Darlene Conley

Darlene Conley (July 18, 1934 – January 14, 2007) was an American actress. Conley's career spanned fifty years, but she was best known for her performances in daytime television, and in particular, for her portrayal of larger-than-life fashion industrialist Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful. Conley played the role from 1989 until her death eighteen years later. Darlene's character Sally is the only soap opera character to be displayed at Madame Tussaud's wax figures galleries in Amsterdam and Las Vegas. Life and career Conley, an Irish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Melba (née Manthey) and Raymond Conley. She began her acting career at age 15 when she was cast in the touring production of the Broadway play The Heiress. After graduating from high school, she appeared in several stage productions, including Cyrano de Bergerac, The Baker's Wife and Night of the Iguana. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Conley was employed with the traveling theater group the Chicago Uptown Circuit Players and Playwrights Company and on Broadway with the Helen Hayes Repertory Theater. In 1963, Conley landed a bit part in the movie The Birds, which was followed by similar small roles in movies like Valley of the Dolls and Lady Sings the Blues. On televisiom Conley appeared in a number of made-for-television movies and guest-starred on prime time shows including Ironside, The Bill Cosby Show and Gunsmoke. She also appeared in the first episode of the fifth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a prison warden. Conley appeared on Little House on the Prairie in 1981, in the episode entitled "A Wiser Heart." Daytime television Conley's performance as Rose DeVille on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless followed, with Conley playing many small roles on other soaps for most of the 1980s. She was the tough but basically decent prison warden Edith Hopkins on Days of Our Lives in 1983 during Liz Chandler's incarceration for Marie Horton's shooting. As Trixie on General Hospital from 1984 to 1988, she was an old hooker pal of Ruby's who worked at Kelly's. An encore as Rose De Ville inspired William J. Bell to cast her as flamboyant fashion maven Sally Spectra on his newer serial, The Bold and the Beautiful. She earned two Outstanding Supporting Actress Daytime Emmy and six Soap Opera Digest Awards nominations for her role.