Erica Kane

Categories: All My Children characters

"Erica Kane" is also the title of songs by Aaliyah and Urge Overkill, both written about this character.

Erica Kane (full name Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery) is a long-running character on the American soap opera All My Children. The character has been played by Susan Lucci since the show's first episode in 1970. She popularized the catchphrase "I am Erica Kane!", said whenever Erica was afraid or threatened.

A model-turned-makeup executive, Erica always had a interesting relationship with her mother, Mona Kane (Frances Heflin). Erica took it very hard when Mona died of cancer in 1994.

Erica has two children: Kendall (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and more recently, Alicia Minshew), who was the product of a traumatizing rape by movie actor Richard Fields on the night of her 14th birthday, and Bianca (most recently played by Eden Riegel). In 2000, Bianca came out as a lesbian, and only recently has Erica fully come to terms with the revelation.

Erica also has a half-brother, Mark Dalton (played by Mark LaMura). In 1977, Mark and Erica had begun a romance of sorts, which led Mona to divulge the secret that they both shared the same father: Eric Kane. Erica's father had an affair with his secratary Maureen Dalton while working in Hollywood. In 1982, while working in New York City as a model, Erica discovered she had a half-sister named Silver. Like Mark, Silver was the product of an affair Eric Kane had (this time with a woman named Goldie). Tad Martin later exposed Silver as an imposter named Connie, but the real Silver showed up soon after.

Erica Kane's first scene in Pine Valley will live in infamy. She riled out to her mother everything she was looking for in a husband, establishing her ambition and her knack for rich men. But deep inside, Erica was nursing the scares of the abandonment by her father, successful film director Eric Kane. At the same time, her father's life in Hollywood was the driving force for her longing to leave Pine Valley.

In 1973 Erica made the decision to have an abortion -- a first, since it was the first legal abortion on television. What made the abortion extra-controversial was Erica's reason for doing it. She wasn't having it done because her health was in jeopardy, it was because she wanted to keep her modeling job. The abortion story got much media attention, especially since Roe v. Wade had been decided just a few months before the story began airing. Erica developed a potentially fatal infection after having the abortion, and the switch-boards at ABC lit up with calls from doctors and nurses, offering their medical opinions on how best to treat the character's case. The controversy didn’t hurt ratings, which rose from 8.2 to 9.1.

The Erica character has done everything from staging a helicopter prison break to hunting down terrorists in Bosnia. She even confronted a grizzly bear while in the forest! In 1983 she fled Pine Valley for the Hollywood Hills, posing as a nun. She did this because her former lover, Kent Bogard, was killed in a struggle with a gun. Erica commited no crime, but her jealous "half-sister" (actually Connie) accused her of murder. In 1989 she went undercover in a traveling circus to locate her missing father, who had faked his own death years before. She discovered him working as a clown named Barney. She's written 3 bestselling books: "Raising Kane" (her autobiography), "Erica Kane: Beyond the Pain", and "Erica Kane: Having It All". She's hosted her own talk show, was addicted to drugs (later receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center), and kidnapped a baby in 1997 after having a miscarriage.

Erica has had many rivials over the years -- her most famous being with the character of Brooke.

Erica's husbands include: Jeff Martin, Phil Brent, Tom Cudahy, Adam Chandler, Travis Montgomery, and Dimitri Marick. She's married some of these men twice (including Travis, Adam, and Dimitri). As of May 2005, the character is married to long-time love Jackson Montgomery, the brother of her late ex-husband, Travis. She's also married some men illegally (examples: Jeremy Hunter and Mike Roy).

Photo Gallery

Erica Kane's "Having it All"