LINDA LANOLINDA DANO once told me on the set of Another World that she doesn't agree with those actors who say working on soaps limits one's access to other media.
She felt her job as an actor is to do the best she can with the role she has, and not to worry where the next role will be coming from.
And, ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Dano is the proof of her professional philosophy.
Throughout the years, Dano has starred in a number of soap operas. And although she may be best known for her romance novelist character, Felicia Gallant, of AW (whose real name was Fanny Grady St. George Lindquist Blake Castigliano Radzinsky), she has also appeared on Guiding Light, One Life to Live, "All My Children and Port Charles.
Dano also hosted "Attitudes," a women's talk show that was delightfully caricatured on "Saturday Night Live."
Asked how it felt to see herself being played in a rather outrageous way by Nora Dunn, Dano said: "It was so funny, and so clever. I was flattered."
Considered by many to be the best guest you can want for a show, Dano has made the guest list every season on most of TV's outstanding series.
In 2005, Desperate Housewives asked her to highlight their November sweeps programming by playing Francine, the mother of George (Roger Bart), the weird pharmacist who loves Bree (Marcia Cross).
Ironically, Dano, whom directors love for her ability to play out their vision, was told to do Francine as she saw her. "And I saw her as a bigger-than-life woman who is absolutely devoted to her boy."
This year, Dano's February sweeps bid came from the WB's What I Like About You." This time her on-screen son was played by Dan Cortese, which made her 'monster-in-law' to Jennie Garth's character.
Dano says on Desperate Housewives her mother character was thrilled that her boy actually liked women. On "What I Like About You," she says, "My character, Eileen, would prefer that her son's wife simply disappear."
Dano has come through a number of trials in recent years: She lost her husband, Frank Attardi, and her father. It was difficult to go on, but Dano picked herself up and continued with her work on behalf of Alzheimer's disease (from which her father died) and her acting career.
"You can either feel sorry for yourself," she told me, "or you can do something that will help others as well as yourself."
