malis from 1977 to 1979. Strasser was hired for the role by OLTL creator Agnes Nixon in 1979 and left in 1987, after which Elaine Princi played Dorian from 1989 to 1993. Strasser returned in January 1993, appearing on February 19 and stayed until February 23, 2000. She reprised the role on April 2, 2003 and still portrays Dorian today. In 1974, actress Dixie Carter filled in for Pinkerton, who was out on maternity leave.

Storylines

Enter Dorian

File:Dorian-NancyPinkerton.jpg

Nancy Pinkerton as Dr. Dorian Lord

Dorian arrived in fictional Llanview, Pennsylvania in 1973, along with her mentally ill sister, Melinda. Dorian took a physician position at Llanview Hospital, where she quickly began an affair with her married colleague, Dr. Mark Toland. Melinda, in the meantime, wanted Mark for herself. Upon learning of their affair, she schemed to drive them apart. After attacking Mark with a butchers knife, Melinda was sent to a mental institution.

Dorian and Mark continued their affair. During an intense exchange between the two, Dorian made a careless error on a medical chart, resulting in the accidental death of a patient. Fearing for their careers, the two covered up the crime; extenuating circumstance, meanwhile, led to Dr. Larry Wolek being arrested instead. With the guilt on her shoulders, Dorian later wanted to confess, while Mark was content to allow Larry to take the fall. As they argued over how to handle the situation, Dorian accidentally fell down a flight of stairs and went into a coma. Upon waking, Dorian confessed and was immediately fired by the hospital board; she blamed Victoria Lord, a prominent member, for her termination. This started the rivalry that would last for decades. What Dorian didn't know, and finally learned in 2003, is that Viki cast the lone vote against her termination.

Swearing revenge on Viki, Dorian became the private physician to Viki's ailing father, Victor Lord. With dollar signs on her mind, Dorian ended up marrying Victor, to Viki's chagrin. Dorian discovered that the newly arrived Tony Harris was Victor's illegitimate son. Unable to keep the truth from being revealed, he and Victor shared an emotional reunion. Wanting to ensure that Tony's presence would not take away from her inheriting Victor's enormous fortune, Dorian succeeded in soon turning Victor and Tony into enemies and keeping them at odds. In the interim, Dorian manipulated Victor into altering his will in her favor. Victor ultimately learned that Dorian was behind his and Tony's contentious relationship, and suffered a massive heart attack during his confronting her. Desperate, Dorian isolated Victor from the rest of his family; Victor soon died under mysterious circumstances. In his wake, Dorian was named executor of the Lord estate. With half of the controlling interest in Lord Enterprises, Dorian was the owner of The Banner until Viki assumed control of the newspaper by purchasing Dorian's stake.

With their adversarial relationship as heated as ever, Dorian decided to try her hands at Viki's husband, Joe Riley. Dorian fueled the fire even more when she told Joe that he was responsible for the hereditary heart condition which afflicted his and Cathy Craig's ailing daughter Megan, a secret that Viki had been keeping from him. This strain on Viki and Joe's relationship succeeded in allowing Dorian to become closer to Joe. He started having blackouts, and Dorian soon learned that Joe had a brain tumor; she lied, telling him that he got violent with her during his blackouts. She convinced Joe to leave Viki, for Viki's own good. However, Joe got wise to Dorian's schemes and swore he wanted nothing more to do with her.

Despite her conniving and vindictive nature, she does have a tender and genuine side towards those she cares for. She is also very claustrophobic, which was later explained to be due to abuse at her mother's hands; actress Strasser has stated that this character trait was added because she also suffers from claustrophobia.

Dorian has a long list of people who she has scorned and fought over the years: Pat Ashley, Asa Buchanan, Kevin Buchanan, Sloan Carpenter, Paul Cramer, Tony-Harris Lord, Mitch Laurence, Todd Manning, Julie Toland, David Vickers, Jenny Wolek, and Clint Buchanan. Although Dorian has had many rivals over the years, her most famous and longest rivalry has been with Viki.

Dorian vs. Viki

For decades, Viki has been One Life to Live's primary heroine, with Dorian as the primary villainess. The two have feuded about almost everything, stemming largely from Viki's contention that Dorian had something to do with her father's death. However, it was later proven that Dorian had had nothing to do with Victor Lord's death, but Viki, in one of her alters, (she has Dissociative Identity Disorder) had killed him to prevent him from sexually abusing her again. In fact, it was Dorian herself who had told her that Victor had been sexually abusing her. In August 2007, Dorian made the startling (and vague) claim that she had actually killed Victor after all. Having planted a seed of doubt in Viki's mind, she refused to elaborate.

Sometimes, however, the feuding rivals often have helped one another in a crisis, such as with Viki's breast cancer, and her heart transplant. (For that, Viki extended to Dorian the job of Chief of Staff at Llanview Hospital.)

One very good example was when the two of them were trapped in an avalanche. Dorian confessed to her arch-rival that she was claustrophobic. And Viki never left her side for a second. However, more often as not, the two women will always be mortal enemies.

Dorian, at some times, often stokes the flames of the feud, to try to get Viki rattled. Examples included Dorian seducing Viki's son, Joey Buchanan; and framing Viki for embezzlement, when Dorian herself had done the dirty deed.

Dorian currently controls one half of Lord Enterprises, including The Banner, the WVLE station, as well as a life interest in the Lord Llanfair mansion. As of 2006 Victoria Lord Davidson discovered the truth about Dorian Lord's blackmail scheme and came to a decision not to turn Dorian in, if Dorian relented her control in Llanfair Mansion. Dorian therefore was forced to move out of Llanfair and into La Boulaie (Dorian's name for the estate once owned by Marty Saybrooke).

You've spent most of your life being a "Viki wanna-be" ... taking her last name, running a newspaper like hers, naming your house, landing her lover — even her son Joey.

— Addie Cramer, February 5, 2008

Dorian dated Clint Buchanan, breaking up with him after he caught her in bed with David Vickers, which she did out of revenge for what she believed to be an affair between Clint and Nora. Dorian, solely for the sake of revenge for their breakup, organized a hostile takeover of Buchanan Enterprises, setting a series of events in motion which led to the death of Jessica Buchanan's husband, Nash Brennan. When Jessica (in her alter as Tess, which came about as a relapse) tampers with the brakes on Jared and Natalie's car, Viki gets in the car, and dies in the crash. However, Dorian comes to her arch-enemy's aid and, with her medical know-how, brings her back from the dead. To her and David's delight, Viki pulls through and is slated to make a complete recovery. David even offered to annul his marriage to Addie, which Dorian demands that he follows through on. Dorian and Viki have a heart to heart and the two form another tentative truce. Ever since then Dorian has been visited by her the ghost of her husband and a close friend of Viki, Mel Hayes, who oddly manifests himself as an African American woman working various odd jobs.

In Fall 2009, Dorian decides to run against Viki for mayor of Llanview. Dorian's lesbian campaign manager Amelia Bennett (played by the same woman who plays the various incarnations of Mel) arranges a rally and fundraiser with the LBGT community; in a stunt to gain support for her campaign, Dorian suddenly announces that she is engaged to Amelia, and voices her support for gay marriage. On November 2, 2009, Dorian and Amelia participate in a mass gay marriage, with Dorian vowing to legalize the unions if she is elected mayor. When Mitch Laurence returns yet again from the dead, he blackmails newly appointed Mayor Dorian to do his bidding or he'll kill one of the Cramer women. This causes her family to turn their backs on Dorian, un-aware that what she is doing is for them. She then decides to use Charlie's grief over his son, Jared's, death to kill Mitch. However, Mel's ghost once more appears and helps Dorian to see the error of her ways. She then stops Charlie at the last minute but he winds up then shooting Jessica by mistake. She tells her girls the truth about her action and re-instates Bo. All the Cramer women then reunite in Llanview, except Melinda who turns up dead.

Then in August 2010, after refusing to admit it, Dorian and, David reunite. They plan to marry but, David leaves Dorian at the altar because Clint kidnaps him and throws David in a prison in Morocco. Echo DiSavoy returns to town later. Dorian offers to help Viki with Echo. Dorian and Viki are determined to find out Echo's motive. They are also determined to find out what Clint is hiding. David calls Dorian later in 2011. Dorian is shocked to hear from David but she refuse to help him but she's unaware of the whole situation.

External links

• Dorian Cramer Lord profile - SoapCentral.com
• "In the Name of Cramer" - SoapOperaDigest.com
• Branco, Nelson (February 9, 2009). "Viva La Strasser!". TVGuide.ca. Retrieved February 17, 2009.