Felicia Minei Behr, ‘All My Children,’ ‘Ryan’s Hope’ and ‘As the World Turns’ Producer, Dies at 82
Felicia Minei Behr, a producer on All My Children, Ryan’s Hope and As the World Turns who also served as a top executive at ABC Daytime, died Sunday after a five-year battle with brain cancer, her family announced. She was 82.
As an associate producer, Behr helped launch All My Children, created by Agnes Nixon, in 1970. She stayed until 1975, then produced and exec produced another ABC daytime drama, Ryan’s Hope, from 1981 until its conclusion in 1989.
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She made it back to Pine Valley in 1989 and guided the Susan Lucci-starring All My Children to stellar ratings before exiting in 1996 to become executive producer of the CBS soap As the World Turns through 1999.
Recruited to halt eroding daytime ratings, she returned to ABC in 2000 as senior vp programming of ABC Daytime. Through 2004, she oversaw the network’s slate of soaps, which also included General Hospital, One Life to Live and Port Charles, as well as the Barbara Walters-created talk show The View.
Behr shared Daytime Emmys for outstanding drama series during her second stint on All My Children in 1992 and 1994 and received seven other nominations during her career.
“Her storytelling expertise and deep connection with audiences helped create some of the most memorable moments in soap opera history,” her family noted.
Born on Long Island on Sept. 21, 1942, Behr received secretarial training at the Katharine Gibbs School in New York and began her career in television in 1960 as a secretary at CBS. She moved up to positions on such programs as The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Garry Moore Show and One Life to Live before she helped get All My Children off the ground.
In the latter part of her career, she contributed to international TV production at Bavaria Filmstadt in Germany and taught undergraduate courses at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Survivors include her daughters, Kareen, Victoria, Francesca and Kristina; her son, Robert; and her grandchildren, Anthony, Bryan, Jesse, Kenneth, Heather, Robert Jr., Hunter, Zaira, Keegan and Shane.
Her husband of 46 years, Robert Behr, an Emmy-winning technical director for ABC Sports and ABC Daytime, died in 2017.
Donations in her memory may be made to Gray for Glioblastoma or New York Women in Film & Television.
“Nobody reveled in the form’s glories — and meeting its considerable challenges — more than Felicia,” All My Children and As the World Turns writer Hal Corley noted in a Facebook post. “She was a rare producer who had absolute trust in those on her team: she delegated with confidence, investment and respect.
“She appreciated soap writers as foundational to the genre’s success or failure, as few do. She was also famously unflappable: no crisis escalated into drama, because Felicia left the drama to the small screen.”
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