[Archive 2007-12-13] Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life

Historical archive — originally published 2007-12-13. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World's fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering "in the woods" of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone's interview with the soap diva.

VW: Well, it’s great. I’m really concentrating on my painting now because for a while I was out in California. I was commuting between the two coasts.

((DS)) Both of your sons have gone on to creative careers. Christian Camargo is an actor, and the other is a photographer?

((DS)) When your sons decided that they wanted to pursue careers that were not so assured in income, like a lawyer or a doctor, but more something that is a creative enterprise like a photographer or an actor …

VW: My family has always, since the Seventeenth Century, been in show business. So the idea that any of my children would wind up being doctors or lawyers is pretty far-fetched. We were hoping…..[Laughs]

VW: That they would not pick such a difficult row to hoe, but there was no way that wasn’t going to happen. I mean with two parents who were in show business and their mother in show business and their auntie … it was just inevitable. I’m not disappointed. As long as they are doing what they love. That’s all I care about.

VW: Terrifically stimulating and very interesting. First of all, while I was on ‘Another World,’ I was working as an actress in the theater. I did lots that I can’t even remember. I did Nefertiti and Rosa and Chakrelle before I went into ‘Another World.’ I was working for six years. I managed rock and roll bands. Everybody gets that wrong too. They think that I was managing a band my children were in. No. I was managing totally unknown group of four boys, to me unrelated, and …

VW: No, no. It was while I was working. If you work for thirty years in one place, you’ve got to do other things or you go nuts, you know. And so it was ….

VW: Right, right. You’ve got to do something else to stretch yourself. On the show, I did my own artwork so that was one outlet that I had creatively because I played a sculptor on the show and did a lot of my own work. I have a permanent piece in the Smithsonian. I came across a picture of that today. It was interesting. It’s the only picture I have of the sculpture. It’s good, So along with that, the boys were in their early teens and all of a sudden a driver of mine gave me a tape of his nephew, his band. I said I don’t do music. I’m an actor. I can’t help you. He said, “Oh, no, no, no, you know people. Just listen to it.” So I listened to it. But in among all of the noise you could hear ….

VW: Yes, very raw. But it was like they had something. And we got as far as opening for Living Color and the Chili Peppers.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.