Louise Jacqueline Sorel (née Cohen; born August 6, 1940) is an American actress. She played Vivian Alamain in the American soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1992–2000, 2009–2011, 2017–2018, 2020, 2023 and 2025–present. She has also played Augusta Lockridge on Santa Barbara from 1984–1991 and Emily Tanner on Beacon Hill since 2014.
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Early life
Sorel was born Louise Jacqueline Cohen in Los Angeles, California on August 6, 1940. Her parents were Albert J. Cohen, a film producer, and Jeanne (née Sorel), a concert pianist. Sorel is Jewish.
Sorel received theatrical training at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. She briefly attended the Institut Français, where she studied French. She began performing on stage when she was 15 years old.
Career
Sorel's early career was on the stage; she spent several years on Broadway, playing roles in Take Her, She's Mine and Man and Boy. She appeared in stage productions of The Lion in Winter and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.
Sorel's first film role was a cameo appearance in the 1957 film Eighteen and Anxious. She went on to appear in The Party's Over (1965), Plaza Suite (1971), an episode of Night Gallery titled "Pickman's Model" (1971), B.S. I Love You (1971), Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972), The Return of Charlie Chan (1973), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Mazes and Monsters (1982), Where the Boys Are '84 (1984), and Crimes of Passion (1984), among others. Sorel has made guest appearances on more than 50 prime-time programs and TV movies, including Star Trek (as "Rayna", in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah", which aired in 1969). She also portrayed Terry Waverly, the sister-in-law of Dr. Richard Kimble, in an episode of The Fugitive in 1965.
She made other guest appearances on such programs as Bonanza (as Marie in the episode "The Strange One", 1965), Daniel Boone, The Virginian, Night Gallery, Route 66, The Big Valley, The Fugitive, Search (as Magda Reiner, in "Live Men Tell Tales"), Vega$, Hart to Hart, Medical Center, Charlie's Angels, The Incredible Hulk, Hawaii Five-O, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Knots Landing, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, among others. She had a principal role on The Don Rickles Show.
Sorel played fan-favorite character Augusta Lockridge on the NBC daytime drama series Santa Barbara from July 1984 to August 1986, then from November 1988 to May 1989, returning the following October. She remained until October 1991.
In between stints, she also spent a year appearing as a strong-willed but decent District Attorney, Judith Russell Sanders, on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, from August 1986 through November 1987. She played the villainous Vivian Alamain on the NBC daytime serial, Days of Our Lives from March 1992 until February 2000. Sorel's performance as Alamain garnered her five Soap Opera Digest Awards, including "Outstanding Villainess" in 1994 and "Outstanding Showstopper" in 1997 and 1999.
In 2000, shortly after her dismissal from Days of Our Lives, Sorel briefly joined the cast of the Port Charles as fashion maven "Donatella Stewart" (a play on the names Donatella Versace and Martha Stewart). The role lasted for a month. In 2001, she had a brief role on another ABC soap opera, All My Children, as Judge Kay Campobello, who blackmailed Adam Chandler into sleeping with her. She made a brief appearance on Passions as cannery worker Dort in 2004. In December 2009, she was invited to reprise her villainous role on Days of Our Lives.
In June 2011, Sorel was let go from Days of Our Lives along with many other actors to make room for the return of super couple John and Marlena and several other characters. In 2014, Sorel played Emily Tanner in the soap opera web series Beacon Hill.
On December 29, 2017, Sorel returned to Days of Our Lives as Vivian. However, she was briefly replaced by Robin Strasser. On December 30, 2019, it was announced that Sorel would once again return to the role in 2020.
In 2023 Sorel returned to her role as Vivian Alamain in Days of Our Lives, and again in 2025.
Partial filmography
2014, 2020: Beacon Hill – Emily Tanner
1992–2000, 2009–11, 2017–18, 2020, 2023-present: Days of Our Lives – Vivian Alamain
2004: Passions – Dort
1998: Sabrina the Teenage Witch – Mrs Saberhagen
1996: Law & Order – "Causa Mortis" as Marcy Fletcher Wrightman
1984–1991: Santa Barbara – Augusta Lockridge
1986–87: One Life to Live – Judith Sanders
1984: Matt Houston – "Eyewitness" as Barbara Daniels
1983: Diff'rent Strokes – Robin Saunders
1982: Mazes and Monsters – Julia
1982: Airplane II: The Sequel – Nurse
1982: Hart to Hart – "Blue and Broken Harted" season 3 episode 16 – Pat Yankee
1982: Knots Landing – Bess Riker
1982: Trapper John, M.D. – Marty Katz
1982: Magnum, P.I. – Eleanor Greeley
1979: The Incredible Hulk – Doctor Renee Dubois, S3E10
1977: Kojak – Janice Maclay
1974: Kojak – Vicky Brewer
1973: Circle of Fear – Nisa King