First Lady
Jerry O'Neil
Soap Opera Weekly Magazine
January 18, 2000

Passions' Dana Sparks has built a terrific career on getting things right the first time.

Firsts seems to signify good fortune for Dana Sparks, the tall, all-American beauty who plays Passions' Grace Bennett (and, until recently, Grace's twin sister, Faith Standish). It seems that throughout her life, first attempts have reaped fine results for the velvet-voiced actress � both professionally and personally.

As a teen-ager, for instance, she auditioned for her first national spot, for Coca-Cola, and nailed it. That kick-started her career in commercials and precipitated a move from her hometown of Orinda, in the San Francisco Bay Area, to Los Angeles, where she began to pursue acting in earnest. There, the then 19-year-old wound up meeting Steve Sparks, the man she would marry soon thereafter � and the first true love of her life. Her first audition for a role in television landed her the short-lived series Cover-Up, and soon after that, her neighbor in Malibu, film director Blake Edwards, The Pink Panther cast her in her first feature film, That's Life!. Then came a nice run in Falcon Crest as Vickie Gioberti, followed by a string of guest-starring and ongoing supporting roles on prime-time series such as L.A. Law, Melrose Place, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Baywatch. She is also in her third season of JAG, where she plays the recurring role of Lt. Commander Carolyn Imes, a JAG attorney who is fated to always lose her cases to the stars of the show.

Yes, you guessed it: Passions is Sparks' first daytime soap opera. What does she make of this pattern of first? "I don't mess around," she states succinctly. As for daytime itself, "It's been absolutely amazing. I had no idea what I was stepping into. I had always avoided daytime because everyone said it was such hard work and you didn't get much respect. It is a lot of hard work, and the genre is getting more respect now than it used to."

"I'm just having a great time," she continues. "The twin thing was a little over-whelming. It was day and night for three months, a lot of hard work, and so much of it playing off myself. It's one thing to have 70 pages of dialogue, but in 40 of those pages I was talking to myself, so I had to know both sides of the dialogue. But it's been very exciting. The pace is so fast, and the cast is just wonderful. We were all best buddies right away."

She credits Passions' success thus far to creator/head writer James E. Reilly, saying, with some degree of awe in her voice, "I just can't even imagine how this man can put out so many different stories, how he can spin all these stories and have them keep colliding and progressing. I don't get it. I want to watch him work for just one day."

Sparks believes the offbeat soap, which has incited passionate opinions across viewer and critical ranks, is starting to come into its own. "I recently watched some of the earlier shows, just to see how much more comfortable the actors are in their parts now. All the early scenes were short, because we were all brand-new and they didn't want to push the actors too hard. We were overwhelmed. Now, there are these big, meaty scenes, and everyone is more comfortable."

When asked what she believes she contributes to the canvas, Sparks guffaws before responding. "This is the trouble with being an actor and having to do an interview � I have to try to answer that question. Without going into actor theory and all that, I just feel I'm very honest and real. What do I need to work on? I don't want to tell you that because then you'll see something and say 'Oh, god, she does do that!' No, I don't need to highlight any of those quirks I'm trying to get rid of. I will say, I work on my posture a lot. I'm getting back into my yoga classes. But after about 14 hours at the studio you start slouching. It's easy to slip."

Acting essentially stems from the fact that 'I was always a watcher," she says. "I'd let things happen in front of me and try to figure out what do." When she was growing up, Sparks would sometimes tag along with her much older sister and brother (by eight and 10 years, respectively) when they went off to hang out in nearby Berkeley, that hotbed of 60s and '70s student radical and hippie culture. "We'd see all the crazy things that were going on with the hippies. I liked it, but not really. I was pretty much left to my own devices, and I got to watch my sister and brother make their mistakes. I made my own, too; you can't learn everything from them.

With her parents' encouragement, she developed an avid interest in photography and film, performed in high school plays, and then her mother sent her to a modeling school in San Francisco - all of which fueled her desire to pursue a career in front of the camera. "I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid, I always loved films, too. But why did I become an actor? I really don't know. There wasn't one specific moment or event where I said to myself, I've got to do it."

Moving from modeling to commercials, and then into film and television, Sparks carved out a niche in the industry and has worked steadily over the years. Of late, she's given thought to how special it is to work at what you enjoy. "Every morning that I get up and go in to the studio, it's such a treat," she says. "I get to do so much work every day and really push myself. The emotional range that I've had to build toward every day has been wonderful, I'm never bored. I also think of how when I did That's Life! It was a total gift. Blake was my neighbor, his daughter was my best friend, I was working with Jack Lemmon, and my husband could come over to the set and hang out. It was a special time."

Though she began her career right after high school and was married less than two years later, Sparks has no regrets. "Ideally, I would love to have had the education," she muses, "but I wasn't in a place to go to college at that time. School was very frustrating to me, and I wanted to get out and explore. I've traveled a lot with Steve and on my own, and I really don't feel I missed out on anything."

Besides, she and her husband have constructed a very nice life for themselves. They met cute on the beach one afternoon when his huge dog, a Great Dane/mastiff, actually knocked her off her feet. "The dog ran me down, and I just looked at it and said, "You sit!" He looked at me as if to say, well, this gal's got some spunk. Steve came over and apologized and asked if he could take me to dinner. We had seen each other a little bit before that day, so there was that kind of an 'afar' thing going on. I still have the bathing suit I was wearing that day. It's entirely unwearable, but he asked me never to throw it away. I met him when I was 19, and I got married at 20."

Along with their current dogs, a mix named What About Bob and an English bulldog, Spanky Otis, the couple enjoys their lakeside retreat in the Santa Monica Mountains. "I love it" Sparks says. "We go hiking or kayaking, or just hang out on the lake." And then there's golf. Thanks to her husband's clientele (he is an independent financial planner and consultant), many of whom have become friends, whacking the little white ball has become a pastime for the actress. "He lured me into his golf games by saying, 'Want to play with Sean Connery today?'" she says with a laugh. "His client list is amazing. Craig T. Nelson, Meat Loaf, Joe Pesci � he plays golf with these people. I've played with Barbara Bush and Michael Jordan. It's always an interesting game."

Understandably, Sparks takes the most pride in her marriage. "Just to be together that long, and to still adore each other and be happy with each other and exploring things, is really wonderful," she says, her voice conveying warmth and contentment. Along with that commitment, Sparks says peace of mind is important to her. "I have a pretty good attitude in terms of rolling with the punches. My mother was a great worrier, and my husband found me early enough in life to convince me not to go down that path. Maybe because I like to be in the water so much, I've learned to go with the waves. Worry accomplishes nothing. I would sometimes get into those modes of behavior, and Steve would say to me that for everything that comes along in life, you really do have a choice. Do you want to fix it, deny it or worry about it?"

No doubt about it, Dana Sparks seems to be making all the right choices. Happy and content personally as well as professionally, appreciative of her good fortune in getting to acting in both daytime and nighttime television simultaneously, she's guardedly optimistic about her future in soaps. Taking into consideration the tenuous nature of the industry of late, it makes sense that Sparks would say, "[Daytime] has got to change, and I think that's what Passions is helping to do. As long as we stay progressive and ahead of the curve a little, I'm really happy. I'm in a place right now where I love my home and where I live, I like who I work with and the security of the show. There's nothing about it I don't like. I can see myself being comfortable there for some time."