| Phoebe English Wallingford | |||||||||||||
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| Ruth Warrick as Phoebe Wallingford | |||||||||||||
| All My Children | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Ruth Warrick (1970-2005) | ||||||||||||
| Current status | Former; Regular | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 1970-2005 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | January 5, 1970 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | January 5, 2005 | ||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Died | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||
| Died | May 4, 2005 | ||||||||||||
| Age | 60 (at death) | ||||||||||||
| Cause of death | Died in her sleep | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | Socialite Member of the Daughters of Fine Lineage Member of the Pine Valley Historical Society Overseer of fund raising efforts for the AIDS Hospice/Cindy Chandler Memorial Dear Aggy advice columnist for Tempo Magazine | ||||||||||||
| Residence | Wallingford Estate (formerly known as the English Estate and Tyler Estate) Owned a cabin at Willow Lake where Pierce used to reside | ||||||||||||
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Phoebe Wallingford (nee English; formerly Matthews and Tyler) is a character from the soap opera All My Children, portrayed by Ruth Warrick from 1970 until her death in 2005.
Storylines[]
Phoebe is one of the original AMC characters. She has always been the Grande Dame of Pine Valley. She was the wife of Dr. Charles Tyler, the Chief of Staff at Pine Valley Hospital. He later divorced Phoebe to marry Mona Kane. Phoebe has always been a meddling busy body and in the early years was a hateful one.
When Phoebe's son, Lincoln, married Kitty/Kelly Shea and Phoebe disapproved, he left town. After their daughter died, Anne was committed to an institution. Anne was later killed by a car bomb meant for Paul.
Dr. Tyler divorced her to trade a loveless marriage in for a life of real love with Mona. Thereafter, Phoebe hurled the "home wrecker" and "jezebel" epithets toward Mona whenever her broom took her to Pine Valley Hospital.
Phoebe's drinking got worse, and she became a target for con men. Very much her junior, Wade Matthews conned her into running away with him and getting married (after getting her drunk). Langley Wallingford, a pretend scholar who was actually a carnie man, was next to enter Phoebe's life. Phoebe had met her love match in Langley - he helped her dry out and become a much nicer, caring woman.
Phoebe allowed Pierce Riley to move into a cabin she owned at Willow Lake after he returned from military service in Central America. Pierce was deeply disturbed over the supposed death of his lover. Brooke and Pierce eventually got involved, but their relationship was short-lived because Pierce's supposedly dead lover showed up in Pine Valley. Phoebe, who had been pushing for Brooke and the ruggedly handsome ex-serviceman to get together, kept unusually quiet when Pierce left town.
In the late 1990s, a fall at Chandler Mansion caused Phoebe to fracture her hip.
Phoebe grew suspicious of Brooke's next flame, Jim Thomasen --- and rightly so. Jim was a less than desirable man even though Phoebe initially approved of his relationship with her niece.
In spite of her record of coercing or pressuring Brooke into relationships with men, Phoebe continued doing so. In 2000, a minister named Eliot Freeman was next on Phoebe's 'nudge' list. Phoebe approved of Brooke's relationship with the reverend, but in an eerily ironic twist of fate, Eliot turned out to be Josh Waleski, the drunk driver who had killed Brooke's daughter some 12 years earlier.
Phoebe returned to matchmaking in late 2001 by trying to help "nudge" Brooke back together with a former flame, Edmund Grey. Phoebe's efforts were rewarded on February 14th, 2002 when Edmund proposed to Brooke - and she accepted.
In frail health for some time, Phoebe passed away in May 2005. But even death couldn't prevent Phoebe from meddling in others' affairs. In her will, Phoebe left most of her inheritance to Jamie Martin -- on the condition that he stopped seeing Babe Chandler.
Crimes Committed[]
- Slapped Tad Martin [Nov 1986]