Ilene Kristen

Ilene Kristen (born Ilene Schatz; July 30, 1952) is an American actress.

Her first television appearance was in 1961 on bandleader Ted Steele's Dance Party, based in Newark, New Jersey.

Her first professional job was on NBC's The Bell Telephone Hour as a dancer when she was 14 years old.

She was brought on board by the show's choreographer Matt Mattox.

Kristen was a dancer in the ensemble of the 1967 musical Henry, Sweet Henry, based upon The World of Henry Orient.

This was the first of several collaborations with the choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she later worked on the television show Let Us Entertain You (starring Robert Morse) and the show Pinocchio (with Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits).

In her senior year of professional children’s school, she was on the road with a comedy revue, The Six New Happenings.

The revue toured in Dallas and Houston.

They were booked in the largest room at the Sahara Hotel in Lake Tahoe.

But once the Sahara realized that most of the cast was under-aged, had them kicked out, replaced by Johnny Carson.

She was set to replace the lead actress in the show Steambath, but the show was closed before Kristen got to take over the role.

Its producer Dick Scanga felt bad for Kristen, so he offered her a job in his producing office.

In 1968, the family moved to the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

She attended PS 217 in Brooklyn, Russell Sage Junior High School in Queens, and Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

She then went to Finch College where she majored in Drama and minored in Art History.

She studied dance under Sara Felcher, Alwin Nikolais, and Matt Mattox.

Her early inspirations were Bambi Linn and Sondra Lee.

She decided to become a professional actor after seeing the Off-Broadway musical, The Fantasticks.

She later studied acting with Jack Waltzer.

She made her screen debut in the female lead role in the 1971 comedy film Preacherman.

Her big break came when she auditioned for the role of Patty Simcox in the original Broadway production of Grease (1972), in which she starred for two years.

She ended up working odd jobs on major Broadway productions: catering the opening-night party of the show Lenny (which later became the 1974 film by Bob Fosse) and gold-leafing in Robin Wagner’s scenery department for Jesus Christ Superstar.

She is best known for her role as Delia Ryan in the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope (1975–1979, 1982–1983, 1986–1989) and her Emmy-nominated performances as Roxy Balsom on One Life to Live (2001–2012).

Ilene Kristen was born Ilene Schatz in Brooklyn, New York City, the elder child of Arthur Schatz of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Myrna Levin of Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Her father was a hairdresser who owned a series of beauty parlors across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Palm Beach, Florida.

Ilene has a younger sister, Karen Schatz.

She lived in Brooklyn until the age of 13 when her family moved to the Forest Hills area of Queens, where she lived for two years.

In 1975, she auditioned for and landed the role of Delia Ryan in the ABC daytime soap opera Ryan’s Hope.

She worked on the show until 1979, when she moved to California.

In Los Angeles, she appeared in film Why Would I Lie? starring Treat Williams.

She played Winona, a prostitute, in The Lady in Red (her scene was with Christopher Lloyd), then did an episode of Family.

In 1982, she also played Peter Falk's sister-in-law in a stage production of Knives, which was written and directed by John Cassavetes.

On television in 1982, she did a stint on One Life to Live as Georgina Whitman.

She appeared in the comedy revue Strange Behavior (1983-84), which led to her being considered for a role on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

She also starred in Charles Strouse’s and Warren Leight’s Mayor, the musical based on Ed Koch’s memoir of the same name.

She played Leona Helmsley, the “Queen of Mean,” among other characters.

In 1986, after starring in Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky, Kristen was asked to return to Ryan’s Hope.

Kristen, always adept with comedy, says that her last four years at Ryan’s Hope were happy ones, as the writers gave her a lot of funny material to work with.

During this period (1986-90), Kristen toured around the club circuits, performing with rock bands and jazz musicians at Mikell's in the Upper West Side.

She did another off-Broadway show, Cowboy, a musical tribute to the life of the painter Charlie “Kid” Russell.