Marlena Evans
| Marlena Evans | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Days of Our Lives character | |||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Deidre Hall | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration |
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| First appearance | June 21, 1976 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Pat Falken Smith | ||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Betty Corday | ||||||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | A Secret in Salem | ||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Other names | Salem Stalker Marlena North Marlena Craig Marlena Brady Marlena Bradford Marlena Black |
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| Occupation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Townhouse 715 Pinewood Avenue Salem, Illinois |
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| Parents | Frank Evans Martha Evans |
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| Sisters | Samantha Evans |
| Spouse |
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| Children | D. J. Craig Eric Brady Sami Brady Belle Black |
| Stepsons |
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| Grandchildren |
Will Horton Johnny DiMera Claire Brady Allie Horton Sydney DiMera Grace Brady (legal) |
| Aunts and uncles | Robert Evans |
| First cousins | Trista Evans |
| Other relatives | Arianna Horton |
Marlena Evans is a fictional character on the NBC daytime drama, Days of Our Lives, a long-running serial about working life in the fictional town of Salem. She has been played by actress Deidre Hall since 1976, with a few minor breaks from 1987 to March 1991 and again from January 2009 to September 2011. Marlena was created by scriptwriter Pat Falken Smith and executive producer Betty Corday, as one of Days of our Lives' most well known characters. Hall made her debut on the soap on June 21, 1976, currently making her the second longest running actress on the serial, surpassed only by Suzanne Rogers (Maggie).
Throughout the course of her existence on the program, she has experienced what some consider to be the most outrageous circumstances of any character in soap opera history. These would include possession by the devil; a plummet from a 30-story-window (which she survived); being used as a surrogate for genetically engineered babies, Rex and Cassie, during a four-year coma; being mind-controlled to believe she was a serial killer; and becoming pregnant late in life and suffering a miscarriage, which caused her to have hysterical amnesia. She has also been kidnapped numerous times over the past 30 years. She is a doctor, wife, mother, twin, grandmother and great-grandmother.
Marlena was a staple in the US press during her time on Days of our Lives, a representative of the symbiosis between American's soaps and tabloid soap magazines. Widely read tabloids, such as Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly, would routinely publish forthcoming developments in Marlena's storylines. Marlena was well received by critics, and is notable for her popular pairing with John Black. The character is well-known even outside of the show's viewer-base. In 2010, Sheri Anderson (a former head writer for Days) began writing books about off-screen characters from the soap. John and Marlena were included in one called A Secret in Salem.
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