Leslie Woods Collection

Leslie Woods
(1910 – 2003)

Not so very long ago, the most profitable time period for the big television networks was daytime, and daytime TV meant Soap Operas. There were any number of reasons that the "wash-tub weepers" were such a steady moneymaker for the networks. They gained their highest popularity during a period of relative affluence when women spent their days at home.

With the kids in school and their men at work, it is easy to understand how the daily routine could be built around a lady's favorite "stories". It helped that there were only three networks available to choose from; often a favorite soap was selected by which local station gave the best reception as opposed to what your friends were watching. Even so, soaps had a way of looking a lot alike. The taping techniques were uniform from show to show, the stories generally took place in fictional Midwestern cities, and the characters were generally from the upper crust (because it is a lot more fun to watch rich people having troubles).

The production and story devices often go back to the days of radio from the fertile minds of Irna Phillips and Frank and Anne Hummert's "Radio Factory". These include the cliffhangers between episodes, the swelling emotional organ music, the pregnant pauses, and the otherwise implausible situations like amnesia and characters coming back from the dead.

Because of the relative uniformity of the TV soap opera format, it is easy to see how certain players could find their way into the industry and make a living on a number of different shows over the years. Lesley Woods was a veteran of at least ten TV soaps between 1959 and 2001.

Lesley was born in Berwick, Iowa, on August 22, 1910. She got her start on Broadway in shows like A Case of Libel, and like many struggling actresses turned to radio for steady work. She was one of the regular "radio-row" players on each coast, actors whom radio producers could turn to and expect them to fill any role at a moment's notice. Ms. Woods made a number of appearances on Suspense, Inner Sanctum and Molle Mystery Theatre. When Ziv Syndications repacked Boston Blackie in the mid-1940s, Lesley shared the role of Blackie's love-interest and part-time sidekick, Mary Wesley, with Jan Miner.

Her first soap opera experience was as the third actress to play Charlotte Wilson Brandon on the radio version of The Guiding Light from 1949 to 1951. Neither Lesley nor her character made it into the TV version of the show which began broadcasting on June 30, 1952 (CBS kept both the radio and TV versions on the air until 1956). Lesley's first daytime TV exposure was as the neurotic social climber Claire Bannister Steele on Young Dr. Malone, the series leading villainess from 1959 to 1963. She also appeared on The Edge of Night, Search For Tomorrow, The Nurses, General Hospital, and others. In prime-time, she was the original Amanda Ewing on Dallas and had a recurring role as Chase Gioberti's housekeeper, Mrs. Miller, on Falcon Crest. She was Grandma Logan in the original cast of The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987-1989 and appeared briefly in the role in 2001, which was her last soap opera appearance.

Lesley Woods passed away from natural causes in Los Angeles on August 2, 2003. She was 90 years-old.