Donna Beck

Infobox soap character
series = All My Children
name = Donna Tyler
first= 1976
last= 1995
gender = Female
portrayer = Francesca Poston, Candice Earley
occupation = Prostitute, singer, salon owner/hairstylist
spouse= Chuck Tyler (divorced)
Palmer Cortlandt (divorced)
Benny Sago (divorced)
relatives= Emily Ann Sago (adopted daughter)
"Unnamed child" (stillborn)
Palmer John Cortlandt (deceased)

Donna Beck Tyler (full name "Donna Beck Tyler Cortlandt Sago Tyler") is a fictional character on the long-running American soap opera "All My Children".

Character overview

Donna, played first by Francesca Poston (1976), then by Candice Earley from 1976 to 1992, was originally slated to be a short-term role of a teenage runaway and prostitute. As viewers became interested in the character, it was written into the story that Dr. Chuck Tyler (Richard Van Vleet) was to be her legal guardian. The trials and tribulations that this brought upon both Chuck and Donna provided much of Donna's story in the early years.

In the series

Donna Beck marries many men on the show, including Chuck Tyler, Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell) and Benny Sago (Vasili Bogazianos). However, throughout it all, Chuck is her one true love.

At the time that Donna is married to Palmer, she meets Chuck again at a ski resort. They find themselves trapped in a cave during a snow storm, and fear that they will not be found. Accordingly, they give in to their passions and made love. Once they are rescued, Donna discovers that she is pregnant, but does not know who the father is. When the baby boy is born, she names him Palmer John Cortlandt. Unbeknownst to Donna, Palmer had been told years before that he was sterile, and therefore he knows that the baby is probably Chuck's (it is later revealed that this diagnosis was incorrect). Palmer divorces Donna on a charge of adultery, which serves him well as he wants to reconcile with his ex-wife Daisy (Gillian Spencer).

One night Chuck agrees to watch the baby while Donna works as a singer in a cabaret, The Chateau. However, an emergency presents itself at the hospital and he places the baby in his crib in Donna's dressing room. A fire sweeps through the cabaret, and, although Donna escapes, the baby dies of smoke inhalation. Donna is overcome with grief, especially because she does not know the baby had left home. Chuck leaves town the following year, in 1984.

In 1985, Donna marries Benny Sago and adopts Emily Ann, her best friend Estelle's daughter. She and Benny have many problems, including his infidelity with Nina Cortlandt (an affair which he later breaks off), and his gambling addiction. Meanwhile, she buys The Glamorama, a beauty salon in Pine Valley. She and Benny finally end things towards the beginning of 1990.

Chuck returns to Pine Valley in 1989. He is immediately drawn back to Donna, and she to him. Billy Clyde Tuggle (Estelle's ex-husband and Emily Ann's father) returns to town, after being released from jail, where he had been serving time for raping and attempting to murder his wife, Estelle). He threatens to tell Emily Ann that he is her natural father. Donna agrees to take money from Phoebe Wallingford, Chuck's grandmother, to pay Billy Clyde off, under the condition that Donna would never remarry Chuck. When Chuck asks Donna to marry him, she tells him no, but can't tell him why. However, Billy Clyde refuses the bribe and tells Emily Ann everything. Emily Ann is shattered by this revelation, resulting in her nervous breakdown a year later. Donna and Chuck remarry in August 1990, and Phoebe finally welcomes Donna into her family, at their wedding reception.

When Donna leaves the show in 1992 (Candice Earley asked to be written out after 16 years), she goes off to tend to her daughter, Emily Ann Sago Martin (Liz Vassey) who has a nervous breakdown in a town outside Pine Valley. She returns briefly, in 1993 and 1995.