July 4, 2025 • 63 mins
The Locher Room sat down with Danielle Harris and Shelly Burch — the unforgettable mother-daughter duo Samantha Garretson and Delilah Ralston from One Life to Live.
Danielle Harris began acting at just 7 years old, landing her first major role on OLTL as “Sammy,” the police chief’s daughter. She soon became a household name in the horror genre, beating out hundreds for the role of Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4, and has since appeared in over 50 horror films, including Rob Zombie’s Halloween reboot, Urban Legend, and Hatchet. Her career spans from Roseanne to voicing Debbie in The Wild Thornberrys, and today she co-hosts the hit podcast Talk Scary to Me with Scout Compton.
Shelly Burch is best known to soap fans as the glamorous and devilish Delilah Ralston, but her career extends far beyond Llanview. A triple-threat actress, singer, and dancer, Shelly starred alongside Sammy Davis Jr. in Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, played Lily St. Regis and Star-to-Be in Annie, and originated the role of Claudia in Nine, earning a Drama Desk nomination and introducing the song “Unusual Way” to the world. She also starred as Julie in Show Boat for PBS’s Great Performances and has continued performing in her one-woman cabaret shows for over 40 years. A seasoned coach and mentor, Shelly has helped countless performers hone their craft. Her favorite role of all? Proud mother of three.
You will hear heartfelt memories, Broadway and horror stories, behind-the-scenes soap scoop, and two dynamic careers brought together for a great Llanview reunion.
Danielle Harris began acting at just 7 years old, landing her first major role on OLTL as “Sammy,” the police chief’s daughter. She soon became a household name in the horror genre, beating out hundreds for the role of Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4, and has since appeared in over 50 horror films, including Rob Zombie’s Halloween reboot, Urban Legend, and Hatchet. Her career spans from Roseanne to voicing Debbie in The Wild Thornberrys, and today she co-hosts the hit podcast Talk Scary to Me with Scout Compton.
Shelly Burch is best known to soap fans as the glamorous and devilish Delilah Ralston, but her career extends far beyond Llanview. A triple-threat actress, singer, and dancer, Shelly starred alongside Sammy Davis Jr. in Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, played Lily St. Regis and Star-to-Be in Annie, and originated the role of Claudia in Nine, earning a Drama Desk nomination and introducing the song “Unusual Way” to the world. She also starred as Julie in Show Boat for PBS’s Great Performances and has continued performing in her one-woman cabaret shows for over 40 years. A seasoned coach and mentor, Shelly has helped countless performers hone their craft. Her favorite role of all? Proud mother of three.
You will hear heartfelt memories, Broadway and horror stories, behind-the-scenes soap scoop, and two dynamic careers brought together for a great Llanview reunion.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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[Music]
(00:06):
Hi everybody, happy to have you here with me in the locker room. I'm Alan Locker.
Tonight we're taking a trip back to Landview with two incredibly talented women
who left a lasting impression on one life to live fans.
Danielle Harris who began her acting career around seven years old,
stole our hearts as Samantha Garrison and went on to become one of the most
(00:28):
recognized faces in horror with her iconic roles and Halloween 4 hatchet and so many more films.
And Shelly Birch who played the unforgettable and glamorous Delilah Ralston has had an extraordinary
career on stage and screen from originating the role of Claudia in Broadway's 9
(00:49):
to starring in Annie and Shobo and so much more. Tonight or together they played mother and daughter
on one life to live and today they're reuniting with us to share stories, memories and a look back
at where their journeys have taken them since Landview. Please help me welcome to the locker room
Shelly Birch and Danielle Harris. Hi. Hi ladies. Hi Alan. Thank you so much for being here.
(01:17):
Thanks for having me. I think Shelly said backstage that you two have not seen each other since around
1990. Yes. She looks the same. Oh I don't know. Thank you. Well you grown up. I have to say
you were beautiful young lady. A beautiful little girl and a beautiful lady. That's good to see you.
(01:43):
Good to see you. Good to see you. Yeah. Shelly's mom of three and Danielle's a mom of two so
yeah time has gone by. Shelly take us back to Landview. What do you remember about your audition or
screen test for Delilah? Well I was doing a Broadway show. I was doing Nine at the time and I had
(02:04):
just a few minutes to run in and do my audition with Bob Woods who is Bo and I had a couple auditions
and then they asked me to come to a screen test so it happened really quickly but
I was casted to Delilah. I was starved the rodeo. I rode it on a palmingo stadium. It was really quite
(02:26):
the entrance and I fell in love with Bob and he was my cousin and so then I married Aisha. It was
the father but they really weren't father and son and then they then Aisha had lied and so
when Aisha pretended he was dead I you know I couldn't stand it anymore. He was so
blind and not being telling the truth so then I married Bo and then I pretended to be pregnant because
(02:50):
Bo had gotten Becky Lee pregnant when she when he was with Becky Lee and I was married to Aisha.
Anyway I pretended because I couldn't have kids and how I had Samy which was you know if people
remember I mean Delilah was involved with Anthony McKenna. I danced on the show at Wildlife with
(03:11):
Poles and you know all kinds of crazy things and Delilah had had a little trouble telling the truth
you know it wasn't that I was a bad person it was just I kind of it was my truth and
which is why Bo left me and I followed him into the factory and by then he was with Dee Dee but
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Samantha became my best friend because everybody else had kind of turned against Delilah and when she
was found they thought she was dead drowned in a hot tub because some robbers had broken into her health
club and I I said well I'll carry Samantha's baby so I had the first embryo transplant and the
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history of television and that's where Samy came in and Ray asked me to marry him so I you know
I said you really don't have to marry me just because I'm you know carrying your wife's baby.
Only in daytime television an embryo transplant right. It was the first one and anyway so I married Ray
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and did some other things with the fashion designer but Samy you know she went from being a baby
to being like seven really quickly and that's that we know they could do that on soap.
They do it's called called soap opera rapid aging syndrome.
I mean it's like heaven please say the same. It's got an acronym for sure.
(04:41):
Shelley is it true you had auditioned I think for search for tomorrow dynasty and as the world
turns before getting Delilah? I sure did and you know you audition as an actor as an actress for
many things and you almost get it and you almost get it and so that's always a good sign that maybe
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the next one's going to happen which I'm sure Danielle knows for her auditions too and it was once
I had done a screen test for search and then a screen test for as a world turns and of course I
was disappointed but then when I went for one life to live then that was kind of the
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where you were meant to be so Danielle seven eight years old this part comes up what do you remember
about your time in land view? Well I didn't know that whole backstory that's for sure I didn't know
that everybody was trawling around with everybody. I knew that I was a transplant baby from my
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dead mother into Delilah and that my father was the chief of police and that was the extent of what
I knew going into it. I believe I think one life to live was one of my first auditions I actually
it's an interesting story how I got the part and I don't think I've ever told it before. I'm working
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on a book right now so I'm I'm writing all of this part of my life because this really did start
everything and I'm remembering things that were kind of crazy to think about at that age so I had
booked Spencer for hire with Robert Eurick it was my very first did you do that? Oh god I love that show
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I love watching it. So I had booked it. It would write on after if I'm not mistaken I think it was
right on after Charlie's Angels. Oh probably that was when TV was good. So I auditioned for that I got
the job and we're filming in Boston. It was a Thanksgiving episode and I was there for about two or
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three days and I had auditioned I believe for one life to live before I had left just like a casting
call kind of thing and when I was in Boston I got the call that they wanted me to screen test.
But I was in another state but it was like no it's going to be you know tomorrow and I had
happened to get food poisoning the night before and all I remember was not being able to go to set
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on Spencer for hire because I was sick the night before you know in the restroom and throwing up and
you know it whatever and maybe TMI and but I had to go to New York otherwise I was going to miss out
on this opportunity to screen test for it and I was going to be in Boston for the rest of the week filming.
So we managed to tell again I don't know how my mom pulled this off. We managed to tell the producers
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who knew that I had food poisoning that I couldn't come to work that day because I was in the hotel
very sick. So they rearranged their schedule and in reality I got on an airplane with my stepped
out at the time and flew to New York sick and all did my screen test and then flew back that night
to be able to work the next day on Spencer for hire. So I rolled in and I rolled out and I remember
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being really upset that my white total I remember what I was wearing I was wearing a white
total neck on a red skirt and I remember being upset that I got my white total neck dirty on the
airplane on the way to the screen test and I thought that it was going to matter somehow.
But I rolled in got the job rolled out went back to Boston to finish out the show and the producers
never knew that I had even left and my mom I guess put a chair outside the room and if anybody came
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by to to see how I was feeling or how I was doing she told them that I was asleep and that I was
getting my rest and doing better and I was actually in New York City. It's interesting for one
time. I mean God and I got to work. Teamwork everybody working together. Oh my God.
Paul, you screen tested with another actor. Did you screen test with Shelley? I don't. I mean if anything
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it probably would have been a reef I probably would have because I don't I didn't have too too too much
with Shelley. I think I had a lot more stuff it felt like more consistent stuff with the dad character.
Correct. Yeah. So if anything if I did I don't remember but if I did it probably would not
it would have been probably just with him. Well you know what happened I was kidnapped at the time
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in the basement. Yes that's all right. So I think that's probably why you did more scenes with Ken
Meekers. Yes. Yes Ken. I was kidnapped for about two months and I had been lost in this no storm
at one point and I went to King Henry's. King Lord Henry's house and knocked on his door you know I
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went through the snow and I reminded him of his dead wife and so he put me in the basement and I
I don't remember why Vow and GD were there but anyway I was there for a while and I think they
were just waiting for me to get out of the basement so that's probably why you did more scenes.
I remember you I remember the scene or the day where you showed up for the first time. I remember
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our first day working together. I remember the gray carpeting and like a like a step down or two
steps down and you came in and you you looked a wreck because you had been kidnapped and gone and you
came in and I was like I don't know if I called you mom or I mean I guess I did right called you mom
and I ran and I hugged you and we were reunited. Oh that's funny I mean I remember all of a sudden you
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grew though that was the one thing when I went to the basement you were a baby but but it was you
were so professional and I remember when they told us that you were the star in all these Halloween
movies and so we were very impressed everybody on the set and you were much bigger I mean you were
(11:05):
almost a much bigger star than all of us from the show because you had been doing movies you know
so that was a big deal. Oh my god that's so funny. Yeah I mean I never came back I went off after
I went off I left the show to go do Halloween for and then I came back and was back on the show for
I guess another eight or nine months and then I left again to do the sequel and then I never came back
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after that. I mean I'm assuming they just I don't know if did they write me off or did I get older again
or I don't know what happened and what happened I was singing I've been singing in my real life off
the show and doing cabaret for years and doing other theater things and so I was singing on the show
and I was not working that much you know I had a year of a show and a half guarantee and they just
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I didn't have an interesting storyline Ken and I were raised and I were happily married and so
there wasn't much that was happening and they kind of just wrote me out to go to LA to do a TV series
and so that's probably you know you were you're probably still there you went you went with me and
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I remember saying you know I'm taking Sammy Ray and we're going to LA and hopefully you'll join us
and I think he stayed on the show I mean we didn't get divorced or anything and it wasn't I think
it was amicable all I know is I had moved to Florida and so I just kind of was written out but I
was too nice of a character and too popular to be killed you know they only killed characters that
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were really bad I mean bad like evil you know it's not like that actors or anything but what do you
remember about working with Ken Mekker oh well you know he was such a nice guy I don't know and I'm
sure Danielle will remember and and for me he was tall I mean it was when I was married to Aisa
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Phil Carrey was tall and and Bowen I were just the same high but Ken was so tall but he was so sweet
and my with he hands him and so that was a pleasure and Danielle I bet you have lovely memories
of working with I just loved him you know I yeah I adored him I remember I remember the suit
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and yeah that's lovely I had I really did have a lovely time and I was lucky I I feel like
everybody that I worked with growing up as a kid really were were exceptional with me and kind and
you know really really watched out for me and and took care of me on set and you know I still think
about it every time I go to New York I still for some reason you know 56 west 66th street like pops
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into my head I'll never forget the address and and the stairs outside and I used to go to Roy Rogers
for lunch and you know things like that that you remember when you're nine like where you ate and what
I ate there and what the dressing rooms look like and and the woman who played Tina Andrea Evans I have
pictures actually gosh I should have I should have thought of that before we were like I've got a
whole book of pictures from the was it the 100th episode no yeah it was some it was a tavern on the green
(14:20):
yeah yeah I think it was it was either you know I don't remember when I was in a grocery we were
celebrating but I do remember it was just this great party it's a tavern on the green and Andrea
oh who played Tina you were saying but she was my roommate in our we shared a dressing room
together and so we had a great time and um anyway that's it's a it's a loss we lost her to breast
(14:48):
cancer yeah yeah yeah what a lady but 56 west 66th street was recently sold it's no longer an 80
building I know I know that's so sad yeah ABC moved out of that whole area they moved downtown
yeah so it's no longer the ABC headquarters uh Shelley talk about uh Phil Carrey and uh Robert Woods
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what do you remember about those well when I said when I started I was a few oh well I was a
roast because that we thought we were cousins and then I was a Buchanan when I married Asta and
um it was really Asta and Clint and me um and um we and Bob Woods of course and we were just like
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this family I mean it's it's amazing and then of course Vicki and well Vicki was married to Clint um
but uh Phil Carrey was he was so funny and they the thing that I remember about all these guys
that they just treated me so well um and they really watched out for me um I mean I've been working
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on Broadway and um was actually when I first started on the show I was in nine and um I did for six
about six seven months I would go to work during the day at the soap and then I would quickly make my
half hour curtain uh make half hour call at seven thirty I mean sometimes it was really close but I
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said to the director I've got to get out of here you know so you got to make this scene go fast or
you know get me out and so I would get down to this to this to Broadway and do my show but um
after doing both for a couple months I just couldn't do both anymore and I left nine but um but
the guy that's a lot to do in a day well and you know I was 24 and we just think we could do anything
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I mean I at the time it just seemed like oh I can do this I can handle this but it was really a lot
and you know working from seven in the morning until six o'clock at night and then quickly you
know getting and doing a Broadway show but um I think that was the really special thing about
soaps being done in New York that the actors could do theater in the evening they could have
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you know work in the daytime exactly and a lot of them did and um I we had a lot of actors coming
you know it was so funny though because actors Broadway actors would kind of look down on the
soap you know and they would think well it's not real acting and I would say you know guys I have a
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steady gig I got to work I work and I was working five days a week because I had a big storyline for
the first few years and um I said this is a regular gig I'm not just you know coming doing a small
part in the show or working off Broadway or off off Broadway because I did all that and I was just
happy to have a regular job and make a steady paycheck and be a big star I mean no I'm not
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counting my own horn but the soaps were like I try to tell my kids were like reality television
and you know I was on the show for two weeks and and I was walking down the street with Bob we were
going to have lunch um you know the actor Bob Boots who played Bo and um and people were yelling
at us down the street you know there goes Bo and the wildlife and it was just it was a little bit
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oh my gosh you know so it was amazing how um prolific and how famous the soaps were and people
that were on the soaps were just um so it was a good time but those guys were just great and um I
loved working with them and they watched out for me because they were a little bit older and um
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and I was younger and I was more influenced I think by everything you know um so they kind of took
me under their wing and made sure I was okay which was really sweet you must have learned a lot
both of you I mean I mean Danielle you were really young I mean but you were in your 20s doing a
TV show like this well what do you think you took away from the whole one life to live experience
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Danielle um I mean it it everyone I think just felt I mean everyone felt like a movie star to me
I think walking out of of those stairs and like Shelley was saying and the the the people that would
be there wanting your autograph and taking pictures and and uh just the whole process was very it
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happened very fast as well uh for me so I mean I I think it was a nice sort of introduction to what
Hollywood would eventually feel like especially for me doing you know a lot of horror movies so
it was it was uh it didn't take much time to sort of find my way and see that people were
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looking out and adults were wrangling and and trying to teach me and take care of me and
I remember rehearsals and there was like a rehearsal room off of where the main room kind of was and
I remember a long table we'd sit there and I think I was doing school at the time too and
would walk down everyone's hallways and see everyone in their dressing rooms and you could even
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smoke cigarettes back then in your dressing room you know and it was just like I was just you know I
I I don't think I've ever you know I I've never experienced anything quite like that since my my best
friend uh it was on general hospital she's still I mean not as much anymore but she was on from when
she was a little girl until you know she was much older uh she played Rob and Scorpio and uh yeah
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it's Kimmy it's Kimberly so yeah so I had a lot of sort of we sort of kind of grew up with that
with that same you know that in that same world but I think New York soaps are very different than
than California soaps were at the time a lot of very different minds that when it comes to you know
the the acting process and and the creative process for sure I agree I I had Kim Kimberly on my show
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she's very sweet but I mean talk about somebody who was the my god oh yeah it's crazy I mean I would see
her scripts and you know all through our 20s and I would visit on set all the time and I'm like I
I have absolutely no idea how you remember all of this how you get this the night before and you
have 120 pages to learn by tomorrow and you just do and uh I you know I who were talking before in
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the waiting room and I could never do anything like that and I've auditioned a few times here in
there in my 20s for soap operas and and uh one of the things that they had required at the time uh
was that we be off book even for the auditions and uh it would be a lot of dialogue and I could just
never do it I just my brain doesn't work that way I think from from doing film so young I I'm still
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so used to doing under 10 pages a day now unfortunately indie movies you know 10 pages a day is like a
breeze but uh but it's it's it's a whole other way of performing and of training your your your
technique and your craft that that nobody will understand unless you actually were on a soap opera
and I give them a lot of credit anyone that poo poo soap opera actors you you go try it for a day
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and see if you can do it completely I have to say I would get a lot of pages we would get some a
week ahead and Bob taught me um go through and pull out all your lines just you know all your pages
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rip them out on Sunday you know do it on Sunday and then you would have let me choose you and
pages there's a Friday and then we were working on Saturdays because they were doing the Olympics in
84 and all the cameramen were going to leave because they didn't have digital them and um so we had
to get even more ahead in our taping we used to only be a week ahead but um I figured if I if I
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got my lines and I underlined them on Sunday then I would just take one day at a time and I could
literally get my lines and learn them in the dressing room during that you know you would do dry
blocking and then before you went up on the set well the other actors were doing their dry blocking
then I could learn my mind and then I could during um dress during um our lunch break you know
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I've been putting my makeup on and just talking to myself and and we and we just do one scene
in a time and um it it was amazing how your brain you'd be surprised Danielle you would you
would you would easily been able to handle it because you just you just do it it's not a and I
thought you know it's got to be Shakespeare every day and and Bob Woods reminded me you know
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shelly you're gonna do it again tomorrow so you do the best you can and then you know if somebody's
done like when I could finally cry real tears that was a big deal you know I mean um and and you
it was just it was it was wonderful and it was a great way to learn how to act I mean when
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eight to died and I thought oh my gosh I've got a pretend that my husband is dead and I didn't know
how to do that and and Bob Woods he would just say shelly looking their eyes and just talk to them
and it was such a great um for me also just a great training um because it was very different from
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being on the stage and doing the same show it talks a week you know but um but anyway we
it was it was something else and and the the learning of the pages as I said it would just be one day
at a time I mean if I had 60 pages or 20 pages um but um but you would just do the best you could
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and and then I would come in and I'd say and uh so it was it took out one day and get the next one in there
yeah it's something it's learned at all and it was short term memory you know it wasn't like I would do
a scene and then it would be completely out of my head until the next you know um the next thing and
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then you'd learn that one and then by the end of the day everything was gone and it was just well
what are we doing tomorrow um well also you like you said shelly you learned from Bob Woods but also
Judith Light was on that set Erica Slazek was on that set oh my gosh yeah and Brinthair who played
Jenny you know and Samantha um they they they were just such great examples and um and I I would
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get so nervous you know the light would the red light would go on um oh my gosh but I somehow
you just learned um but as I said these other actors were such great help and so encouraging um and uh
so I really learned and um I was very grateful I was grateful for that job I mean I was on for eight
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years and then it really promote you know I had a lot of great memories and but it was hard you know
getting up at four you know early in the morning and getting there and especially when I was doing both
off theater I can't even imagine that yeah Danielle you left Florida to move to New York City I think
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to yeah pursue acting who were what inspired that at such a young age I was doing beauty pageants
when I was in Florida you know is the 80s like what what we did I guess what moms did what
their kids when I had nothing else going on so my mom and grama would make my my pageant dresses
and it's funny because my my mom was actually my sister which is digging through um
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sitting on my desk I'll show you which is digging through some some papers and she found this uh
fashion consultants um certificate that I had graduated modeling techniques uh this is December
nineteen nineteen eighty four um yeah so uh so I was you know I did I did all and then here's a picture
(27:22):
actually from uh Spencer for hire when I was on my my mom I just didn't know what it was I was like I'm
pretty sure that was spent far so that was right around the the time that I I had I'd left there and
went to go do one like to it um I uh so I was doing beauty pageants and and started modeling and you
know little little teeny things in Florida and then I had had one this sort of modeling pageant
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that took me to New York um I'm pretty sure it was in retrospect thinking about it it probably was
one of those like oh pay us ten thousand dollars and you know you get to come to New York and and be it
and we'll teach you how to be an actress or a model kind of thing you know and my family didn't know so
I won this pageant that then cost us all this money to go to New York and when I was in New York
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during that the week that I was there I had been approached by an agency uh in New York City
and I was still living in Florida and it was called Little Rascals and they pretty much said if
you ever find your way to New York you know we'd love to represent you and and ironically enough my
my stepped out at the time a few months after that got uh he was an electrician he got relocated to
(28:25):
New York City he was building Epcot at the time and it was done and he was got a job to go work in
New York and so we we we picked up and moved to New York and my mom was like we should call that
modeling agency and see if you want to do this and we were living in Queens and they signed me and um
I worked a lot as a kid because I was a teeny and older than I looked so I probably was a little bit
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more well behaved or could listen to direction a little bit better so I did a ton of like modeling for
for you know much younger kid stuff hand modeling for like little little kid stuff and my hands are
still tiny um and uh and and I I just slowly made my way from print to commercials to television
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stuff and and one like you know after Spencer higher my first gig one like to live was the very next
thing that I that I got and I didn't I didn't do TV after that other than commercials until many years
later wow well and what I remember too uh about Danielle she just sparkled when you would come and
I you just had this smile that was just a whisper and um I was I was just watching some old
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episodes and I saw a scene that we did together it's on if you put Delilah because I my kids saw
Delilah things oh well T.L. and all these things came up of when I was seeing on the show but then
there wasn't scene with the two of us and um it was so sweet but you smiled and it was just
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so precious and so I'm sure that you know that's what everybody was always so taken by you Danielle
I loved working I loved being on set I loved being around adults I loved the experience and learning
new things and I still you know I hate the process of getting a job but other than that I love
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working on set is my happy place for sure in every way shape and form yeah it's a great way to learn
just being in that environment yeah Shelley is it true that you saw a show at 14 years old and that's
what uh sparked your interest you know I was going to be a um concert pianist that was my big
(30:44):
thing growing up as a kid and I played piano and I would play for hours but then I went to go see
a friend of mine in West Side Story at the time and I watched it and I oh being the show is so amazing
but I thought I could do this and I could do this really well and I mean it was just this arbitrary
thought that came in my mind and um I I just started doing theater and taking classes of dancing
(31:12):
and and I was so driven by the time I turned about 17 I decided I was going to audition for musical
theater and I went to the first I was in a Carnegie Mellon the first musical theater class when they
first started it and um but I was only there for a year at Carnegie Mellon and I just moved to New
(31:32):
York at 19 because I wanted to be a Broadway star and so that was my big goal but it was true I
I went to see a show at 14 and it just sparked this uh drive in me and um and you know I never
stopped performing until only a few years ago after my second husband passed away Martin Charne and
(31:54):
um he was my director and creator of Annie and it wrote the lyrics um but I did I was doing cabaret
just really until a few years ago and um I was just always very driven um to keep going on the stage
and singing and um well you only might have gone one year to Carnegie Mellon but there is a lot of
(32:17):
talent from Carnegie Mellon that have graduated and who have spent oh my gosh yes I know it is quite
the school for for theater folks yeah yeah I know I had a great class and uh and a lot of those most of
those kids went on and I mean out there grown up they're my age but um you know once you have that
(32:40):
bug that theater bug um I don't think it goes away um I mean I I now my daughter says I'm retired
and I just like no that's not I mean I just I'm not singing right now I need to find a piano player
so um actually if anybody lives in Michigan or I want to have an old of its original career. Absolutely.
(33:07):
What do you find me on a play? Daniel we've talked so much about Halloween what take us back to
Halloween for did you even know at that time what a horror film was? No no I I'm still shocked that
we're talking about it this this many years later it still surprises me um no I mean I know I you
(33:27):
know I I'd never seen any of them or really knew that much about them uh I hadn't even I don't
think I even saw the original Halloween until many years after that but but now I know all about it
it's consumed in my world I've I've leaned into it over the years um I mean I only did two you know
two Halloween movies uh and then I didn't do any horror at all for 20 years so it's just ironic
(33:52):
that people always kind of go back to that and I think it's because of the the resurgence and when I
came back in 2007 and the Rob Zombie ones and you know sort of I didn't realize that people had
still loved that the character Jamie as much as they did from back in the day and um welcome you
with open arms and you know and at that time I I was 30 and had gone through the the the 20s and the
(34:17):
child actor stigma and you know thank god didn't didn't die during that time or do anything horrible
or you know didn't didn't turn to drugs didn't lose my life and go crazy and a lot of the stuff that
that a lot of the kid actors um have had to go through so I had really great great people around me
for a long time my whole career I've always had that group of adults on set whether it be directors
(34:40):
or my you know co-stars or whatever it was so um yeah I had no idea what what that was going to end up
uh end up being but I definitely leaned into it as I got older and and found a home in it and now it's
I mean it's kind of a similar I would say thing to performance wise as it is on soaps you know there's
(35:02):
what's so great about horror movies is I get to be a lead and I get to have these amazing uh
character these scenes that show such a range of ability that you don't really get to do
unless you're a movie star in other movies or star of a TV show and even then you know a storyline of
(35:23):
at least you know a non-cable shows back in the day before they had all these other opportunities
for these great roles for young women uh looked very different than than than they do now and horror
was a way for me to to really showcase um what I love to do and I always love drama I always
loved to be able to cry and and scream and all those fun things and the screaming comes to crying but
(35:47):
you know it was always good at crying hence why I got on a soap opera very out of my thing um so
when one kind of played one kind of played into the other is there a specific memory that stands out
from hollowing for from the first geez um you know it's just I again I I remember the things that I
(36:08):
remember about doing those movies and what I love so much were things that are a regular you know
ten-year-old would love I loved that I can order french fries into room service whenever I wanted
and I didn't have to pay for it that would be right right there you know it was like eight in the
morning I'm like I'm gonna order french fries like that was so exciting for me and you know not having
(36:31):
to go to school and getting to do school on set or in a hotel room and and staying up throughout the
night and you know just those things were really fun for a ten-year-old uh it wasn't about like oh I'm
doing this movie and I didn't really understand it until I got back to to New York and went you know
was in Queens and and the kids in school were starting to kind of notice and shift in a little a
(36:53):
little more attention and uh it it was a little bit of a different vibe when I got back from from
doing the hollowing movies I guess people thought that I was this you know movie star so to say but
I don't know it was just fun for me oh you were a movie star because I remember I mean not interrupt but
um when when we heard that Danielle was coming you know it was a big deal you know so crazy to
(37:17):
be how we movies and everybody was so impressed and um you know it was it was a big deal Danielle so
you know congratulations on that it was to been a lot of fun I coached a lot of kids um Martin and I did
the a lot of national tours of Annie and sent them out on the road and so I know little girls that
(37:41):
love to just be on stage and so the funny story I don't the one of the one of the first times actually
the first time that I went to Los Angeles was a screen test uh for Annie too they were they were
going to make another feature and uh and they flew me to LA and I stayed at the Bell Air Hotel and I've
(38:06):
got pictures somewhere of me and a red wig and I screen tested and and the only thing is I don't sing
so but they wanted to make it more of a drama more dramatic it wasn't supposed to be a musical
and I didn't get the part and they never made the movie but um but yeah I I screen tested for Annie too
(38:29):
which would have been kind of amazing all connection yeah yeah that's great I know there's been a lot of
Annie's I just went the uh been on tour for a while I mean it's I was in New York I thought
what'd be goper play the game right oh my gosh she was amazing I heard she was fantastic yeah yeah
(38:52):
and she was just the nicest person I got to go backstage and and thank her for for all from all the
the creative team and really for my husband I said he is so proud of you and you know we were both
crying and it was just uh it was a great way there's a lot of that that's awesome well speaking of
Broadway Shelley you you got your first Broadway show at 1920 when you were cast as Sammy Davis
(39:19):
junior's daughter that yeah I mean it was really something else I um I've been in New York for only eight
months and I've been doing auditions but um my my first Broadway show I was actually 20 and I played
Sammy Davis junior's daughter he was married to this tall wife and he had an African-American daughter
(39:42):
and a white daughter and so it was wife was not she was Mary and Mercer who was so funny you know
this great funny actress and we were just towering over Sammy but that was the joke that the
but mine he was talented and I used to watch him sing um the end of the first act they wrote a special
(40:03):
song for him but he would sing what kind of pool of my at the end of the end of the show and I watched
it every single night and he just he taught me you know you just sing from your toes and you let it all
out and and from your heart um and he was so talented so I was really grateful uh to be able to
work with him and um in my first show you know it's crazy because I I was working at Starbucks for a
(40:32):
few years just to stay busy uh since I've been here in California and um these kids they don't even
know who Sammy Davis junior is you know um and I had to explain well you know I've worked on Broadway
and I did this so far and they could see me but um anyway it's it's just uh he was just so wonderful and I
(40:54):
was very privileged to be able to watch him do anything yeah he was amazing he he he who who were
some of the mentors who helped guide your path not necessarily career could be but Daniel start with you
gosh um I just keep thinking of directors that have popped into my head uh Tony Scott was was someone
(41:18):
that was in my life for a while and really guided me and and helped along the way um red dorif another
you know horror uh I mean aside from horror he's known for for that but many other things you know
Academy Award winner um and uh I it's ironic because you know I didn't I my dad in real life passed
away uh right before I moved to New York and my entire career has has really been uh if I think about it
(41:46):
moh which I'm now realizing as I'm getting older it's always been myself and uh a dad even on one
life to live it was me and my dad until you know mom came back so every single role that I have had
since then if it's not some uncle chasing me it's always dad I don't I don't really hardly ever have
mothers in movies I mean don't tell mom the babysitter's dad I had a mom but she took off and was
(42:09):
gone for the summer so I have my sister but and there was no dad um but but most of the films I've done
there's been a a very prominent male figure in these movies uh and I think they've all sort of guided
me whether it was the director or whoever was playing my father or my uncle and um and they really
looked out for me over the years it's been it's been they were really crazy that that dawned on you
(42:34):
because that's really something to have lost your dad your real dad so young yeah where it hit you
that all of these men and characters I think it was probably somewhere in my 30s um both uh so I
when it once I got married um my husband and I struggled with IVF with uh infertility for a couple
(42:56):
of years and I ended up doing IVF and my both my boys were frozen embryos mine that were implanted so
and they both broke so it's kind of funny because I didn't even really put two and two together about
our storyline and I mean I knew that I knew that somehow I was in your in your body but you didn't
create me but I don't think I really understood it until you just brought it up now of course I
(43:19):
understand it because both my children were born that way um but uh but I think that's really
interesting kind of how that it became a part of my life I mean it's a very we I've had a very
interesting weird life and in parallel you know my art has been as parallel my life or my life is
parallel my I don't know which has which has come first but it's been it's been pretty fascinating
(43:43):
writing over the last year or so and and kind of uncovering all of these uh these coincidences
well you'll have to come back when the book comes out yeah for sure we'll do that Shelley how about
yourself mentors who helped guide you along the way and you know I um I I what the year that I was
(44:04):
at Carnegie Mellon I had a dance teacher Paul Draper who had worked with Fred Astaire and he just
influenced me so much to be a dancer you know and I had I was a singer uh primarily and then um
he really I was such a great class we had at Carnegie so when I moved to New York I started studying
with Luigi and um so he really influenced me and and made me a dancer and um I had a voice teacher
(44:34):
who I studied with for I don't know 40 years it seemed like um Al's or Tutu Leo he was up on 72nd
Street and um great name I was so fortunate and then when I worked with Martin he was my director and
Annie um then we got there 25 years later but I was gonna ask you if that's how you met him
(44:55):
that's how I met him he was I was in the original production of Annie um and uh so it's crazy
because the show opened in 77 I went into it in 79 because he hired a whole bunch of new actors he
wanted to make it fresh but um he was uh so charming and we went out for a short time and
(45:17):
but I was much younger he was much older and um so then we didn't see each other for 25 years
and then um he told me he had been in love with me 25 years before and it's just a really amazing
love story um and then we just for 20 years did shows and he would produce and write and we would
(45:38):
do all kinds of reviews and he would always direct the caparet and uh some plays we did um but as far
as acting I really I studied at Circle in the Square and uh you know it was really important I knew
because I was almost gonna be in course line while I was in Annie I had auditioned a few times and I
(45:58):
I was at this audition and I'm thinking I don't know if I want to do this eight shows a week I think
I've better learn how to talk so I started studying at Circle and um Nico Sakaropoulos was my teacher
and uh he just influenced me so much to really be I mean the method acting that I learned to Carnegie
(46:21):
and it was real method you know like what Al Pacino and you know all those intense guys um
and then I went on the soap and I you know I tried to use the method acting there and it was just
like it did it it was just do it you know and so I learned you know quickly that it wasn't
(46:43):
Tennessee Williams or check off or Ipsen or anything you know we were just
and they didn't give you the time to really do that no I mean I had a scene with a psychiatrist at one
point because Delilah was gonna lose in it and um it was really you know I could act and um so it
was kind of scary you know and I would say gosh this is so vulnerable to do this in front of 15 to
(47:08):
30 million people to kind of lose it and um and so that was kind of scary actually in a way but um
but again the actors would just say shall I just do it again tomorrow and forget about it
just love it all yep go home get some sleep learn your lines come back again
yeah so anyway it was exciting Daniel how did you meet Kimberly McCullough
(47:34):
um I just part of the kid actor circle pretty much and I mean we we've been best friends for a million
years and uh and you're both directing now yes yes actually when she went is when she was
starting to direct she would put me as her actress and all of her all of her short films so I was
always playing her essentially um and we traveled all over together and and I just I mean I it's
(47:58):
funny because she's come with me to like horror conventions just as my bestie and people are like
oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god and then uh which we don't we don't think that it crosses
and then I've gone with her to Super Soap Weekend uh when it was when they were doing that done
in Florida a couple different times and then people will be like Jamie or like yelling my character name
(48:19):
you know from across the way like they can't understand but I auditioned against Kimberly
Firmley and things she's I mean we're very similar so uh so she was just part of part of that group
and um you know we we're child we're we're surviving we're survived child actors that have a lot a lot
of a lot in common yes successful yeah she's so great she's been wonderful yeah she's and she was
(48:42):
I had never met her you know known about her for years she was a delight um one of our fans Kendra
said that Sammy Davis had been on one life to live oh really back in the day yeah back in the day
maybe that was before I was on it um it might have been yeah um Shelley what do you remember about Paul
(49:05):
Rausch now he was tough he was I worked for him as well on guiding light so you know though I will
say um he was tough and um I I was a little bit afraid of him all those because he was such a
(49:26):
tough producer but um he sure got good work done and um I have to say you know Joe um
Joe Stewart was my producer when I started and he was the one who hired me and then the the
women who were uh Josie Van Emmerick and I'm trying to remember the head the president of maybe see
(49:50):
anyway but Paul Rausch was um he was a great producer and he did a we did a lot of good work um
and um but I didn't want to mess with him I wanted to do everything you told me to do you know and
I was as I said I was a little bit intimidated but yeah he was he was a tough one does that
(50:13):
name ring about to you Danielle hey were I have memory of that name I don't I don't know what I
mean obviously he was there um I think I just wanted to make everyone happy so I don't and I don't
think I had much fear or knew what what who was in what position you know so it just whoever it was
I just wanted to be a good kid and and make sure that I was well behaved and wasn't a brat which
(50:36):
I pretty much carried that with me throughout throughout my my childhood career yeah um Jackie
Smith was the president of ABC yeah oh my gosh she was so wonderful and and Josie Van Emmerick
they she was a vice president and they were the ones who really hired me um that saw my screen
(50:58):
test and really loved it a lot you know and I will say about Paul Rausch I sat down with him one time
and he influenced I mean he was so as tough as he was he was so kind and he really looked out for
the actors which I think was really impressive for a producer to do that um to care about the actors
(51:18):
and and just that they were doing you know how they were doing and how are you you know like as a person
which was it can be a pretty cold business um and to have producers that really care
it was really special so I'm very grateful to him actually yeah he knew what he was doing he might
(51:41):
have been tough but he really did and he he loved actors he loved I mean without the actors you got
no story you know you he really he knew how to pull it out um Danielle have you um over the years
come to love horror films yourself like do you have a favorite do you watch some of the others
that come out I am supposed to say yes um I'm kind of like a super person that owns a bar um no I
(52:13):
I you know it's it's I I love it and I I get it and I know how to do them and I know what makes them
good and and it is a job for me um I think there's they're very difficult to make and uh and they
don't get enough credit I'm happy to say they're finally getting recognized for for the work that
really goes into them which is lovely and and long long overdue um so uh I do it it's hard because
(52:38):
they're all my friends you know so so to watch them and know that I know probably half of the people
and them it's it kind of takes me out of it sometimes but uh but I have a lot of respect for it and
it's a very small community we all know each other we all work together over and over again I mean
there really is a little core group of us that have been doing it for many years and and I'm happy
with the family that I have here that's for sure and also I have the liberty to to kind of pick and
(53:03):
choose you know roles that I want to do and and thank goodness for fan conventions and and things
like that and podcast stuff and ways to you know ways to other ways to implement uh income so I can
be home with my kids and and be a mom and I'm not running back and forth to auditions and and doing
that stuff anymore I mean who's running to auditions anymore you know but yeah not many people
(53:24):
you know you're cramped in yeah of course they do yeah actually working with my my my partner in
crime my other friend that does the podcast with me and my and also another horror movie actress
is directing Barbara right now Barbara's great Barbara Barbara gets all the ladies together all
the time all the ladies of horror if anyone needs anything done Barbara cramped and we'll get it done
for you I love that I love that tell everybody about your podcast yes it's called talk scary to me
(53:50):
as you can see I've got my friend Michael Myers sitting over there hiding over there in the corner um
and uh we're produced by bloody disgusting and we're on we're podcasts where you find podcasts we're
on every Tuesday we were on this morning and it's it's great it's it's basically just talking about
things that that are scary to talk about love relationships mental health a lot of sex stuff a lot
(54:14):
in relationship a lot of a lot of horror stuff also just for the for a way for the fans to get to know
a different side of their favorite genre actor um you know where a lot of the people are intimidated a
lot of fans are intimidated to ask some of these scary uh screen queens or or monsters personal stuff
and and I think over the years we we got a little bit um a little bit bored of being asked the same
(54:39):
questions and appearances and with you know with fans and we wanted to open up a bit more of our lives
uh and and have everybody know that we're a lot more like them than than maybe they're aware of and
and it's created a really amazing community for us um I have my own patreon and and have a great
community there um you know it's if if it weren't for the fans we wouldn't be able to to have
(55:00):
survived for at least for me all of these years like that have followed me since one life to live
probably and uh I'm always shocked though when someone comes up to me at a horror convention is like
I remember you when I to live I've been watching you with my mom you know when I was five years old
I used to watch and that's how I got started watching soaps my grandma my mother my sister still sits in
her car if she's watching this right now she still sits in her car at her job during her lunch break
(55:24):
and watches soap operas all these years you're 40 all these years you're still watching soaps
every day it's it's I used to fold laundry with my grandma and and what and soap operas were just on
I mean that's you know that's what what what were you watching one I have to live it was all abc general
hospital one night to live yeah of course all my children um yeah the good we were never a little
(55:49):
bit of days of our lives but that was when I got a little bit older and I was in acting class with
some of the actors I actually directed my only play that I've ever directed uh I had Austin peck star
in for based on I love love awesome we were in acting class together and and I wanted to do this
I was always scared of theater and wanted to direct and didn't know you know what it would take to
(56:10):
to direct film but I knew that I could rent a little black box theater and and pay for it and
and have my friends and write something and and uh and just create something cool and see
how it felt to to work with actors and and work on performance which you know doesn't happen
as much as we we like to and not coming from a theater background and not getting to really dig into
(56:32):
something for very long I loved it and that's why I ended up starting to direct film and and stuff
like that but it's a different a different beast I still am I just directed a movie in December
horror movie and and I still really was only interested in working with the actors on their story
and their and characters and and the creative process of it uh more so than the camera setups and
(56:55):
and you know working with D.P. and now I'm in post and I'm loving putting all the all the pieces
together and and and doing all that. What's the name of it for people? Last chance motel
it stars Heather Langan Camp who was in you know the original nightmarinelm streets and a lot of
a lot of really good people and it's it's really fun so. Well everybody keep your eyes out for it.
(57:17):
Yeah. Shelley you grew up uh because of your dad in in politics right?
I sure was and yeah my dad well he was chairman of the GOP now this was a different Republican party
and just politics in general were so different back then I mean yeah yeah how is that in your
(57:44):
eyes of how it's changed over the years? Well I mean my dad was chairman in 64 and then he
he was chairman of the FCC from 69 to 73 and he was an advisor to Nixon um right at the end of
Watergate and that was just horrible and then he stayed with Jerry Ford um and we had friends who
(58:07):
were democrats and you know we spent holidays with you know with our friends and it wasn't like it
is so divisive right now I mean but I was able to sing the national anthem at several Republican
conventions and um it's it's been that well that was in the 80s but um I don't know what to say I mean
(58:32):
I grew up watching that I was a child. What do you think you learned watching your dad in those
roles you know like that's just so interesting. Well my dad's best friend for instance was George Bush
senior and um it was um it was just a different they were our friends um these very you know the
(58:54):
Attorney General and and um so it wasn't like it is now I mean and for me I was I was young I was
in my teens and um yeah um both both both of you have children I mean Shelley you said your children
are in their 30s and like 20s have any do you see any of them following in mom's footsteps here
(59:20):
your boys Danielle or they better not. No it's funny because I can't they grew up watching me
or waiting for me you know in the audience and then to take them home and you know or
watching me singing clubs uh I mean I had them in nightclubs when they were little you know singing um
(59:43):
but um no I think I embarrassed them properly and then certainly not in politics they're just
kind of normies I guess you know normies good good good term Shelley what was your go-to song your
favorite song to sing in your cabaret. Well because I made unusual way um I did the original
(01:00:10):
production of nine and I originated the role of Claudia and not and unusual way with my song
so I mean it became this really famous song that so many people used still in auditions and it was
a beautiful song so I always sang that and um but when I was doing the cabaret it would be different
(01:00:31):
Irving Berlin or George Gershwin um uh then Martin would write some music when we were doing shows
together um and um I mean I've I'm just saying so many songs but usually um usually unusual way is
kind of my go-to um I got to see nine when it the revival of nine when it came. Oh really. With Antonio
(01:00:57):
uh Banderas. Banderas yeah yeah so I didn't see that but um I know um it was very well received so
we just had a 42nd anniversary or something like that. Wow okay 82 um and we won the Tony and then
so it's there's there's several women that are still celebrating um um the no it's funny
(01:01:26):
about the soaps too because when I would be working I was at Starbucks not too long ago they
the kids there would say oh my grandmother used to watch you on one one to live and I was like yeah I
can see your grandmother because I mean I am a mature adult you know I've I've paid my dues and
(01:01:48):
and I'm still here but um I miss I'm just singing and I miss performing it so that's something. Oh I
bet I bet I gotta get back to that yeah well we need to find you a piano player ladies thank you so
much for doing this. Sure thanks for having me this is fun it was so great to reconnect with you
(01:02:09):
Shelley. Yeah so great to see you Danielle and you're so professional and so I would love to see
some of your films and read your book of course so. Yes yes yes definitely would love that so thank you
for staying with Danielle we'll do this when the book comes out. Shelley, pleasure, Danielle,
a pleasure thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks Ellen. Bye ladies. Bye bye. Thanks everybody for joining us
(01:02:35):
today. Thank you to Shelley Birch and Danielle Harris for spending the hour. I hope you enjoyed
this as much as I did. If you haven't yet subscribed to my YouTube channel you can do so down below.
Turn on the notifications for reminders of all upcoming shows and I hope if you liked today's
episode you click the like button and remember you can stream audio versions by just searching the
(01:02:55):
locker room on your favorite podcast app.
(upbeat music)
[Music]
[Music]
(00:06):
Hi everybody, happy to have you here with me in the locker room. I'm Alan Locker.
Tonight we're taking a trip back to Landview with two incredibly talented women
who left a lasting impression on one life to live fans.
Danielle Harris who began her acting career around seven years old,
stole our hearts as Samantha Garrison and went on to become one of the most
(00:28):
recognized faces in horror with her iconic roles and Halloween 4 hatchet and so many more films.
And Shelly Birch who played the unforgettable and glamorous Delilah Ralston has had an extraordinary
career on stage and screen from originating the role of Claudia in Broadway's 9
(00:49):
to starring in Annie and Shobo and so much more. Tonight or together they played mother and daughter
on one life to live and today they're reuniting with us to share stories, memories and a look back
at where their journeys have taken them since Landview. Please help me welcome to the locker room
Shelly Birch and Danielle Harris. Hi. Hi ladies. Hi Alan. Thank you so much for being here.
(01:17):
Thanks for having me. I think Shelly said backstage that you two have not seen each other since around
1990. Yes. She looks the same. Oh I don't know. Thank you. Well you grown up. I have to say
you were beautiful young lady. A beautiful little girl and a beautiful lady. That's good to see you.
(01:43):
Good to see you. Good to see you. Yeah. Shelly's mom of three and Danielle's a mom of two so
yeah time has gone by. Shelly take us back to Landview. What do you remember about your audition or
screen test for Delilah? Well I was doing a Broadway show. I was doing Nine at the time and I had
(02:04):
just a few minutes to run in and do my audition with Bob Woods who is Bo and I had a couple auditions
and then they asked me to come to a screen test so it happened really quickly but
I was casted to Delilah. I was starved the rodeo. I rode it on a palmingo stadium. It was really quite
(02:26):
the entrance and I fell in love with Bob and he was my cousin and so then I married Aisha. It was
the father but they really weren't father and son and then they then Aisha had lied and so
when Aisha pretended he was dead I you know I couldn't stand it anymore. He was so
blind and not being telling the truth so then I married Bo and then I pretended to be pregnant because
(02:50):
Bo had gotten Becky Lee pregnant when she when he was with Becky Lee and I was married to Aisha.
Anyway I pretended because I couldn't have kids and how I had Samy which was you know if people
remember I mean Delilah was involved with Anthony McKenna. I danced on the show at Wildlife with
(03:11):
Poles and you know all kinds of crazy things and Delilah had had a little trouble telling the truth
you know it wasn't that I was a bad person it was just I kind of it was my truth and
which is why Bo left me and I followed him into the factory and by then he was with Dee Dee but
(03:32):
Samantha became my best friend because everybody else had kind of turned against Delilah and when she
was found they thought she was dead drowned in a hot tub because some robbers had broken into her health
club and I I said well I'll carry Samantha's baby so I had the first embryo transplant and the
(03:55):
history of television and that's where Samy came in and Ray asked me to marry him so I you know
I said you really don't have to marry me just because I'm you know carrying your wife's baby.
Only in daytime television an embryo transplant right. It was the first one and anyway so I married Ray
(04:16):
and did some other things with the fashion designer but Samy you know she went from being a baby
to being like seven really quickly and that's that we know they could do that on soap.
They do it's called called soap opera rapid aging syndrome.
I mean it's like heaven please say the same. It's got an acronym for sure.
(04:41):
Shelley is it true you had auditioned I think for search for tomorrow dynasty and as the world
turns before getting Delilah? I sure did and you know you audition as an actor as an actress for
many things and you almost get it and you almost get it and so that's always a good sign that maybe
(05:02):
the next one's going to happen which I'm sure Danielle knows for her auditions too and it was once
I had done a screen test for search and then a screen test for as a world turns and of course I
was disappointed but then when I went for one life to live then that was kind of the
(05:26):
where you were meant to be so Danielle seven eight years old this part comes up what do you remember
about your time in land view? Well I didn't know that whole backstory that's for sure I didn't know
that everybody was trawling around with everybody. I knew that I was a transplant baby from my
(05:49):
dead mother into Delilah and that my father was the chief of police and that was the extent of what
I knew going into it. I believe I think one life to live was one of my first auditions I actually
it's an interesting story how I got the part and I don't think I've ever told it before. I'm working
(06:10):
on a book right now so I'm I'm writing all of this part of my life because this really did start
everything and I'm remembering things that were kind of crazy to think about at that age so I had
booked Spencer for hire with Robert Eurick it was my very first did you do that? Oh god I love that show
(06:31):
I love watching it. So I had booked it. It would write on after if I'm not mistaken I think it was
right on after Charlie's Angels. Oh probably that was when TV was good. So I auditioned for that I got
the job and we're filming in Boston. It was a Thanksgiving episode and I was there for about two or
(06:57):
three days and I had auditioned I believe for one life to live before I had left just like a casting
call kind of thing and when I was in Boston I got the call that they wanted me to screen test.
But I was in another state but it was like no it's going to be you know tomorrow and I had
happened to get food poisoning the night before and all I remember was not being able to go to set
(07:24):
on Spencer for hire because I was sick the night before you know in the restroom and throwing up and
you know it whatever and maybe TMI and but I had to go to New York otherwise I was going to miss out
on this opportunity to screen test for it and I was going to be in Boston for the rest of the week filming.
So we managed to tell again I don't know how my mom pulled this off. We managed to tell the producers
(07:49):
who knew that I had food poisoning that I couldn't come to work that day because I was in the hotel
very sick. So they rearranged their schedule and in reality I got on an airplane with my stepped
out at the time and flew to New York sick and all did my screen test and then flew back that night
to be able to work the next day on Spencer for hire. So I rolled in and I rolled out and I remember
(08:15):
being really upset that my white total I remember what I was wearing I was wearing a white
total neck on a red skirt and I remember being upset that I got my white total neck dirty on the
airplane on the way to the screen test and I thought that it was going to matter somehow.
But I rolled in got the job rolled out went back to Boston to finish out the show and the producers
never knew that I had even left and my mom I guess put a chair outside the room and if anybody came
(08:38):
by to to see how I was feeling or how I was doing she told them that I was asleep and that I was
getting my rest and doing better and I was actually in New York City. It's interesting for one
time. I mean God and I got to work. Teamwork everybody working together. Oh my God.
Paul, you screen tested with another actor. Did you screen test with Shelley? I don't. I mean if anything
(09:00):
it probably would have been a reef I probably would have because I don't I didn't have too too too much
with Shelley. I think I had a lot more stuff it felt like more consistent stuff with the dad character.
Correct. Yeah. So if anything if I did I don't remember but if I did it probably would not
it would have been probably just with him. Well you know what happened I was kidnapped at the time
(09:25):
in the basement. Yes that's all right. So I think that's probably why you did more scenes with Ken
Meekers. Yes. Yes Ken. I was kidnapped for about two months and I had been lost in this no storm
at one point and I went to King Henry's. King Lord Henry's house and knocked on his door you know I
(09:50):
went through the snow and I reminded him of his dead wife and so he put me in the basement and I
I don't remember why Vow and GD were there but anyway I was there for a while and I think they
were just waiting for me to get out of the basement so that's probably why you did more scenes.
I remember you I remember the scene or the day where you showed up for the first time. I remember
(10:15):
our first day working together. I remember the gray carpeting and like a like a step down or two
steps down and you came in and you you looked a wreck because you had been kidnapped and gone and you
came in and I was like I don't know if I called you mom or I mean I guess I did right called you mom
and I ran and I hugged you and we were reunited. Oh that's funny I mean I remember all of a sudden you
(10:44):
grew though that was the one thing when I went to the basement you were a baby but but it was you
were so professional and I remember when they told us that you were the star in all these Halloween
movies and so we were very impressed everybody on the set and you were much bigger I mean you were
(11:05):
almost a much bigger star than all of us from the show because you had been doing movies you know
so that was a big deal. Oh my god that's so funny. Yeah I mean I never came back I went off after
I went off I left the show to go do Halloween for and then I came back and was back on the show for
I guess another eight or nine months and then I left again to do the sequel and then I never came back
(11:28):
after that. I mean I'm assuming they just I don't know if did they write me off or did I get older again
or I don't know what happened and what happened I was singing I've been singing in my real life off
the show and doing cabaret for years and doing other theater things and so I was singing on the show
and I was not working that much you know I had a year of a show and a half guarantee and they just
(11:57):
I didn't have an interesting storyline Ken and I were raised and I were happily married and so
there wasn't much that was happening and they kind of just wrote me out to go to LA to do a TV series
and so that's probably you know you were you're probably still there you went you went with me and
(12:18):
I remember saying you know I'm taking Sammy Ray and we're going to LA and hopefully you'll join us
and I think he stayed on the show I mean we didn't get divorced or anything and it wasn't I think
it was amicable all I know is I had moved to Florida and so I just kind of was written out but I
was too nice of a character and too popular to be killed you know they only killed characters that
(12:44):
were really bad I mean bad like evil you know it's not like that actors or anything but what do you
remember about working with Ken Mekker oh well you know he was such a nice guy I don't know and I'm
sure Danielle will remember and and for me he was tall I mean it was when I was married to Aisa
(13:05):
Phil Carrey was tall and and Bowen I were just the same high but Ken was so tall but he was so sweet
and my with he hands him and so that was a pleasure and Danielle I bet you have lovely memories
of working with I just loved him you know I yeah I adored him I remember I remember the suit
(13:29):
and yeah that's lovely I had I really did have a lovely time and I was lucky I I feel like
everybody that I worked with growing up as a kid really were were exceptional with me and kind and
you know really really watched out for me and and took care of me on set and you know I still think
about it every time I go to New York I still for some reason you know 56 west 66th street like pops
(13:53):
into my head I'll never forget the address and and the stairs outside and I used to go to Roy Rogers
for lunch and you know things like that that you remember when you're nine like where you ate and what
I ate there and what the dressing rooms look like and and the woman who played Tina Andrea Evans I have
pictures actually gosh I should have I should have thought of that before we were like I've got a
whole book of pictures from the was it the 100th episode no yeah it was some it was a tavern on the green
(14:20):
yeah yeah I think it was it was either you know I don't remember when I was in a grocery we were
celebrating but I do remember it was just this great party it's a tavern on the green and Andrea
oh who played Tina you were saying but she was my roommate in our we shared a dressing room
together and so we had a great time and um anyway that's it's a it's a loss we lost her to breast
(14:48):
cancer yeah yeah yeah what a lady but 56 west 66th street was recently sold it's no longer an 80
building I know I know that's so sad yeah ABC moved out of that whole area they moved downtown
yeah so it's no longer the ABC headquarters uh Shelley talk about uh Phil Carrey and uh Robert Woods
(15:17):
what do you remember about those well when I said when I started I was a few oh well I was a
roast because that we thought we were cousins and then I was a Buchanan when I married Asta and
um it was really Asta and Clint and me um and um we and Bob Woods of course and we were just like
(15:40):
this family I mean it's it's amazing and then of course Vicki and well Vicki was married to Clint um
but uh Phil Carrey was he was so funny and they the thing that I remember about all these guys
that they just treated me so well um and they really watched out for me um I mean I've been working
(16:01):
on Broadway and um was actually when I first started on the show I was in nine and um I did for six
about six seven months I would go to work during the day at the soap and then I would quickly make my
half hour curtain uh make half hour call at seven thirty I mean sometimes it was really close but I
(16:24):
said to the director I've got to get out of here you know so you got to make this scene go fast or
you know get me out and so I would get down to this to this to Broadway and do my show but um
after doing both for a couple months I just couldn't do both anymore and I left nine but um but
the guy that's a lot to do in a day well and you know I was 24 and we just think we could do anything
(16:52):
I mean I at the time it just seemed like oh I can do this I can handle this but it was really a lot
and you know working from seven in the morning until six o'clock at night and then quickly you
know getting and doing a Broadway show but um I think that was the really special thing about
soaps being done in New York that the actors could do theater in the evening they could have
(17:18):
you know work in the daytime exactly and a lot of them did and um I we had a lot of actors coming
you know it was so funny though because actors Broadway actors would kind of look down on the
soap you know and they would think well it's not real acting and I would say you know guys I have a
(17:39):
steady gig I got to work I work and I was working five days a week because I had a big storyline for
the first few years and um I said this is a regular gig I'm not just you know coming doing a small
part in the show or working off Broadway or off off Broadway because I did all that and I was just
happy to have a regular job and make a steady paycheck and be a big star I mean no I'm not
(18:07):
counting my own horn but the soaps were like I try to tell my kids were like reality television
and you know I was on the show for two weeks and and I was walking down the street with Bob we were
going to have lunch um you know the actor Bob Boots who played Bo and um and people were yelling
at us down the street you know there goes Bo and the wildlife and it was just it was a little bit
(18:31):
oh my gosh you know so it was amazing how um prolific and how famous the soaps were and people
that were on the soaps were just um so it was a good time but those guys were just great and um I
loved working with them and they watched out for me because they were a little bit older and um
(18:52):
and I was younger and I was more influenced I think by everything you know um so they kind of took
me under their wing and made sure I was okay which was really sweet you must have learned a lot
both of you I mean I mean Danielle you were really young I mean but you were in your 20s doing a
TV show like this well what do you think you took away from the whole one life to live experience
(19:16):
Danielle um I mean it it everyone I think just felt I mean everyone felt like a movie star to me
I think walking out of of those stairs and like Shelley was saying and the the the people that would
be there wanting your autograph and taking pictures and and uh just the whole process was very it
(19:40):
happened very fast as well uh for me so I mean I I think it was a nice sort of introduction to what
Hollywood would eventually feel like especially for me doing you know a lot of horror movies so
it was it was uh it didn't take much time to sort of find my way and see that people were
(20:01):
looking out and adults were wrangling and and trying to teach me and take care of me and
I remember rehearsals and there was like a rehearsal room off of where the main room kind of was and
I remember a long table we'd sit there and I think I was doing school at the time too and
would walk down everyone's hallways and see everyone in their dressing rooms and you could even
(20:22):
smoke cigarettes back then in your dressing room you know and it was just like I was just you know I
I I don't think I've ever you know I I've never experienced anything quite like that since my my best
friend uh it was on general hospital she's still I mean not as much anymore but she was on from when
she was a little girl until you know she was much older uh she played Rob and Scorpio and uh yeah
(20:47):
it's Kimmy it's Kimberly so yeah so I had a lot of sort of we sort of kind of grew up with that
with that same you know that in that same world but I think New York soaps are very different than
than California soaps were at the time a lot of very different minds that when it comes to you know
the the acting process and and the creative process for sure I agree I I had Kim Kimberly on my show
(21:11):
she's very sweet but I mean talk about somebody who was the my god oh yeah it's crazy I mean I would see
her scripts and you know all through our 20s and I would visit on set all the time and I'm like I
I have absolutely no idea how you remember all of this how you get this the night before and you
have 120 pages to learn by tomorrow and you just do and uh I you know I who were talking before in
(21:37):
the waiting room and I could never do anything like that and I've auditioned a few times here in
there in my 20s for soap operas and and uh one of the things that they had required at the time uh
was that we be off book even for the auditions and uh it would be a lot of dialogue and I could just
never do it I just my brain doesn't work that way I think from from doing film so young I I'm still
(22:00):
so used to doing under 10 pages a day now unfortunately indie movies you know 10 pages a day is like a
breeze but uh but it's it's it's a whole other way of performing and of training your your your
technique and your craft that that nobody will understand unless you actually were on a soap opera
and I give them a lot of credit anyone that poo poo soap opera actors you you go try it for a day
(22:23):
and see if you can do it completely I have to say I would get a lot of pages we would get some a
week ahead and Bob taught me um go through and pull out all your lines just you know all your pages
(22:43):
rip them out on Sunday you know do it on Sunday and then you would have let me choose you and
pages there's a Friday and then we were working on Saturdays because they were doing the Olympics in
84 and all the cameramen were going to leave because they didn't have digital them and um so we had
to get even more ahead in our taping we used to only be a week ahead but um I figured if I if I
(23:07):
got my lines and I underlined them on Sunday then I would just take one day at a time and I could
literally get my lines and learn them in the dressing room during that you know you would do dry
blocking and then before you went up on the set well the other actors were doing their dry blocking
then I could learn my mind and then I could during um dress during um our lunch break you know
(23:34):
I've been putting my makeup on and just talking to myself and and we and we just do one scene
in a time and um it it was amazing how your brain you'd be surprised Danielle you would you
would you would easily been able to handle it because you just you just do it it's not a and I
thought you know it's got to be Shakespeare every day and and Bob Woods reminded me you know
(23:57):
shelly you're gonna do it again tomorrow so you do the best you can and then you know if somebody's
done like when I could finally cry real tears that was a big deal you know I mean um and and you
it was just it was it was wonderful and it was a great way to learn how to act I mean when
(24:18):
eight to died and I thought oh my gosh I've got a pretend that my husband is dead and I didn't know
how to do that and and Bob Woods he would just say shelly looking their eyes and just talk to them
and it was such a great um for me also just a great training um because it was very different from
(24:39):
being on the stage and doing the same show it talks a week you know but um but anyway we
it was it was something else and and the the learning of the pages as I said it would just be one day
at a time I mean if I had 60 pages or 20 pages um but um but you would just do the best you could
(25:01):
and and then I would come in and I'd say and uh so it was it took out one day and get the next one in there
yeah it's something it's learned at all and it was short term memory you know it wasn't like I would do
a scene and then it would be completely out of my head until the next you know um the next thing and
(25:23):
then you'd learn that one and then by the end of the day everything was gone and it was just well
what are we doing tomorrow um well also you like you said shelly you learned from Bob Woods but also
Judith Light was on that set Erica Slazek was on that set oh my gosh yeah and Brinthair who played
Jenny you know and Samantha um they they they were just such great examples and um and I I would
(25:50):
get so nervous you know the light would the red light would go on um oh my gosh but I somehow
you just learned um but as I said these other actors were such great help and so encouraging um and uh
so I really learned and um I was very grateful I was grateful for that job I mean I was on for eight
(26:12):
years and then it really promote you know I had a lot of great memories and but it was hard you know
getting up at four you know early in the morning and getting there and especially when I was doing both
off theater I can't even imagine that yeah Danielle you left Florida to move to New York City I think
(26:34):
to yeah pursue acting who were what inspired that at such a young age I was doing beauty pageants
when I was in Florida you know is the 80s like what what we did I guess what moms did what
their kids when I had nothing else going on so my mom and grama would make my my pageant dresses
and it's funny because my my mom was actually my sister which is digging through um
(26:59):
sitting on my desk I'll show you which is digging through some some papers and she found this uh
fashion consultants um certificate that I had graduated modeling techniques uh this is December
nineteen nineteen eighty four um yeah so uh so I was you know I did I did all and then here's a picture
(27:22):
actually from uh Spencer for hire when I was on my my mom I just didn't know what it was I was like I'm
pretty sure that was spent far so that was right around the the time that I I had I'd left there and
went to go do one like to it um I uh so I was doing beauty pageants and and started modeling and you
know little little teeny things in Florida and then I had had one this sort of modeling pageant
(27:43):
that took me to New York um I'm pretty sure it was in retrospect thinking about it it probably was
one of those like oh pay us ten thousand dollars and you know you get to come to New York and and be it
and we'll teach you how to be an actress or a model kind of thing you know and my family didn't know so
I won this pageant that then cost us all this money to go to New York and when I was in New York
(28:05):
during that the week that I was there I had been approached by an agency uh in New York City
and I was still living in Florida and it was called Little Rascals and they pretty much said if
you ever find your way to New York you know we'd love to represent you and and ironically enough my
my stepped out at the time a few months after that got uh he was an electrician he got relocated to
(28:25):
New York City he was building Epcot at the time and it was done and he was got a job to go work in
New York and so we we we picked up and moved to New York and my mom was like we should call that
modeling agency and see if you want to do this and we were living in Queens and they signed me and um
I worked a lot as a kid because I was a teeny and older than I looked so I probably was a little bit
(28:50):
more well behaved or could listen to direction a little bit better so I did a ton of like modeling for
for you know much younger kid stuff hand modeling for like little little kid stuff and my hands are
still tiny um and uh and and I I just slowly made my way from print to commercials to television
(29:12):
stuff and and one like you know after Spencer higher my first gig one like to live was the very next
thing that I that I got and I didn't I didn't do TV after that other than commercials until many years
later wow well and what I remember too uh about Danielle she just sparkled when you would come and
I you just had this smile that was just a whisper and um I was I was just watching some old
(29:38):
episodes and I saw a scene that we did together it's on if you put Delilah because I my kids saw
Delilah things oh well T.L. and all these things came up of when I was seeing on the show but then
there wasn't scene with the two of us and um it was so sweet but you smiled and it was just
(30:01):
so precious and so I'm sure that you know that's what everybody was always so taken by you Danielle
I loved working I loved being on set I loved being around adults I loved the experience and learning
new things and I still you know I hate the process of getting a job but other than that I love
(30:22):
working on set is my happy place for sure in every way shape and form yeah it's a great way to learn
just being in that environment yeah Shelley is it true that you saw a show at 14 years old and that's
what uh sparked your interest you know I was going to be a um concert pianist that was my big
(30:44):
thing growing up as a kid and I played piano and I would play for hours but then I went to go see
a friend of mine in West Side Story at the time and I watched it and I oh being the show is so amazing
but I thought I could do this and I could do this really well and I mean it was just this arbitrary
thought that came in my mind and um I I just started doing theater and taking classes of dancing
(31:12):
and and I was so driven by the time I turned about 17 I decided I was going to audition for musical
theater and I went to the first I was in a Carnegie Mellon the first musical theater class when they
first started it and um but I was only there for a year at Carnegie Mellon and I just moved to New
(31:32):
York at 19 because I wanted to be a Broadway star and so that was my big goal but it was true I
I went to see a show at 14 and it just sparked this uh drive in me and um and you know I never
stopped performing until only a few years ago after my second husband passed away Martin Charne and
(31:54):
um he was my director and creator of Annie and it wrote the lyrics um but I did I was doing cabaret
just really until a few years ago and um I was just always very driven um to keep going on the stage
and singing and um well you only might have gone one year to Carnegie Mellon but there is a lot of
(32:17):
talent from Carnegie Mellon that have graduated and who have spent oh my gosh yes I know it is quite
the school for for theater folks yeah yeah I know I had a great class and uh and a lot of those most of
those kids went on and I mean out there grown up they're my age but um you know once you have that
(32:40):
bug that theater bug um I don't think it goes away um I mean I I now my daughter says I'm retired
and I just like no that's not I mean I just I'm not singing right now I need to find a piano player
so um actually if anybody lives in Michigan or I want to have an old of its original career. Absolutely.
(33:07):
What do you find me on a play? Daniel we've talked so much about Halloween what take us back to
Halloween for did you even know at that time what a horror film was? No no I I'm still shocked that
we're talking about it this this many years later it still surprises me um no I mean I know I you
(33:27):
know I I'd never seen any of them or really knew that much about them uh I hadn't even I don't
think I even saw the original Halloween until many years after that but but now I know all about it
it's consumed in my world I've I've leaned into it over the years um I mean I only did two you know
two Halloween movies uh and then I didn't do any horror at all for 20 years so it's just ironic
(33:52):
that people always kind of go back to that and I think it's because of the the resurgence and when I
came back in 2007 and the Rob Zombie ones and you know sort of I didn't realize that people had
still loved that the character Jamie as much as they did from back in the day and um welcome you
with open arms and you know and at that time I I was 30 and had gone through the the the 20s and the
(34:17):
child actor stigma and you know thank god didn't didn't die during that time or do anything horrible
or you know didn't didn't turn to drugs didn't lose my life and go crazy and a lot of the stuff that
that a lot of the kid actors um have had to go through so I had really great great people around me
for a long time my whole career I've always had that group of adults on set whether it be directors
(34:40):
or my you know co-stars or whatever it was so um yeah I had no idea what what that was going to end up
uh end up being but I definitely leaned into it as I got older and and found a home in it and now it's
I mean it's kind of a similar I would say thing to performance wise as it is on soaps you know there's
(35:02):
what's so great about horror movies is I get to be a lead and I get to have these amazing uh
character these scenes that show such a range of ability that you don't really get to do
unless you're a movie star in other movies or star of a TV show and even then you know a storyline of
(35:23):
at least you know a non-cable shows back in the day before they had all these other opportunities
for these great roles for young women uh looked very different than than than they do now and horror
was a way for me to to really showcase um what I love to do and I always love drama I always
loved to be able to cry and and scream and all those fun things and the screaming comes to crying but
(35:47):
you know it was always good at crying hence why I got on a soap opera very out of my thing um so
when one kind of played one kind of played into the other is there a specific memory that stands out
from hollowing for from the first geez um you know it's just I again I I remember the things that I
(36:08):
remember about doing those movies and what I love so much were things that are a regular you know
ten-year-old would love I loved that I can order french fries into room service whenever I wanted
and I didn't have to pay for it that would be right right there you know it was like eight in the
morning I'm like I'm gonna order french fries like that was so exciting for me and you know not having
(36:31):
to go to school and getting to do school on set or in a hotel room and and staying up throughout the
night and you know just those things were really fun for a ten-year-old uh it wasn't about like oh I'm
doing this movie and I didn't really understand it until I got back to to New York and went you know
was in Queens and and the kids in school were starting to kind of notice and shift in a little a
(36:53):
little more attention and uh it it was a little bit of a different vibe when I got back from from
doing the hollowing movies I guess people thought that I was this you know movie star so to say but
I don't know it was just fun for me oh you were a movie star because I remember I mean not interrupt but
um when when we heard that Danielle was coming you know it was a big deal you know so crazy to
(37:17):
be how we movies and everybody was so impressed and um you know it was it was a big deal Danielle so
you know congratulations on that it was to been a lot of fun I coached a lot of kids um Martin and I did
the a lot of national tours of Annie and sent them out on the road and so I know little girls that
(37:41):
love to just be on stage and so the funny story I don't the one of the one of the first times actually
the first time that I went to Los Angeles was a screen test uh for Annie too they were they were
going to make another feature and uh and they flew me to LA and I stayed at the Bell Air Hotel and I've
(38:06):
got pictures somewhere of me and a red wig and I screen tested and and the only thing is I don't sing
so but they wanted to make it more of a drama more dramatic it wasn't supposed to be a musical
and I didn't get the part and they never made the movie but um but yeah I I screen tested for Annie too
(38:29):
which would have been kind of amazing all connection yeah yeah that's great I know there's been a lot of
Annie's I just went the uh been on tour for a while I mean it's I was in New York I thought
what'd be goper play the game right oh my gosh she was amazing I heard she was fantastic yeah yeah
(38:52):
and she was just the nicest person I got to go backstage and and thank her for for all from all the
the creative team and really for my husband I said he is so proud of you and you know we were both
crying and it was just uh it was a great way there's a lot of that that's awesome well speaking of
Broadway Shelley you you got your first Broadway show at 1920 when you were cast as Sammy Davis
(39:19):
junior's daughter that yeah I mean it was really something else I um I've been in New York for only eight
months and I've been doing auditions but um my my first Broadway show I was actually 20 and I played
Sammy Davis junior's daughter he was married to this tall wife and he had an African-American daughter
(39:42):
and a white daughter and so it was wife was not she was Mary and Mercer who was so funny you know
this great funny actress and we were just towering over Sammy but that was the joke that the
but mine he was talented and I used to watch him sing um the end of the first act they wrote a special
(40:03):
song for him but he would sing what kind of pool of my at the end of the end of the show and I watched
it every single night and he just he taught me you know you just sing from your toes and you let it all
out and and from your heart um and he was so talented so I was really grateful uh to be able to
work with him and um in my first show you know it's crazy because I I was working at Starbucks for a
(40:32):
few years just to stay busy uh since I've been here in California and um these kids they don't even
know who Sammy Davis junior is you know um and I had to explain well you know I've worked on Broadway
and I did this so far and they could see me but um anyway it's it's just uh he was just so wonderful and I
(40:54):
was very privileged to be able to watch him do anything yeah he was amazing he he he who who were
some of the mentors who helped guide your path not necessarily career could be but Daniel start with you
gosh um I just keep thinking of directors that have popped into my head uh Tony Scott was was someone
(41:18):
that was in my life for a while and really guided me and and helped along the way um red dorif another
you know horror uh I mean aside from horror he's known for for that but many other things you know
Academy Award winner um and uh I it's ironic because you know I didn't I my dad in real life passed
away uh right before I moved to New York and my entire career has has really been uh if I think about it
(41:46):
moh which I'm now realizing as I'm getting older it's always been myself and uh a dad even on one
life to live it was me and my dad until you know mom came back so every single role that I have had
since then if it's not some uncle chasing me it's always dad I don't I don't really hardly ever have
mothers in movies I mean don't tell mom the babysitter's dad I had a mom but she took off and was
(42:09):
gone for the summer so I have my sister but and there was no dad um but but most of the films I've done
there's been a a very prominent male figure in these movies uh and I think they've all sort of guided
me whether it was the director or whoever was playing my father or my uncle and um and they really
looked out for me over the years it's been it's been they were really crazy that that dawned on you
(42:34):
because that's really something to have lost your dad your real dad so young yeah where it hit you
that all of these men and characters I think it was probably somewhere in my 30s um both uh so I
when it once I got married um my husband and I struggled with IVF with uh infertility for a couple
(42:56):
of years and I ended up doing IVF and my both my boys were frozen embryos mine that were implanted so
and they both broke so it's kind of funny because I didn't even really put two and two together about
our storyline and I mean I knew that I knew that somehow I was in your in your body but you didn't
create me but I don't think I really understood it until you just brought it up now of course I
(43:19):
understand it because both my children were born that way um but uh but I think that's really
interesting kind of how that it became a part of my life I mean it's a very we I've had a very
interesting weird life and in parallel you know my art has been as parallel my life or my life is
parallel my I don't know which has which has come first but it's been it's been pretty fascinating
(43:43):
writing over the last year or so and and kind of uncovering all of these uh these coincidences
well you'll have to come back when the book comes out yeah for sure we'll do that Shelley how about
yourself mentors who helped guide you along the way and you know I um I I what the year that I was
(44:04):
at Carnegie Mellon I had a dance teacher Paul Draper who had worked with Fred Astaire and he just
influenced me so much to be a dancer you know and I had I was a singer uh primarily and then um
he really I was such a great class we had at Carnegie so when I moved to New York I started studying
with Luigi and um so he really influenced me and and made me a dancer and um I had a voice teacher
(44:34):
who I studied with for I don't know 40 years it seemed like um Al's or Tutu Leo he was up on 72nd
Street and um great name I was so fortunate and then when I worked with Martin he was my director and
Annie um then we got there 25 years later but I was gonna ask you if that's how you met him
(44:55):
that's how I met him he was I was in the original production of Annie um and uh so it's crazy
because the show opened in 77 I went into it in 79 because he hired a whole bunch of new actors he
wanted to make it fresh but um he was uh so charming and we went out for a short time and
(45:17):
but I was much younger he was much older and um so then we didn't see each other for 25 years
and then um he told me he had been in love with me 25 years before and it's just a really amazing
love story um and then we just for 20 years did shows and he would produce and write and we would
(45:38):
do all kinds of reviews and he would always direct the caparet and uh some plays we did um but as far
as acting I really I studied at Circle in the Square and uh you know it was really important I knew
because I was almost gonna be in course line while I was in Annie I had auditioned a few times and I
(45:58):
I was at this audition and I'm thinking I don't know if I want to do this eight shows a week I think
I've better learn how to talk so I started studying at Circle and um Nico Sakaropoulos was my teacher
and uh he just influenced me so much to really be I mean the method acting that I learned to Carnegie
(46:21):
and it was real method you know like what Al Pacino and you know all those intense guys um
and then I went on the soap and I you know I tried to use the method acting there and it was just
like it did it it was just do it you know and so I learned you know quickly that it wasn't
(46:43):
Tennessee Williams or check off or Ipsen or anything you know we were just
and they didn't give you the time to really do that no I mean I had a scene with a psychiatrist at one
point because Delilah was gonna lose in it and um it was really you know I could act and um so it
was kind of scary you know and I would say gosh this is so vulnerable to do this in front of 15 to
(47:08):
30 million people to kind of lose it and um and so that was kind of scary actually in a way but um
but again the actors would just say shall I just do it again tomorrow and forget about it
just love it all yep go home get some sleep learn your lines come back again
yeah so anyway it was exciting Daniel how did you meet Kimberly McCullough
(47:34):
um I just part of the kid actor circle pretty much and I mean we we've been best friends for a million
years and uh and you're both directing now yes yes actually when she went is when she was
starting to direct she would put me as her actress and all of her all of her short films so I was
always playing her essentially um and we traveled all over together and and I just I mean I it's
(47:58):
funny because she's come with me to like horror conventions just as my bestie and people are like
oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god and then uh which we don't we don't think that it crosses
and then I've gone with her to Super Soap Weekend uh when it was when they were doing that done
in Florida a couple different times and then people will be like Jamie or like yelling my character name
(48:19):
you know from across the way like they can't understand but I auditioned against Kimberly
Firmley and things she's I mean we're very similar so uh so she was just part of part of that group
and um you know we we're child we're we're surviving we're survived child actors that have a lot a lot
of a lot in common yes successful yeah she's so great she's been wonderful yeah she's and she was
(48:42):
I had never met her you know known about her for years she was a delight um one of our fans Kendra
said that Sammy Davis had been on one life to live oh really back in the day yeah back in the day
maybe that was before I was on it um it might have been yeah um Shelley what do you remember about Paul
(49:05):
Rausch now he was tough he was I worked for him as well on guiding light so you know though I will
say um he was tough and um I I was a little bit afraid of him all those because he was such a
(49:26):
tough producer but um he sure got good work done and um I have to say you know Joe um
Joe Stewart was my producer when I started and he was the one who hired me and then the the
women who were uh Josie Van Emmerick and I'm trying to remember the head the president of maybe see
(49:50):
anyway but Paul Rausch was um he was a great producer and he did a we did a lot of good work um
and um but I didn't want to mess with him I wanted to do everything you told me to do you know and
I was as I said I was a little bit intimidated but yeah he was he was a tough one does that
(50:13):
name ring about to you Danielle hey were I have memory of that name I don't I don't know what I
mean obviously he was there um I think I just wanted to make everyone happy so I don't and I don't
think I had much fear or knew what what who was in what position you know so it just whoever it was
I just wanted to be a good kid and and make sure that I was well behaved and wasn't a brat which
(50:36):
I pretty much carried that with me throughout throughout my my childhood career yeah um Jackie
Smith was the president of ABC yeah oh my gosh she was so wonderful and and Josie Van Emmerick
they she was a vice president and they were the ones who really hired me um that saw my screen
(50:58):
test and really loved it a lot you know and I will say about Paul Rausch I sat down with him one time
and he influenced I mean he was so as tough as he was he was so kind and he really looked out for
the actors which I think was really impressive for a producer to do that um to care about the actors
(51:18):
and and just that they were doing you know how they were doing and how are you you know like as a person
which was it can be a pretty cold business um and to have producers that really care
it was really special so I'm very grateful to him actually yeah he knew what he was doing he might
(51:41):
have been tough but he really did and he he loved actors he loved I mean without the actors you got
no story you know you he really he knew how to pull it out um Danielle have you um over the years
come to love horror films yourself like do you have a favorite do you watch some of the others
that come out I am supposed to say yes um I'm kind of like a super person that owns a bar um no I
(52:13):
I you know it's it's I I love it and I I get it and I know how to do them and I know what makes them
good and and it is a job for me um I think there's they're very difficult to make and uh and they
don't get enough credit I'm happy to say they're finally getting recognized for for the work that
really goes into them which is lovely and and long long overdue um so uh I do it it's hard because
(52:38):
they're all my friends you know so so to watch them and know that I know probably half of the people
and them it's it kind of takes me out of it sometimes but uh but I have a lot of respect for it and
it's a very small community we all know each other we all work together over and over again I mean
there really is a little core group of us that have been doing it for many years and and I'm happy
with the family that I have here that's for sure and also I have the liberty to to kind of pick and
(53:03):
choose you know roles that I want to do and and thank goodness for fan conventions and and things
like that and podcast stuff and ways to you know ways to other ways to implement uh income so I can
be home with my kids and and be a mom and I'm not running back and forth to auditions and and doing
that stuff anymore I mean who's running to auditions anymore you know but yeah not many people
(53:24):
you know you're cramped in yeah of course they do yeah actually working with my my my partner in
crime my other friend that does the podcast with me and my and also another horror movie actress
is directing Barbara right now Barbara's great Barbara Barbara gets all the ladies together all
the time all the ladies of horror if anyone needs anything done Barbara cramped and we'll get it done
for you I love that I love that tell everybody about your podcast yes it's called talk scary to me
(53:50):
as you can see I've got my friend Michael Myers sitting over there hiding over there in the corner um
and uh we're produced by bloody disgusting and we're on we're podcasts where you find podcasts we're
on every Tuesday we were on this morning and it's it's great it's it's basically just talking about
things that that are scary to talk about love relationships mental health a lot of sex stuff a lot
(54:14):
in relationship a lot of a lot of horror stuff also just for the for a way for the fans to get to know
a different side of their favorite genre actor um you know where a lot of the people are intimidated a
lot of fans are intimidated to ask some of these scary uh screen queens or or monsters personal stuff
and and I think over the years we we got a little bit um a little bit bored of being asked the same
(54:39):
questions and appearances and with you know with fans and we wanted to open up a bit more of our lives
uh and and have everybody know that we're a lot more like them than than maybe they're aware of and
and it's created a really amazing community for us um I have my own patreon and and have a great
community there um you know it's if if it weren't for the fans we wouldn't be able to to have
(55:00):
survived for at least for me all of these years like that have followed me since one life to live
probably and uh I'm always shocked though when someone comes up to me at a horror convention is like
I remember you when I to live I've been watching you with my mom you know when I was five years old
I used to watch and that's how I got started watching soaps my grandma my mother my sister still sits in
her car if she's watching this right now she still sits in her car at her job during her lunch break
(55:24):
and watches soap operas all these years you're 40 all these years you're still watching soaps
every day it's it's I used to fold laundry with my grandma and and what and soap operas were just on
I mean that's you know that's what what what were you watching one I have to live it was all abc general
hospital one night to live yeah of course all my children um yeah the good we were never a little
(55:49):
bit of days of our lives but that was when I got a little bit older and I was in acting class with
some of the actors I actually directed my only play that I've ever directed uh I had Austin peck star
in for based on I love love awesome we were in acting class together and and I wanted to do this
I was always scared of theater and wanted to direct and didn't know you know what it would take to
(56:10):
to direct film but I knew that I could rent a little black box theater and and pay for it and
and have my friends and write something and and uh and just create something cool and see
how it felt to to work with actors and and work on performance which you know doesn't happen
as much as we we like to and not coming from a theater background and not getting to really dig into
(56:32):
something for very long I loved it and that's why I ended up starting to direct film and and stuff
like that but it's a different a different beast I still am I just directed a movie in December
horror movie and and I still really was only interested in working with the actors on their story
and their and characters and and the creative process of it uh more so than the camera setups and
(56:55):
and you know working with D.P. and now I'm in post and I'm loving putting all the all the pieces
together and and and doing all that. What's the name of it for people? Last chance motel
it stars Heather Langan Camp who was in you know the original nightmarinelm streets and a lot of
a lot of really good people and it's it's really fun so. Well everybody keep your eyes out for it.
(57:17):
Yeah. Shelley you grew up uh because of your dad in in politics right?
I sure was and yeah my dad well he was chairman of the GOP now this was a different Republican party
and just politics in general were so different back then I mean yeah yeah how is that in your
(57:44):
eyes of how it's changed over the years? Well I mean my dad was chairman in 64 and then he
he was chairman of the FCC from 69 to 73 and he was an advisor to Nixon um right at the end of
Watergate and that was just horrible and then he stayed with Jerry Ford um and we had friends who
(58:07):
were democrats and you know we spent holidays with you know with our friends and it wasn't like it
is so divisive right now I mean but I was able to sing the national anthem at several Republican
conventions and um it's it's been that well that was in the 80s but um I don't know what to say I mean
(58:32):
I grew up watching that I was a child. What do you think you learned watching your dad in those
roles you know like that's just so interesting. Well my dad's best friend for instance was George Bush
senior and um it was um it was just a different they were our friends um these very you know the
(58:54):
Attorney General and and um so it wasn't like it is now I mean and for me I was I was young I was
in my teens and um yeah um both both both of you have children I mean Shelley you said your children
are in their 30s and like 20s have any do you see any of them following in mom's footsteps here
(59:20):
your boys Danielle or they better not. No it's funny because I can't they grew up watching me
or waiting for me you know in the audience and then to take them home and you know or
watching me singing clubs uh I mean I had them in nightclubs when they were little you know singing um
(59:43):
but um no I think I embarrassed them properly and then certainly not in politics they're just
kind of normies I guess you know normies good good good term Shelley what was your go-to song your
favorite song to sing in your cabaret. Well because I made unusual way um I did the original
(01:00:10):
production of nine and I originated the role of Claudia and not and unusual way with my song
so I mean it became this really famous song that so many people used still in auditions and it was
a beautiful song so I always sang that and um but when I was doing the cabaret it would be different
(01:00:31):
Irving Berlin or George Gershwin um uh then Martin would write some music when we were doing shows
together um and um I mean I've I'm just saying so many songs but usually um usually unusual way is
kind of my go-to um I got to see nine when it the revival of nine when it came. Oh really. With Antonio
(01:00:57):
uh Banderas. Banderas yeah yeah so I didn't see that but um I know um it was very well received so
we just had a 42nd anniversary or something like that. Wow okay 82 um and we won the Tony and then
so it's there's there's several women that are still celebrating um um the no it's funny
(01:01:26):
about the soaps too because when I would be working I was at Starbucks not too long ago they
the kids there would say oh my grandmother used to watch you on one one to live and I was like yeah I
can see your grandmother because I mean I am a mature adult you know I've I've paid my dues and
(01:01:48):
and I'm still here but um I miss I'm just singing and I miss performing it so that's something. Oh I
bet I bet I gotta get back to that yeah well we need to find you a piano player ladies thank you so
much for doing this. Sure thanks for having me this is fun it was so great to reconnect with you
(01:02:09):
Shelley. Yeah so great to see you Danielle and you're so professional and so I would love to see
some of your films and read your book of course so. Yes yes yes definitely would love that so thank you
for staying with Danielle we'll do this when the book comes out. Shelley, pleasure, Danielle,
a pleasure thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks Ellen. Bye ladies. Bye bye. Thanks everybody for joining us
(01:02:35):
today. Thank you to Shelley Birch and Danielle Harris for spending the hour. I hope you enjoyed
this as much as I did. If you haven't yet subscribed to my YouTube channel you can do so down below.
Turn on the notifications for reminders of all upcoming shows and I hope if you liked today's
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