Mary Fickett

Mary Fickett is an American actress (b. 23 May 1932 in Bronxville, New York, USA).

Career

Mary Fickett studied acting at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse under Snaford Meisner and started her television career working in "Television Theatre" programs like Kraft Television Theatre in the 1950's. Her first featuring film was Man on Fire alongside Bing Crosby in 1957. In 1958, she received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in "Sunrise at Campobello," opposite Ralph Bellamy.

Related Topics:
Neighborhood Playhouse - Snaford Meisner - Kraft Television Theatre - 1950's - Man on Fire - Bing Crosby - Tony Award

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During the 1960's, she was briefly a part of a forerunner to CBS' "Early Show". The show was "Calendar", and she was featured on the show along with host Harry Reasoner. In 1961 she played the role of Sally Smith on The Edge of Night. In 1967, she returned to the show in the different role of Dr. Katherine Lovell and stayed with the show for a year.

Related Topics:
Harry Reasoner - The Edge of Night

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All My Children

In January, 1970, the American Broadcasting Corporation launched its new soap opera All My Children, created by Agnes Nixon. Fickett was an original cast member playing Ruth Parker Brent, a nurse at the local hospital and wife of alcoholic car salesman Ted Brent. Her character quickly found an attraction to the widowed Dr. Joe Martin (Ray MacDonnell). The pair tried to ignore their attraction until Ruth's husband was killed in a car accident. Ruth and Joe married on screen but found their happiness cut short by the Vietnam War. Agnes Nixon had always intended for her soap to deal with important issues of the day, so to facilitate Richard Hatch exiting the role of Phil Brent his character was drafted into service. Ruth became an anti-war protester and made some of the first anti-Vietnam speeches aired on American Daytime Television. This storyline decision, although troubling to television executives at the time, won Fickett the first Emmy Award given to a performer in daytime television, in 1973. She received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1974 for her performance in a storyline that involved her son being missing in action. This was another milestone for daytime TV, as it was the first time a war scene was aired on daytime television. The audience saw Phil being hit by a bullet and going down, then carried away by a young Vietnamese boy (played by the adopted son of a friend of Agnes Nixon).

Related Topics:
American Broadcasting Corporation - All My Children - Agnes Nixon - Ray MacDonnell - Vietnam War - Richard Hatch - Emmy Award - Daytime Emmy

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Joe and Ruth were happily married, but found they could not conceive a child together. To have the child they always wanted they began procedings to adopt Tad Gardner, a child that had been abandoned. A problem arose when Tad's father, Ray Gardner, arrived in town wanting money and filed a lawsuit to stop the adoption procedings. He then tried to extort money from the Martin family, in exchange for stopping the lawsuit. Joe refused to do this and kicked him out of his house, but Ruth called him back saying they could "sort things out." Fickett's second controversial storyline started when Ray showed up in a drunken rage and raped Ruth. She received her second Daytime Emmy AwardDaytime Emmy nomination for this storyline in 1976.

Related Topics:
Raped - Daytime Emmy AwardDaytime Emmy - 1976

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The character of Ruth, as played by Fickett, and Joe Martin have since became the "tentpole" characters at All My Children, representing the show's history.

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