ENTERTAINMENT > Q t _ One Life Of Happiness 0 Soap actress Marilyn Chris is .something Wanda-ful. ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER Special to The Jewish News ne in "One hLene Life Life" tune to watch their popu- lar soap, they find actress Marilyn Chris, who plays the - wise and wonderful Wanda Wolek, speaking English with no hint of an accent. What . they don't know is that Ms. Chris is just as comfortable speaking Yiddish, her fami- ly's primary language when she was a child. Ow"I was raised by my mother and maternal grandparents in Brooklyn and we only spoke Yiddish at home, since neither of my grandparents spoke English," Ms. Chris recalls during lunch at one of New York's trendy Upper West Side restaurants, lo- _ cated around the block from - the studio. "When I was i : younger, I was even a trans- lator in public school for the Jewish immigrants who came to the United States. It was with such pride that I was able to speak Yiddish and communicate with them." ,„ Growing up in a Jewish n neighborhood, she was never confronted with anti- Semitism. "I grew up feeling - very Jewish," says Ms. Chris, whose maiden name was - Marilyn Miller. "I used to wear a big marcasite Star of David on a black-velvet rib- bon around my neck." rBut Ms. Chris was bothered by a painful, early loss. Her father, an English, Scottish Mennonite from Virginia, moved out when she was 2 oc, i W years old. His weekly Sunday visits diminished over the years, and when she was 11 they ended altogether. She never saw him again. To this day, Ms. Chris laments, she has no idea if he is even alive. Ms. Chris' religious roots proved to be a comforting, stable force, and have con- tinued to be throughout her life. Her first husband, whose surname was Christopoulos (thus her stage name Chris) was not Jewish, but her se- cond husband, actor Lee Wallace, -is. "We don't belong to a tem- ple, but I still feel very Jewish," she says. "Lee and I were married in a synagogue and we are both very Jewish in our hearts. As a matter of fact, Lee and I speak Yiddish to each other. There are times when I search for a word that can better be expressed in Yiddish!' Indeed, her ethnic back- ground reflects her work. Along with starring on the ABC daytime soap, Ms. Chris takes an active role at the Jewish Repertoire Theater in New York City, where she has directed and starred in several productions. "One of the plays that I directed at the Jewish Rep. was The Sunshine Boys, and my husband Lee was one of the actors," says Ms. Chris, who has won an Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. "I do a lot of readings there, too, and we go there all the time, even when we are not working on a project!' Unlike most thespians, Ms. Chris traveled a relatively 0 ( smooth road to success. After attending the Performing Arts High School in Manhat- tan, and studying for a short time at City College of New York, her professional stage career was launched as a charter member of the Living Theater. Some of the plays in which she showed off her talent in- cluded Alan Ginsberg's off- Broadway production of Kad- dish, where she played the mother, and the Broadway hits Lenny, The Seven Descents of Myrtle, and Brighton Beach Memoirs. "I was the first Jewish per- son to be in Brighton Beach Memoirs, she says. "If you look at the original casting, the lead roles were played by people like Joyce Van Patten. As a matter of fact, a funny thing happened while I was doing Brighton Beach. A com- mittee from Equity came to me and said they wanted to bring charges because there were no Jewish people in the Neil Simon plays — and I told them I couldn't help them because I was Jewish !" The New York stage is not the only place where Ms. Chris has gained audience approval. Her resume in- cludes hit films and television shows like Rocky II, Looking Up and Love with the Proper Stranger, and the critically ac- claimed TV docudramas "Kent State," "Backstairs- at the White House" and "Bless- ings." In 1972 Ms. Chris landed the plum role of Wanda on "One Life to Live." While per- forming in Kaddish the casting director of "One Life" spotted Chris and hired her for a three-time shot. "They were looking for an off-beat, younger woman to be in a storyline to bring back Lee Patterson," she remem- bers. "I came on and worked with Erica Slezak (who won a Daytime Emmy Award re- cently for best actress) and Al Freeman. The part evolved in- to a contract part, which evolved into a lifetime job." Ms. Chris, who is in her ear- ly 50s, says she has grown with her character. "Wanda was pretty terrific to begin with, but in the beginning it was just comic relief!" says Ms. Chris, who not only continues to perform in plays while on the soap but at one point was starring on Broadway and working on "One Life" at the same time. "Over the years, Wanda has become a real person who has sutained real losses — a hus- band, businesses, and now I think she represents a certain strata of older women." Fans have been able to see more of her trials and tribula- tions in recent months and in the future there is a new love interest brewing for Wanda. If Ms. Chris had her druthers, she would like to see Wanda encounter typical problems of the middle years and perhaps even try to have a child or remarry a man with a ready- made family. As for her future, Ms. Chris wants to keep doing what she's been doing — theater — major story lines on "One Life," and more free time with husband Lee and son Paul, who lives in California. "One of my dreams for the future is to be a grand- mother," Ms. Chris laughs. "And I want to do more Broadway and stay with the soap as long as it lasts. I guess I'm just lucky to be a working actress and do what I love best." ❑ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 75 E