Margo Hughes


Margo Hughes is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns, a show about working life in the fictional town of Oakdale. She was first played by Margaret Colin, and then by Hillary B. Smith for six years. However the actress most recognized for the role is Ellen Dolan, who played the character from December 18, 1989 until 2010, with a break from January 1993 to June 1994 when Glynnis O'Connor played the role.
Margo's storylines often focus on family dramas and police matters. The character is portrayed as a stoic, hard-nosed, determined and level-headed character, who in later years has begun interfering in the lives of her children. A pivotal storyline for the character came in 1992 when the character was raped by two criminals she was attempting to arrest during a holdup. The storyline was continually re-hashed by the show in the years after.
Margo's only marriage in her 30-year history on the show was with that of lawyer Thomas "Tom" Hughes. The couple met during their investigation of Mr. Big and married in 1983. The super couple endured many trials and tribulations over their 27 years of marriage, most notably when Margo had an affair with Hal Munson, and Tom cheated on Margo with Emily Stewart. For her work on the show, Dolan won Soap Opera Digest's Outstanding Supporting Actress award in 1993, and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy the same year.

Creation and casting

Background

The character of Margo Montgomery was brought in as the daughter of Lyla Montgomery and John Dixon. Marrying Tom Hughes three years after her arrival, the move connected her to the core Hughes family. Margo miscarried three children with Tom and gave birth to son Casey Hughes. In the 1980s, Margo gave birth to a son Adam Munson which turned out to be the son of policeman Hal Munson.

Casting

The character of Margo had been with the soap since 1980 and was played by several actresses:
Originating the role in 1980, The Edge of Night's Colin stayed for two years. In 1983, Bailey took over the role and admitted Deas didn't agree with the idea of the character being recast. "Because he and Margaret, they were not yet together. This was his way of interacting with her at work, he didn’t like the idea that she wasn’t there anymore. I think I handled him the best and that’s why I got the job. Subsequently we became really good friends." In 1989, after six years with the show, Bailey Smith quit the role, admitting she was burned out after her time on As the World Turns. "I wanted to spend more time with my kids. I felt I had taken Margo to the length I could take her. I needed to do something else. Doug’s feeling was, “Go take a break and come back.” I said, “I’d loved to do that, I just need a break.”
Ellen Dolan was offered the role of Margo Montgomery Hughes in 1989 by then head-writer Douglas Marland. Dolan said four years of Guiding Light helped her prepare for the role.
"I wanted her to be funny/quirky.... everything you don't get to see in her these days." Dolan's first scene on the show, she revealed to CBS, was aboard an airplane. "My first storyline Casey, my husband’s Casey, had some rare disease and he was going to die. And I unplugged his life support but the way they brought the character of Margo back was they brought her home, so my first scenes were on an airplane," Dolan recalled. Dolan said the writers never wrote the character funny and any humour there was she brought it to the show. "Anything that's in there that brings a twinkle to anybody’s eye is what I bring to it. In fact, they have to take a lot of it away. They don't let me do it a lot."
After several years of forecasting the cancellation of the 54-year-old show, Dolan's 20-year role came to an end when CBS ended the show, with the last episode airing in September 2010. When asked how she hoped her character would leave, she replied: "I don't hope anymore."

Storylines

Arrival in Oakdale

Upon arriving in Oakdale, Margo Montgomery immediately became involved with the married James Stenbeck. When Margo confided in her friend, Jeff Ward, that James loved her and would marry her, Jeff told her she was a fool. Meanwhile, Margo was beginning continually perplexed at her mother, Lyla's, antagonism toward Dr. John Dixon and his likewise cold demeanor toward Lyla. Not long after, Margo's life changed forever during Dee Stewart's rape trial. Lyla was a witness and seemed to be protecting the accused, John Dixon. District Attorney Tom Hughes's questioning of Lyla brought out the truth: John Dixon was Margo's real father. After being exonerated, John ended up being a victim of a hit and run. John was in the hospital for a few days and started running his own investigation despite the pleas of Lt. Savage not to. John pretended that he was blind and asked to stay with Margo at the house that she lived in on the Stenbeck estate. While John was supposedly recuperating but faking his blindness, he was dismayed to find out that Margo was carrying on an affair with James. John had started to suspect that James was involved somehow with John's nemesis, Dr. Rick Ryan. John was even more convinced of this when he saw Rick and James having secret meetings. When James set up Rick to date not only Margo but also his good friend, Hayley Wilson, James started to suspect that John was investigating him. Realizing that John wasn'tblind, James threatened to kill John with a knife. However, John recorded the whole meeting on a hidden audio tape. Soon, John discovered it was James who had attempted to kill him in the hit and run. Meanwhile, Tom, who was dating Margo's Aunt Maggie, tried to convince Margo that John was faking his blindness, but Margo didn't believe him.

Relationship with her father, John Dixon

Finally, one day in August 1981, John tried to play the blackmail tape for Margo, but the only thing on it was music from the rock group the Rolling Stones—Margo's sister, Cricket, had gotten her hands on the tape. John, however, had a duplicate tape in his safe deposit box. Margo got angry at him and told John that she was no longer his nursemaid, Later, Margo got miffed when John sought pity from his former wife Kim Andropolous and Margo's mother, Lyla. Tom had obviously made Margo suspicious of John's "blindness", but it wasn't enough, because although Margo ordered John out of her house, she quickly took him back. Later, learning that James was having *another* affair with a woman named Connie Wilson, Margo realized that her relationship with James was going nowhere and she ended it. It was her break-up with James that led Margo to a career in law enforcement, and she began working as an assistant for the law firm of Lowell, Colman, and Hughes for her Aunt Maggie. At the same time, Maggie and Tom started drifting away from each other. Meanwhile, one night, Margo accidentally got locked in at Fashions, Ltd. While investigating the place, that night James decided that there were too many people who suspected that he was smuggling drugs and jewels through Fashions so he decided to have it torched, while Margo was locked inside. Luckily, Margo was saved by Ernie Ross and her sister, Cricket, and all three put the fire out and saved Fashions. But as she waited for Ernie and Cricket to save her, Margo stumbled across the cache of illegal drugs and jewels. Despite her having found the evidence, Tom read Margo the riot act for almost having herself killed and he fired her. Undeterred, when Margo learned about a connection between Stenbeck and Mr. Big, Margo followed James to Paris to see what he was up to. To her surprise, Tom followed her. Soon, she spotted two thugs following James and Miranda Marlowe.

James Stenbeck

To investigate the connection between James and Mr. Big, she and Tom took off for the greenhouse. The meeting started on March 4, 1982, just as Margo and Tom arrived with the FBI hot on their trail. Mr. Big accused James of being a spy and Miranda of being a traitor. Miranda pulled a gun, but Mr. Big had already removed its firing pin. Seeing the danger they were in, Tom started a fire. In the confusion, Tom and Margo managed to escape, and so did Mr. Big. Tom and Margo spotted a plane in the field, and with Margo at the controls, they took off. Tom and Margo were horrified to learn that Mr. Big was hiding in the back, and before he jumped, he told them the tank was almost empty since he had siphoned off the gas of his plane. Margo somehow managed to land in a deserted area. For several days in the south of France, Tom and Margo seemed lost and neither of them knew French fluently enough to ask for directions. Finally, Margo spotted a castle in a clearing. Upon entering, they found a kitchen stocked with pancake mix and brandy but the phone was dead. A sudden gust of wind slammed the door, and an unseen hand turned the key in the lock. Exhausted, Tom and Margo went to sleep, awakening to a gourmet meal. Tom wanted to run, but their path was blocked by a 400-pound mute. This silent man, whose name was Bruno, ushered them to the table, and to their horror, Mr. Big joined them. This was Mr. Big's castle and he was about to show Tom and Margo how horrifying it was. Mr. Big proceeded to play games with his captives. Their only escape lay in figuring out clues from classic literature. If they failed, they would die. In the "room of love," Margo stepped on a painted heart and was shot by an arrow (with only a minor injury to her arm. Tom found the clue in a Robert Browning sonnet, and they escaped.

Entry into the police force

Meanwhile, Tom and Margo realized they were in love, but once they met with Bob and then flew back to Oakdale they realized they had to keep their love for one another a secret since Tom was still seeing Margo's aunt Maggie. Maggie did figure it out, but since Margo did not want to hurt her aunt, she asked Tom to cool it between the two of them. Margo also decided to become a police officer. In May 1982, she passed the police academy entrance exams, but everyone worried for her safety. The officer in charge, Captain Aaron Striker, made it clear that Margo would have to prove herself. In July, she solved one of Striker's cases, and when he tried to take the credit, Margo called his bluff. Striker wanted her dismissed, but Margo caught him in the locker room with a shapely blond officer. Striker realized she'd make one hell of a policewoman and kept her on the force. Meanwhile, Tom finally convinced Margo of his love for her, and she agreed to see him. Later, Mr. Big arrived at Margo's cottage and searched thoroughly for a hat. Margo had no idea of the hat's importance and had given Tom the band from the hat, which Tom gave to his younger half-sister, Frannie. Later, Mr. Big came back to the cottage, knife in hand, and found the hat. John finally convinced Margo that Mr. Big was in town and that he had spotted him. Margo agreed to follow John to a clearing, but at first didn't see anything and doubted her father. Just as she was getting ready to leave, Margo spotted Mr. Big with a henchman. Margo told John to lie low and not confront Mr. Big while she went to get help. John didn't listen and confronted Mr. Big. Mr. Big held a gun on John and told him to stop following him or he'd be dead. Meanwhile, Margo was duped by another tape sent to her by one of Mr. Big's henchman into going to a nightclub on Halloween evening, 1982. At the nightclub, there was a magic show. Mr. Big informed the magician that Margo would make a wonderful assistant. She was handcuffed and blindfolded and put in a box.