No Royal Title but She’s a Budding U.S. Soap Queen Now

Millicent Martin thought she had done it all.

During her four decades-plus in show business, the British actress has starred in Broadway musicals (“The Boyfriend” and “Side by Side by Sondheim”), been seduced in the movies by Alan Bates (the dark comedy “Nothing but the Best”) and by Michael Caine (“Alfie”) and been a regular on a few short-lived American TV series (“Downtown” among them).

But the 64-year-old Martin never had done a daytime soap. That is, until now. Earlier this year she joined the cast of NBC’s popular sudser “Days of Our Lives” as the wealthy but eccentric Lili Faversham, who has a maternal connection to Hope (Kristian Alfonso). Faversham believes Hope is really a European princess named Gina.

“What’s amazing about this business is you can get to be my age and haven’t done something like this, and suddenly get thrown into the deep end,” Martin observes.

“I only had 24-hour notice of this part,” says the energetic actress, relaxing in the living room of her Century City apartment. Martin recalls how she got a call at her Connecticut home one Tuesday at 2 in the morning from her agent. “He said, ‘There is an emergency and they are looking for a European lady. I told them about you.’ ”

A tape of her work was rushed to the producers and by 10 a.m., Martin received the call saying the part was all hers.

“I had to get out of a play I was going to do at the Westport Playhouse and I was on the plane by 6 p.m.,” she says. “I got here at 1 in the morning. They had faxed me all the dialogue, which was quite a lot. By noon Wednesday, I was getting made up.”

The timing couldn’t have been better. Martin and her husband, drama and vocal coach Marc Alexander, had long wanted to make Los Angeles their home.

“We like warm weather and swimming,” she says. “So it just came up at the time we wanted. Also, I’m getting to be with friends I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Initially, she was hired to play Faversham for just 13 weeks. “I guess 13 weeks is like a trial thing to see if the audience takes to you or the story line works,” she says. They did, and her contract was extended. Martin’s new episodes began earlier this month.

Martin acknowledges she was terrified on her first day at work. “I knew the dialogue because I am a very quick study,” she says. “But I didn’t know how one did [a soap]. I didn’t know what the whole process was. It takes a lot of discipline, but I must say the cast was so wonderful. They were just so kind, really lovely, and they got me through the day.”

In the relatively short time she’s been on the series, Martin’s discovered the popularity of the soap. “When I flew back [to Connecticut], three stewardesses came up and said, ‘Miss Faversham, how lovely to have you on the plane.’ In New York, a lady who was seating us for a big brunch recognized me, and kids came up with their parents and said, ‘Oh, Miss Faversham, can we have your autograph?’ I had only been on the screen about 11 weeks.”

She’s enjoying being “one of the new girls” on the series. “I am having a blast,” she says enthusiastically. “It’s a joy going in every day. The cast is lovely. Nobody plays a star.”

The hours also have been bliss. “I have been working mostly three or four days a week,” Martin says. “I have spent so many years of my life doing eight shows a week in musicals and plays, and to have the evenings free--I feel like a human being on this show. A lot of times when you are doing stage stuff, as wonderful as it is with a great audience, eight shows a week just eats up your whole life. And you only get one day off a week. I love the two days off. It really rejuvenates me.”

* “Days of Our Lives” airs weekdays at 1 p.m. on NBC.