Articles

"The Topper" - Who better to portray a determined dowager than a grande dame like PC's Anne Jeffreys?
by Jerry O'Neil - Soap Opera Weekly ­ April 2, 2001

"Oh, hold on, there I am again," exclaims Anne Jeffreys, after momentarily interrupting our phone conversation to catch her performance as patrician dowager Amanda Barrington in a scene from this afternoon's episode of General Hospital. "I'm my own severest critic. I hate the sound of my own voice." Lately, Jeffreys is seeing (and hearing) a lot more of herself, as Amanda's been very busy interfering with granddaughter Alison's life on Port Charles.

Show business veteran Jeffreys is an anomaly, a sincerely nice, humble and generous woman who has survived and succeeded in an industry that often eats its own and doesn't care a whit about the carcass. Probably best known for Topper, the early '50s half-hour show that starred her and her longtime husband, Robert Sterling as a handsome and sophisticated pair of ghosts, Jeffreys herself is anything but transparent. This mother of three grown sons and grandmother of five is a woman of substance.

A born singer, Jeffreys had her own radio show in her native North Carolina at the age of 10. From the mid-'40s through the '50s, the classically trained performer was a popular and acclaimed figure on regional and Broadway stages, playing lead roles in myriad musicals, from the classic StreetScene to the Cole Porter-composed Kiss Me Kate. Her mother served as her de facto manager - and matchmaker. She met Sterling in 1950, and they married six months later. "Actually, my mother picked him for me," she reminisces. "I wasn't going to marry him. Marry a good-looking actor? Fight off the women all the time? He was handsome and he was fun. As it turned out, I couldn't have found a more loyal, wonderful husband."

At that time, the New York theater world was at its dazzling zenith, and Broadway stars reigned supreme. Jeffreys waxes nostalgic: "I was on Broadway doing Kiss Me Kate, and Robert came to town to do a play called Gramercy Ghost. JohnSpringer, who was my publicist and best friend for years, introduced us, and we became known as the romance of Shubert Alley. His play would let out 20 minutes before mine, so he would wait at the stage door or in my dressing room. We'd run out someplace for dinner, or maybe go to the Stork Club, which was going full blast at the time. Yes, it was a different era, a different time. The owner, Sherman Billingsley, wanted us there every night. He loved celebrities. He'd tell us we were his good friends and that we dressed up the place."

When Topper beckoned (one of the show's writers was a very young Stephen Sondheim), the couple commuted to Los Angeles to film the show. "All my boys were born out here on the West Coast," she says, speaking from the house she's owned and lived in for 44 years. "We were bicoastal. I didn't want to leave New York entirely."

Eventually, though, they moved to California full time. "It shows you how weak I am," she says. "'Robert was an avid golfer, the best actor/golfer around. He became disgusted with how difficult it was to keep up his game while living in New York. He got tired of the winters. He said to me, 'We're going to go back to California and live there.' I told him I wanted to stay in New York and play Broadway. So I talked to my mother about it, and she said, 'Dear, you go wherever your husband wants to go.'"

Their marriage survived the transplant. "We were lucky; we never had any big problems," says Jeffreys. But the last six years have been difficult. "He's bedridden now. I have a full-time nurse who's with him, particularly when I'm out working, but I spend as much time as I can with him. I dine with him, and we watch TV together. Poor darling. He's said to me many times that he'd give anything to be able to play golf again. I always [joked] I came second to golf."

In addition to a long, happy marriage, Jeffreys has enjoyed career longevity. "When we moved to Los Angeles, I had to give up Broadway for a while, and then I started having my children. I actually kind of semi-retired when my children were small, except for doing theater here and there, and then I'd drag them along with me. When the boys got a little older, I got back into series work. I did Delphi Bureau, and I also did a short-lived show called Bright Promise, which was produced by (former GH executive producer) Gloria Monty. I played a character similar to the one I play on General Hospital and Port Charles. It folded pretty fast. I think I started filming another show, Finder of Lost Loves, around the time I started on General Hospital, which was 1984. There was a period of two or three years when I didn't do much at all. They'd call me in to make an appearmice at a party or something. I finally said to them, 'Look, if you want an extra, I'm a little too high-priced for the job.' They said OK, and Mrs. Barrington stayed on."

Having succeeded in radio, theater, television and film, Jeffreys can state with authority that daytime drama "is the most difficult thing to do. At my age, I find it very difficult to memorize. It never was easy for me; I have to go over it and over it. On Port Charles, I came in cold and didn't even know who the actors were. Also, a lot of the younger people don't say exactly what is there on the page. Being theater-trained, I don't speak until my cue comes. Sometimes I'm standing there with my mouth open waiting for my cue."

Although she originated the role of Amanda, Jeffreys never knew much about the character. "Was she married? Did she have any children? I asked Gloria ( Monty) one time," she recalls, "and she told me Amanda was from a very wealthy family, and that she ran everything in Port Charles. Other than that, no one really knew who she was. Finally, after a lot of my badgering, they put Amanda's husband on for a couple of shows. He was in a wheelchair, which is why you never saw him." Amanda was also given an adult son, Derek, (played by Lost in Space's Mark Goddard). Speaking in character, she says, "Now, many years later, here I am on Port Charles, and one day there's a blond-haired girl on-set and we're supposed to do a scene together. I said to her, 'Excuse me, but do you know what relationship we are to each other?' And she said, 'Oh, yes, I'm your granddaughter!' I said, 'Oh, my god, I didn't know I had one!' That was Erin (Hershey, Alison), and she's just as cute as can be. She's a pistol."

Lately, with her increased camera time, Jeffreys finds herself appreciating the work more than ever, "particularly with Robert being ill, because it gets me out of the house." In a career filled with highlights ("There were no lowlights, dear; that's negative."), Jeffreys guesses that Topper tops the list. "Anything I did in the theater I loved, but to this day I'm still most recognized for that show. People enjoyed it so much," she says. And above all else, giving to others is truly what Anne Jeffreys is all about. "If I can do anything for people, I'm happy to do it. Maybe you shouldn't put that in. I'll get calls asking for money."
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