Robin Strasser

Robin Victory Strasser, born May 7, 1945, in the Bronx, New York, is an American actress whose middle name commemorates the day Germany surrendered in World War II. Raised in Manhattan by her parents, Martin and Anne Strasser, both Jewish, she attended the High School of Performing Arts before enrolling at the Yale University School of Drama on a full scholarship. She began her acting career in the early 1960s and became a founding member of the American Conservatory Theater.

Strasser's stage work brought her to Broadway, where she appeared in productions including The Impossible Years, The Shadow Box, and Chapter Two, with her Broadway career spanning 1965 to 1977. It was during her early theater years that she met her first husband, actor Laurence Luckinbill; the two married in 1965 and divorced in 1976, and together they have two sons, Nicholas and Ben. Strasser was subsequently married to Richard Hogan from August 27, 1983, until 1985.

Her daytime television career began in 1964 with the role of Iris on The Secret Storm. In 1967, she originated the role of Rachel Davis Matthews on NBC's Another World, and later portrayed Dr. Christina Karras Martin on All My Children. She joined One Life to Live in 1979 as Dorian Lord, stepping into the role when Claire Malis departed, having previously been offered the separate role of Cathy Craig. Strasser played Dorian across four stints, leaving in 1987 and returning from 1993 to 2000, again from 2003 through August 25, 2011, and once more in the show's 2013 online revival. From 2001 to 2002, she appeared as the 300-year-old witch Hecuba on the NBC serial Passions, and in 2019 she played Vivian Alamain on Days of Our Lives in 15 episodes.

Her performance as Dorian Lord earned Strasser a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series in 1982, with additional nominations in 1981, 1983, and 1985. She received multiple Soap Opera Digest Award nominations for the role across 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, and 2005, winning Outstanding Lead Actress in 1996 for her portrayal of Dorian and Outstanding Female Scene Stealer in 2001 for her work as Hecuba. In March 2007, Strasser was made a Dame of the Imperial Court of New York, and on March 21, 2009, she served as Honorary Chair of the organization's Annual Charity Coronation Ball, known as Night of A Thousand Gowns.