Victoria "Viki" Davidson (née Lord; previously Gordon, Burke, Riley, Buchanan, and Carpenter) is the principal fictional character on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, and only the character from the premiere episode still present on the series. Originated by Gillian Spencer on July 15 1968, she has been portrayed by Erika Slezak since March 17 1971.

Viki is considered one of the most complex characters on daytime television, suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a result of the sexual abuse endured at the hands of her father, Victor Lord. Furthermore, Viki has weathered widowhood (three times), rape, divorce, a brain aneurysm, a near-death out-of-body experience, a supposed time travel experience, being shot, suffering a stroke, breast cancer, heart disease, a heart transplant, and the abduction of three of her five children as infants. Victoria Lord resides at 1177 Regency Drive at the Lord estate of Llanfair in the fictional city of Llanview, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Storyline

Additionally, Viki has been involved with a series of men. She marries Roger Gordon as a teen, then later Joe Riley and Steve Burke; she remarries Joe, and then after his death from a brain tumor, marries Clint Buchanan. After the return of one of her most popular alter egos, Niki Smith, she divorces Clint, and upon her recovery, remarries him. Their marriage falls apart after Viki engages in a relationship with Sloan Carpenter, and years after Sloan's death, she marries Clint's brother, Ben Davidson. Her full legal name following all of these relationships is "Victoria Lord Gordon Riley Burke Riley Buchanan Buchanan Carpenter Davidson," but she goes by simply "Victoria Lord Davidson."

Viki's siblings are Tina Lord and Todd Manning as well as the late Meredith Lord Wolek and the late Tony Lord. Viki has had five children: Megan Gordon Harrison (dies from lupus in 1992), Kevin Buchanan, Joey Buchanan, Jessica Buchanan Brennan, and Natalie Buchanan. She is grandmother to Bree Brennan, the late Duke Buchanan who passed away in 2006, the late Megan Buchanan and the late Kevin Buchanan Jr. who were stillborn in 1999 and 2004 respectively. She is also a great-grandmother to Duke's son, Zane.

For several decades, Viki has had an ongoing feud with fellow Llanview resident, Dorian Cramer Lord. This stems from an incident in the 1970s when Dorian was fired from Llanview Hospital and had her medical license revoked as a result of a patient's death. Dorian, convinced that Victoria has voted for her departure from the hospital, but, unbeknownst to Dorian, is for her staying, swears revenge against her. This long-standing conflict intensifies when Dorian marries Viki's father, Victor — hence the last name "Lord." Ever since, Viki and Dorian endure Viki's multiple personalities, many injuries, being trapped together in an avalanche and much more. Further, their families have a long history of romantic entanglements, which inevitably serve to only inflame their rivalry.

In Viki's current storyline, she had walked away from her life in Llanview, to find a new purpose. Settling in the town of Paris, Texas, she worked at a diner as a waitress. Viki made several friends there including Gigi Morasco and her son Shane, Noelle Ortiz and Moe Stubbs. She also met Charlie Banks, her newest love interest. Viki has since returned to Llanview. Gigi, Shane and Charlie have also relocated to Llanview and are living with Viki and Natalie at Llanfair. Viki is now seperated from Charlie so he no longer lives at Lanfair. Brody has moved in with Gigi and Shane and Jess(as Tess)has moved back into Llanfair along with Natalie and Jared. One of Tess's plans went wrong when Viki got into a car accident that was meant for Natalie and Jared. Viki dies in this car crash and visits loved ones in heaven including her granddaughter Megan (Jessica's baby), Asa Buchanan, and the love of her life, Ben Davidson. Eventually Dorian brings Viki back to life and the wonderful trip to heaven comes to an end.

Town perception

In spite of her many personal setbacks, Victoria is one of the most respected women in Llanview and has served as both the Mayor of Llanview and the President of Llanview University. She is forced to resign as University President in 2005 when Dorian forges checks to make it look as if Viki has misappropriated funds from the University and put them into Buchanan Enterprises accounts.

Background history

Casting

Victoria Lord was originally portrayed by Gillian Spencer from One Life to Live's premiere in 1968 until 1970. The role was briefly recast with Joanne Dorian in 1970, and again in 1971 with Erika Slezak, who has since become synonymous with the character.

Two other actresses have portrayed Viki while Erika Slezak was on maternity leave: Christine Jones in 1980 and 1981, and Judith Barcroft in 1987. In the summer of 2002, Slezak's real-life daughter, Amanda Davies, portrayed a teenage version of Viki in a flashback.

Cultural impact

Awards

Slezak later went on to win six Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 2005) breaking a record for the actress with the most Daytime Emmys and tying the record for most awards by an actor with Justin Deas and Anthony Geary. Slezak also shares the record for the most Daytime Emmy wins for playing the same character with Geary.

Alternate personalities

Currently, all six of Viki's alternate personalities are integrated with her baseline psyche. In order of their first appearance on the series, they are:

• Nicole "Niki" Smith - a devil-may-care, sexually promiscuous party girl, approximately the same age as Viki. Niki has appeared more times than all the other alters combined, and is very skilled at masquerading as Viki when necessary to hide her re-emergence. Niki had two serious relationships with Vinny Wolek and Harry O'Neill, neither of whom realized at the time that Niki was an alter of Viki.
• Tommy - an angry teenage boy. Tommy is very protective of Viki, often violenty so.
• Jean Randolph - a representation of Viki's mother, Eugenia Randolph Lord. Intent on maintaining order and balance in Viki's life, Jean once imprisoned Dorian in Llanfair's "secret room" to protect the secret of Viki's molestation. Jean has faulty vision and requires eyeglasses to see properly.
• Princess - a manifestation of Viki as a seven year old girl. Princess is a traumatized child who is constantly reliving the molestation by Viki's father
• Tori - a cunning, young adult version of Viki. Tori is the most dangerous of the alters. She (seemingly) murdered Viki's father in the 1970s. Later in the 1990s, she set fire to Llanfair, unconcerned that Viki's daughter Jessica was trapped inside.
• Victor Lord - a representation of Viki's father, the real Victor Lord. He is the one alter whose existence does not revolve around protecting Viki, and he actually tried to goad her into committing suicide.

References

External links

• Victoria Lord Davidson profile - ABC.com
• Victoria Lord Davidson profile - SoapCentral.com