Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Emma Samms

 
Actor: Emma Samms
 
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Aug 28, 1960 in London, England, UK
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Bejewelled, Illusions, The Lady and the Highwayman
  • First Major Screen Credit: Arabian Adventure (1979)

Biography

American audiences first became aware of dark-eyed actress Emma Samms when she was cast as the heroine in the 1979 film Arabian Adventure. Her American TV bow was as Holly Sutton, temporary girlfriend of Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and later full-time wife of ex-spy Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital. It was the beginning of a long association with soap operas, both daytime and prime time. In 1984, Samms went from the niceness of Holly Sutton to the deviousness of Fallon Carrington on the nighttime serial Dynasty. She carried this role over into the Dynasty spin-off The Colbys in 1985, then returned to Dynasty in 1986. In 1994, Emma Samms was brought in to "hypo" the flagging Fox series Models Inc., in yet another villainous characterization, as Grayson Louder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a word or phrase...
All Community Q&A Reference topics

 
Wikipedia: Emma Samms
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Emma Samms

Emma Samms at the 62nd Academy Awards
Born Emma E. W. Samuelson[1]
28 August 1960 (1960-08-28) (age 48)
Willesden, London

Emma Samms (born Emma Samuelson on 28 August 1960) is a British television actress. Samuelson trained as a ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet School but stopped dancing at 15 after a hip injury. Next training as an actress, she changed her name to "Emma Samms" as there was already an "Emma Samuelson" registered at actors union Equity.

Contents

Career

Samms first played Holly Sutton Scorpio on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital from 1982 to 1985.[2][3] With Samms choosing to leave the series amicably to go to ABC's prime time hit Dynasty, her character Holly seemingly perished in a plane crash.[4] On 15 May 1985, Samms appeared in the fifth season finale "Royal Wedding" as Fallon Carrington Colby, a role originated by Pamela Sue Martin in 1981.[5] The character was immediately transplanted into the new Dynasty spin-off The Colbys for two seasons (1985-1987), until reintroduced back into Dynasty in the 23 September 1987 eighth season premiere "The Siege - Part 1." Samms remained with Dynasty for two seasons until its last episode on 11 May 1989. She later returned for the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.

"Fan favorite" Samms had been so popular at General Hospital that Holly was brought back from the dead in January 1992 after a seven-year absence.[4][6] She stayed in the role until 1993,[3] during this time also playing Holly's lookalike half-sister Paloma, a heroic revolutionary. In 1995 Samms appeared as the villainous Grayson Louder in the prime time soap Models Inc., a spin-off of Melrose Place, both produced by former Dynasty producer Aaron Spelling.[7]

Samms appeared in four episodes of the BBC series Holby City in 2003, and had a small run on the BBC daytime series Doctors in 2005. She made a seven-episode return to General Hospital as Holly in February 2006. After serving as a presenter (alongside General Hospital costar Tristan Rogers) for the Daytime Emmy Awards on 28 April 2006, Samms reappeared on General Hospital for a three-week run starting 1 May 2006, and then again on 30 June 2006. She subsequently stepped into the BBC Children in Need reality series Celebrity Scissorhands as a hairdresser from 3 November to 17 November 2006. On 20 September 2007 Samms guested on the long-running ITV series The Bill as drug addict Ella Winstanley. Most recently, she made a brief return to General Hospital starting 15 May 2009.[8][9]

Personal life

 This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Samms twice declined offers to be a Playboy centerfold, once during her run on General Hospital and the second during Dynasty. In 1983, Samms and her cousin, film producer Peter Samuelson, co-founded the Starlight Children's Foundation, an organization that helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities. The organization was Samms's response to losing her brother, Jamie, who died at age nine from aplastic anemia.

In 1984 Samms and Rogers went public with their real-life romance,[3] but the relationship ended around the time she left General Hospital the next year. Engaged to Marvin Hamlisch in the early 1980s, Samms has been married three times: to Bansi Nagji from 1991 to 1992, to Tim Dillon from 1994 to 1995, and to John Holloway from 1996 to 2003. She and Holloway have two children, Cameron (born 1997), and Beatrice (born 1998).

Television filmography

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Birth Registration Details Ancestry.co.uk
  2. ^ Schemering, Christopher (September 1985). "General Hospital". The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. pp. 108-119. ISBN 0-345-32459-5 (1st edition). 
  3. ^ a b c Waggett, Gerard J. (November 1997). "General Hospital". The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. Harper Paperbacks. pp. 112-134. ISBN 0-06-101157-6. 
  4. ^ a b Harris, Mike; Alan Carter (January 24, 1992, Issue #102). "Tiny Bubbles". Entertainment Weekly. EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,309292,00.html. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 
  5. ^ Schemering (1985). Soap Encyclopedia. "Dynasty." pp. 80-84.
  6. ^ Carter, Alan (June 26, 1992, Issue #124-125). "Emma Samms: Cool Soap Actress". Entertainment Weekly. EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,310948,00.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-28. 
  7. ^ Shaw, Jessica (November 18, 1994, Issue #249). "Remodeling Inc.". Entertainment Weekly. EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304544,00.html. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 
  8. ^ West, Abby (March 10, 2009). "Emma Samms to return to General Hospital". http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/03/emma-samms-retu.html. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 
  9. ^ General Hospital recap (5/15/09) - Soaps.com
  10. ^ Tucker, Ken (December 10, 1993). "Robin Cook's Harmful Intent". Entertainment Weekly. EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308924,00.html. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 
  11. ^ Kornberg, Erica (August 05, 1994, Issue #234). "Heroine Addiction". Entertainment Weekly. EW.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,303233,00.html. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emma Samms

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Emma Samms".  Read more

Related answers
» More
 
Answer these
» More

Mentioned in

» More» More