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 17 years later. Darlene's character Sally is the only American 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 Ireland, 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. On television, 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. Her role as Rose De Ville on The Young and the Restless 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. B&B featured a tribute to Conley; John McCook presented the tribute, which featured her memorable moments on the show.

Sally Spectra is still a character on B&B. Sally's absence has been explained by having her son CJ tell his father, Clarke (and viewers), that Sally had taken a permanent vacation in St. Tropez. Head writer Brad Bell said that Sally is "bigger than life" and will live on forever.

In late 2007, Sally decided to sell her fashion house. Nick Marone and Jackie Marone bought Spectra and ran the company; in a later story in 2017, the show revisited many of the storylines of Sally Spectra to introduce a new younger character, also named Sally, who is the niece of the original Sally Spectra. The younger Spectra relaunched the house of Spectra fashion line. In addition, the show brought back the character of CJ to appear in several episodes.

Filmography