All My Children and One Life to Live creator Agnes Nixon passed away this morning at the age of 88.
Nixon began her career in 1944 writing for the Woman in White, a radio soap opera. From there, she wrote for As the World Turns in 1957, eventually becoming the head writer in 1959 on The Guiding Light (1953-2009), the longest-running soap opera in history.
Nixon created One Life to Live in 1968, followed by All My Children in 1970. Her work on One Life to Live included creating iconic roles for up-and-coming actors Laurence Fishburn, Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Berenger to name a few. She would be All My Children‘s head writer predominately from 1970-1981, and off and on again in 1989-1992, 1995, and 1999-2001, producing many storylines that were unlike anything else on daytime television at the time. Her topics were socially conscious, controversial at best, and informative, including writing the first television character to undergo a legal abortion.
