A Welcome Change for Noone

Kathleen Noone, formerly Ellen Dalton of “All My Children,” has a great anecdote about how one of the show’s characters was dropped from the story line:

“He went up to the attic to look for his skis and that was it. He never came down.”

Noone’s own departure from the soap in January, 1989, was much more conventional. The writers sent Ellen to Japan, which left Noone free to move to Los Angeles and try her hand at different roles--a welcome change after playing a victim for 11 1/2 years. “I felt that I had played every possible note of that character. I really had to come out here and shift gears.”

It might have been a gamble to leave a steady job and start auditioning all over again, but Noone’s move paid off. After landing guest spots in “Quantum Leap,” “Hunter” and “Empty Nest,” she hit the jackpot. She’s now Claudia Whittaker, a tough, manipulative new addition to “Knots Landing,” which is in its 12th season.

Noone is enjoying the switch to nighttime TV, although she says the two genres are very different: “It’s strange when you walk onto a new show. At ‘All My Children,’ you’re with a company of people 18 hours a day. They become a second family to you. Here, you’re brought in to do a scene and that’s it. You see your crew more than your fellow actor.”

But the slower pace on “Knots Landing” has allowed Noone to have more contact with the show’s writers. “In New York, you never get to see the writers. They’re cranking out 90 pages a day. But when I got to ‘Knots Landing,’ the writers actually had an hourlong meeting with me to discuss my character. I really appreciated that.”

From the looks of things, Noone won’t be sent to the attic any time soon.