What happened to an actress named Jane Elliot, who starred with Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore in the 1969 film Change of Habit?
—Dolores Harriman, Pahrump, Nev.
Elliot, 65, has carved out quite the career in daytime television. She landed her first role on General Hospital in 1978—for which she won a Daytime Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in 1981. It is a role she has played on and off through the years.
When off, she has also appeared on All My Children, Days of Our Lives, The City, where she also served as a producer, and the nighttime soap Knots Landing.
The native New Yorker rejoined the cast of General Hospital in 2003 and she says she is there to stay—either until they no longer want her or the show is canceled. “I like playing a villain. I like that her heart doesn’t break all the time and she is not crying all the time. When I go to work, I get to laugh and be nasty,” she says of her role as Tracy Quartermaine. “I get to say the things that people never say and wish they had.”
As for her role in Change of Habit, despite the fact that she filmed it more than 40 years ago, she remembers it as a wonderful experience. “I turned it down at first because I wasn’t a fan of Elvis Presley,” she recalls.
“I didn’t like his music. I was training to do [Broadway] musicals and I only liked show tunes, and I studied ballet. I didn’t think I would be able to relate to the situation. Classically, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Within an hour of being on the set, whatever my preconceived ideas of who he was and what he was about were completely gone. He was compassionate, interested, professional, loving and fiercely loyal to the people in his circle and respectful of the people he worked with.”
Found in: Celebrity Q&A
