Victor Lord

Victor Dalby Lord, Sr. is a fictional character and patriarch of the Lord family on the American soap opera One Life to Live.

An original male protagonist on the series, Victor is introduced in the first episode as the preeminent mass media magnate of fictional Philadelphia Main Line suburb Llanview, Pennsylvania. Victor was originally and most notably played by actor Ernest Graves. Graves debuted July 15, 1968 and played the role until the actor left the series and last appeared onscreen in March 1974.

Series creator Agnes Nixon and executive producer Doris Quinlan subsequently recast Victor to Shepperd Strudwick, who first appeared in December 1974 and played the role until the character's initial onscreen death in June 1976.

Character background

Conception

Series creator and then-scriptwriter Agnes Nixon originally created the character of Victor Lord based on her father, Harry Eckhardt. She crafted the role in an attempt to understand the reserved, domineering Eckhardt patriarch, an entrepreneur who financially thrived during the Great Depression manufacturing funeral garments.