Soap Star & Hallmark Alum Reveals Daughter’s Sudden Death

Heavy/Getty Cameron Mathison, Susan Lucci, and Erika Slezak at the 2012 Daytime Emmys

Former “One Life to Live” star Erika Slezak is mourning the sudden death of her daughter, Amanda Elizabeth Davies, at age 42. Slezak, who co-starred in the 2021 Hallmark movie “Next Stop, Christmas,” confirmed the news with “great sadness” on her website on January 29, 2024.

Here’s what you need to know:

Erika Slezak’s Daughter, Amanda Davies, Appeared With Her on ‘One Life to Live’

Slezak, 77, played Viki on nearly 2,500 episodes of “One Life to Live” from 1971 until the soap opera’s cancellation in 2013, according to IMDb. She and her husband, actor Brian Davies, welcomed their daughter in 1981, a year after her brother Michael, per TV Line. 

In 2003, Erika Davies played a teenage version of Slezak’s “One Life to Live” character in flashback scenes on the show. She also appeared in a 2011 short film called “The Gift,” per IMDb, but little is known about her life off-screen. A cause of death has not been given.

On her website, Slezak wrote, “It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of Erika’s daughter Amanda Elizabeth Davies who died very suddenly. The family is heartbroken and would appreciate privacy at this time.”

Erika Slezak & Her Husband Bought a Condo For Their Daughter in 2022

HallmarkErika Slezak in “Next Stop, Christmas”

In an August 2022 interview with the president of her fan club, Slezak updated her fans on her family, who have lived for many years in Vermont.

“Amanda is well,” Slezak said. “She rented a cute little cottage on Lake Rescue for the summer, and together, Brian and I have purchased a sweet little condo for her in Killington, Vermont. She loves it there. So, she’ll stay in the cottage until the end of the summer and then move into the condo.”

Slezak also said at the time that Davies was focused on taking care of her 14-year-old dog, Emma.

“Emma is just hanging on forever,” Slezak said. “She has no eyes now because one eye had an infection, and then ultimately the other as well, and both had to be removed. She cannot walk on a leash, but Amanda takes her outside and she wanders around and then she comes back inside and sleeps. Other than that, she is healthy.”

Slezak has often mentioned her children in her periodic fan club updates, sharing that they live close and have frequently helped their parents through challenges like the COVID pandemic and surgeries. After Slezak’s husband fell in 2021, for instance, she said Michael and Amanda would visit him at his rehabilitation facility on alternate days.

Slezak didn’t have to go far that year for her role as Aunt Myrt in “Next Stop, Christmas.”

“It’s not a big part, but a nice one and we’ll be shooting in Essex, Connecticut’,” she told Soap Opera Network. 

The movie also starred “Young and the Restless” alums Chandler Massey and Lyndsy Fonseca, as well as “Back to the Future” alums Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd. Massey told Soap Opera Network at the time that it was nerve-wracking to be in a movie with Slezak, Thompson and Lloyd.

“It was scary because they are three legends, but are also three amazing people,” he said. “I think it adds so much to the movie that they are in it and they bring their gravitas [with] all these combined years of experience acting. It was just so cool.”