Nancy Hughes

Nancy Hughes

Nancy Hughes McClosky was a fictional character from the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Portrayed by Helen Wagner for 54 years from the soap's inception in 1956 until 2010, Nancy served as the core family's, and by extension, the town's, matriarch.

Wagner is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest-running character portrayed by one actor on television. Wagner spoke the very first lines, "good morning dear," on the series debut on April 2, 1956.

Throughout the course of the series, Nancy remained a matriarch figure in the lives of those she cared for. Over the course of the program, Nancy had appeared in some 19,700 scenes and has been described as a straitlaced, proper and unassuming woman who stood for "old-fashioned values".

In 2004, Wagner received her first award for her work on the show in the form of a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys after 48 years on the soap. Wagner tragically died of cancer on May 1, 2010, and Nancy died onscreen on June 1, 2010 from natural causes. As the World Turns dedicated two episodes to both the character and actress with surrounding characters illustrating different ways of dealing with her death.