Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 â€" December 23, 1973) was an American
scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent and actress. Known by
several publications as the "Queen of the Soaps", she created,
produced, and wrote several of the first American daytime radio and
television soap operas. As a result of creating some of the best known
series in the genre, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and
Another World, Phillips is credited with creating and innovating a
daytime serial format with programming geared specifically toward
women. She was also a mentor to several other pioneers of the daytime
soap opera, including Agnes Nixon and William J. Bell.Phillips was one
of 10 children born to a German-Jewish family in Chicago. Her father
died when she was 8, leaving her mother alone to raise the children.
She claimed to be a lonely child always given hand-me-down clothes and
making up long and involved stories for her dolls to live out. At 19
she was pregnant, abandoned by her boyfriend, and then gave birth to a
still-born baby. She studied drama at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (where she became a member of Phi Sigma Sigma
sorority), receiving a Master of Arts degree before going on to earn a
master's degree in journalism at the University of
Wisconsinâ€"Madison.Phillips wanted to be an actress, but her teachers
told her she was too plain to have any real success. From 1925 to 1930
she worked as a school teacher in Dayton, Ohio, teaching drama and
theatre history to schoolchildren. While working in this capacity she
continued to attempt a career as an actress, and after performing
several acting roles for radio productions at WGN in Chicago, she left
her career as a teacher. At the age of 42, Phillips adopted a son,
Thomas Dirk Phillips. A year later, she adopted a daughter, Katherine
Louise Phillips.After working as a staff writer on a daytime talk
show, Phillips created the serial Painted Dreams, which aired daily
except Sundays on local Chicago station WGN. Phillips wrote every
episode of the series in addition being a starring cast member as the
characters Mother Moynihan and Sue Morton. Mother Moynihan was a
widowed matriarch of a large Irish-American family. Phillips based
Mother Moynihan’s struggles on her own mother’s obstacles. After
creating, producing and starring in Painted Dreams, Phillips became
credited with innovating a daytime serial format for radio geared
toward women. Later known as “Queen of the Soaps†, she introduced
techniques such as the organ bridge to give a smooth flow between
scenes and the cliff-hanger ending to each episode. Irna Phillips Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter