HomeOpen House: The Many Lives of Cady McClain
01. Jul, 2009 
11 Comments
I was twelve or thirteen the first time I saw today’s Open House star, actress and As the World Turns star Cady McClain. Then 19, Cady had just taken over the role of Dixie Cooney on ABC’s All My Children, and she was playing the spoiler in the marriage of Adam and Brooke Chandler (of the Pine Valley Chandlers).
“She and Tad are going to wind up together,” I said to my Mom. By then I’d already watched the show for 7 years, and I spoke fluent soap. Poor Underdog never had a chance against twins and dopplegangers, resurrections and infidelity, explosions and rapid aging (until a certain point, then the clock mysteriously stops). Best of all were the super-couples, star-crossed lovers whose passion prevails in the face of plotting parents, sexy suitors and bad timing. To this seasoned teen, Tad and Dixie had super-couple written all over them.
And I was right. Over the course of fifteen years, Dixie Cooney became Dixie Cooney Chandler Martin Bodine Martin (perhaps another Martin – not sure). Cady has played the ingénue, the other woman, the wronged woman, the mother, the crazy woman, the wife, the adulteress, the saint and the ghost (and that’s just Dixie); her hair’s been pixie-short, shoulder-length and down-the-back; it’s been straight, curly and bobbed. Dixie’s donated a kidney, been hung off the side of a building and the side of a cliff. She’s been dead, alive again and yes, you guessed it, dead again. Cady’s currently playing As the World Turns Rosanna, who coincidentally woke up from her coma the day Cady and I met at her apartment.*
Continued . . .
Cady flows From One Life to Another more easily than most. Depending on the day, you might find her singing a ballad in a (formerly) smoky Manhattan nightclub, making art, working on a book manuscript or hanging out with her guy Frank. Cady and her Shorkie Tzu Mr. Peanut currently share a chic little one bedroom apartment in the Ansonia, a Beaux Arts building on Manhattan’s upper west side which has played home to Babe Ruth, the Continental Baths (where Bette Midler performed) and the infamous sex club Plato’s Retreat (no, not at the same time, although it’s a fun premise for a play (ala Noel Coward)). With its many incarnations, the Ansonia seems like a good fit for Cady, but don’t get too used to it because she moves. A lot. The California native and her mother drove cross-country in the 80’s to be near her sister at Yale; New York City offered Cady more serious acting opportunities.
“L.A. was too surface for someone like me who wanted to grow up and act with the Royal Shakespeare Academy,” says Cady. “At least in New York I could get incredible training and do plays and not have it be thought that I was wasting my time!”
At first mother and daughter shared a studio, their headboards back to back, but Cady, who had already appeared on St. Elsewhere and Cheers, booked All My Children, and it wasn’t long before the working actress got her own place. Since then Cady’s lived all over Manhattan: in the Meat Packing district when it was “full of trannies and sex clubs,” in Chelsea (a couple times), in the West Village, in Hells Kitchen “when it was full of Irish mafia”, in Nolita, in the Police building and on Beekman Place, which once played home to 50’s era movie stars such as Shirley MacLaine.
Cady once lived in the Police building
Cady channeled her inner-Adler while decorating her current place; white walls, funky accessories and a large scale Rothko (ish) painting offer a pleasing complement to the unit’s original moldings and ornate fireplace. Photos of family, friends and Frank are scattered about. A British flag draped over her pet rabbit’s cage completes the look. It’s the kind of mod-pop apartment where Emma Peel might choose to live, and Cady looks the part when she greets me at the door, her hair pulled back and wearing a smart black tuxedo dress.
The space’s decor suits who she is now, but It’s a far cry from past apartments, one of which had dark green walls, a velvet green sofa and velvet curtains. She describes the look as either “70’s Halston baby” or “gothic porn.”
From gothic porn to London pop, Cady’s style has evolved; if the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, she’ll continue to experiment . . . and move. When we first started emailing, she was talking about possibly moving to Brooklyn; by the time we met a couple of months later, it was all about Europe. If she goes, it’ll be her Match Point phase; Cady’s a New Yorker at heart, and she’ll be back – just like Dixie (hopefully).
Click here for more photos of the Ansonia, including the amazing rooftop views.
Click here to visit Cady’s official website. Also, please check out Cady’s music and her art – it’s very cool and has that Decoratus Absurdum vibe I so love.
Click here to read past Open House stories.
Photo by Cady’s friend and celebrity photographer Leslie Hassler.
A collage by Cady McClain
* The show recently took out a full page ad in People Weekly and US Magazine which prominently feature Cady. Because I’m a very thoughtful person, I have added the promo for Rosanna’s return on the right hand sidebar YouTube player. Just click play. Pretty easy.
Fabulous:)
Love, love, love, Cady…..have been a fan from the day she started on AMC.
I loved that article and the many wondeful pictures that you have put up to go with the article and thanks so much for it.
Dancefreack16/Holly Marie Coeburn/Holly Marie Steed.
I loved this article and I loved the pictures. Fabulous.
I’m an ATWT watcher, so I only know Cady as Rosanna. But she was fantastic in the role before and has really livened things up on the show now that she’s back. Her place in the Ansonia is quite comfortable-looking, you can tell she really lives there, it’s not “designer chic”. Thanks for the article and photos, that’s a place I could be relatively comfortable in myself.
Loved the article and photos, but why weren’t there any photos of Cady’s two well-deserved Emmy Awards?
Her home is almost and pretty as she is. She is a beauty!!!! And I don’t even like soaps.
Cady, you are my favorite!
Cady, I see you use Rosebud Salve. I love that stuff! Enjoying you on ATWT. Welcome back!
I wish I had an apartment like that in New York…