Asked about which part of the Upper West Side she lives in, Lenore
declines to say. "I have some fans who would follow my footprints in the
snow. You have to be careful. My husband and I tend to stay in the
neighborhood a lot, and I'd hate to ruin our indiscreet little way of getting
around. ... In New York people are used to seeing Al Pacino walking
down the street, or Jackie O. shopping at the corner. But out of town --
at first they're not sure if it's you. A lot of people come up to me and
say, 'Do you ever watch _The Guiding Light_? You look so much like
that girl.' I usually tell them who I am. I can't see any point in lying.
Face it, that's part of the reason we're doing this. I'm sure there's a ham
in every actor, whether they're shy about it or not."
Her husband, actor Phil Peters, recently won the part of Dr. Steven
Farrell on _As The World Turns_, another CBS soap opera. Within a few
weeks, however, there was a change of writers. "The new writers wanted
to bring in their own characters," says Lenore, "so on the show, Phil just
disappeared in the night. He never showed up for his wedding. All the
other characters were saying, 'Where could he be?'" She laughs at the
recollection of what happened soon afterward when she and her husband
were visiting Fredericksburg, Virginia: "A woman came up behind Phil
while we were eating dinner, and said, 'Shame on you! How could you
run off on that pretty little thing?'"
Born 30 years ago on Long Island, the daughter of an Army officer,
Lenore grew up in such diverse places as Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia,
Germany and Thailand. After graduating from the International School in
Bangkok, she "got out of the Army" and returned to the U.S. to attend
college in Indiana. There she began to do local TV commercials, and was
so successful that she decided to try her luck in California. Quickly she
became an established television actress, winning roles in many prime
time series, including _Starsky and Hutch_, _Barnaby Jones_, and
_Ironside_. While performing for a small theatre company she met Phil
Peters. Phil wanted to come to New York to work in the theatre, and,
with some reservations, Lenore came with him. Although Phil does not
have a regular acting assignment at present, Lenore points out that "actors
are never out of work. They're just between jobs."
_The Guiding Light_, says Lenore, "was originally a religious program
on the radio, where the moral of the story was an enlightening lesson for
everybody." Since moving to television in 1952, the show has changed
considerably in content, but, according to Lenore, it still contains many
lessons that are relevant to modern living.