Reva Shayne
Encyclopedia
Reva Shayne O'Neill is a fictional character on the long-running CBS
daytime soap opera
Guiding Light
played by emmy-award winner Kim Zimmer
from November 28, 1983 to July 1990. After a five-year absence, Kim returned to Guiding Light on April 14, 1995 and remained through the final episode in September 2009. The character is the daughter of Hawk Shayne and his late wife, Sarah O'Neal Shayne, and the mother of Dylan Lewis, Marah Lewis
, Joshua "Shayne" Lewis
, Jonathan Randall
, and Colin O'Neill. The character was originated by actress Kim Zimmer
in November 1983 and she would go on to portray Reva for the next seven years. Reva's first stint on the show culminated in the character driving off the Bahia Honda Bridge in the Florida Keys
, yelling, "I'm coming, Bud!" in July 1990. Her husband and soap viewers assumed she had died.
Zimmer has won four Daytime Emmy Award
s for Outstanding Lead Actress and has been nominated eleven times in the same category, most recently in 2007.
woman, presumed dead more than once (most recently, a clone
was made from her DNA
), the princess of a little-known island nation named San Cristobel, a time traveler, a Civil War belle, a French
woman, a woman who saved illegal immigrants from certain death, a talk show host, a psychic
, a cancer survivor, and last, but not least, a loving mom and devoted wife, not necessarily in that order. Since 2005, Reva began to experience menopause
. In her early days, as originally created by headwriter Pam Long
, she was a spirited troublemaker; the episode where Reva "baptized" herself the "Slut of Springfield" in a public fountain
is generally regarded to be one of the best in soap opera history.
She is one of Daytime's most married characters, having been married nine times to seven different men.
In May 2006, Reva was diagnosed with breast cancer
and though initially hesitant to accept her illness, underwent treatment. Her husband, Josh Lewis
, was in the dark, however, along with the rest of Springfield, until Reva was on her deathbed at the end of October 2006, when Billy Lewis
revealed the truth. Reva appeared to be dead at the end of the November 3, 2006 show, but the next episode had Josh hear a noise from Reva, she was resuscitated and brought back to life. Shortly after the Lewises were told she was going into remission, it was also revealed that the bone marrow transplant she underwent in Minnesota
did in fact work so Reva is now free of cancer. She did have a scare in early 2007 when she found a lump under her arm, although it turned out to be benign.
Reva had another scare in 2008 after finding a mass. However, realizing how life is short, she and Jeffrey O'Neill were married in September 2008 after a somewhat disastrous ceremony with only 2 weeks of planning. After the wedding, her doctor has given her a clean bill of health from cancer and instead reports to Jeffrey that she is pregnant, despite being around fifty-three or fifty-four years old. On October 29, 2008, Jeffrey and Reva learned that they were expecting a son. On April 2, 2009, Reva and Jeffrey welcomed their son Colin O'Neill, named after Reva's doctor and friend Colin McCabe. During her pregnancy, Reva's cancer returned, but she managed to survive.
Edmund Winslow, who had been a thorn in the side of the Lewis family for many years but had attempted to turn over a new leaf, came unwound once again, and decided to kidnap baby Colin, only to be stopped when Reva broke out of the hospital and stabbed him with a hypodermic needle. Edmund continued to threaten the family but was soon found dead in a local pond. Reva was arrested for the crime, but Jeffrey began to believe Edmund was still alive. Jeffrey left town to track down leads; a few weeks later, Reva learned that Jeffrey had been killed.
Reva was grief-stricken for months, only finding comfort in Colin and in speaking to photos of Jeffrey. In actuality, Jeffrey had survived Edmund's attempt on his life, but Edmund told him if he ever returned to Reva, then Colin and the various other children in the Lewis family would be killed. Jeffrey decided to stay "dead" and pursue Edmund as best he could.
Meanwhile, Reva managed to find new happiness in life through her family, and time with her children and grandchildren revived her bond with Josh. Josh decided he needed to move on from Springfield, and, knowing Reva was still mourning her husband, told her that in a year's time, he would return to Springfield's lighthouse, and if Reva wanted to be with him, she would meet him. A year later, Reva, along with young Colin, met Josh at the lighthouse, and in the last Guiding Light scene ever broadcast, they drove away to a new life. Reva was credited for reading the last line in Guiding Light history when she said "Always" to Josh. Jeffrey and Reva are currently still married; however, Reva is unaware of this, believing Jeffrey to be dead, and viewers are left to assume that she remains happy with Joshua.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
daytime soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
played by emmy-award winner Kim Zimmer
Kim Zimmer
Kim Zimmer is an American actress. She is known for her role as Echo DiSavoy on One Life to Live and best known for her role as Reva Shayne on Guiding Light.-Career:...
from November 28, 1983 to July 1990. After a five-year absence, Kim returned to Guiding Light on April 14, 1995 and remained through the final episode in September 2009. The character is the daughter of Hawk Shayne and his late wife, Sarah O'Neal Shayne, and the mother of Dylan Lewis, Marah Lewis
Marah Lewis
Marah Lewis is a fictional character on the CBS daytime soap opera, Guiding Light. The character is the daughter of the popular supercouple, Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne...
, Joshua "Shayne" Lewis
Shayne Lewis
Joshua Shayne Lewis is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light. He is the second child of supercouple Joshua Lewis and Reva Shayne...
, Jonathan Randall
Jonathan Randall
Jonathan Randall is a fictional character on the television soap opera Guiding Light.He is portrayed by actor Tom Pelphrey, who has been nominated several times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor, and has won the award twice, in 2006 and 2008 .- Overview :Jonathan is the son...
, and Colin O'Neill. The character was originated by actress Kim Zimmer
Kim Zimmer
Kim Zimmer is an American actress. She is known for her role as Echo DiSavoy on One Life to Live and best known for her role as Reva Shayne on Guiding Light.-Career:...
in November 1983 and she would go on to portray Reva for the next seven years. Reva's first stint on the show culminated in the character driving off the Bahia Honda Bridge in the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
, yelling, "I'm coming, Bud!" in July 1990. Her husband and soap viewers assumed she had died.
Zimmer has won four Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
s for Outstanding Lead Actress and has been nominated eleven times in the same category, most recently in 2007.
Character overview
Reva underwent many transformations: she had been a vixen (having married a father and two sons of the same family), a manic-depressive, an AmishAmish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
woman, presumed dead more than once (most recently, a clone
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
was made from her DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
), the princess of a little-known island nation named San Cristobel, a time traveler, a Civil War belle, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
woman, a woman who saved illegal immigrants from certain death, a talk show host, a psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
, a cancer survivor, and last, but not least, a loving mom and devoted wife, not necessarily in that order. Since 2005, Reva began to experience menopause
Menopause
Menopause is a term used to describe the permanent cessation of the primary functions of the human ovaries: the ripening and release of ova and the release of hormones that cause both the creation of the uterine lining and the subsequent shedding of the uterine lining...
. In her early days, as originally created by headwriter Pam Long
Pam Long
Pamela K. Long is an American actress and writer, most known for her stints writing the CBS Daytime soap opera Guiding Light, from 1983 to 1986 and from 1987 to 1990....
, she was a spirited troublemaker; the episode where Reva "baptized" herself the "Slut of Springfield" in a public fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
is generally regarded to be one of the best in soap opera history.
She is one of Daytime's most married characters, having been married nine times to seven different men.
In May 2006, Reva was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
and though initially hesitant to accept her illness, underwent treatment. Her husband, Josh Lewis
Joshua Lewis
Joshua "Josh" Lewis is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama Guiding Light. He was portrayed by Robert Newman from October 1, 1981 to December 1984, October 1986 to January 25, 1991, and August 30, 1993 to September 18, 2009.-Biography:...
, was in the dark, however, along with the rest of Springfield, until Reva was on her deathbed at the end of October 2006, when Billy Lewis
Billy Lewis II
Harlan Billy "Billy" Lewis II is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama Guiding Light. Jordan Clarke is currently portraying the character, which he has done from May 24, 1983 to January 1987, June 1989 to July 20, 1993, December 26, 1996 to May 5, 1998 and since February 5, 1999. Clarke also...
revealed the truth. Reva appeared to be dead at the end of the November 3, 2006 show, but the next episode had Josh hear a noise from Reva, she was resuscitated and brought back to life. Shortly after the Lewises were told she was going into remission, it was also revealed that the bone marrow transplant she underwent in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
did in fact work so Reva is now free of cancer. She did have a scare in early 2007 when she found a lump under her arm, although it turned out to be benign.
Reva had another scare in 2008 after finding a mass. However, realizing how life is short, she and Jeffrey O'Neill were married in September 2008 after a somewhat disastrous ceremony with only 2 weeks of planning. After the wedding, her doctor has given her a clean bill of health from cancer and instead reports to Jeffrey that she is pregnant, despite being around fifty-three or fifty-four years old. On October 29, 2008, Jeffrey and Reva learned that they were expecting a son. On April 2, 2009, Reva and Jeffrey welcomed their son Colin O'Neill, named after Reva's doctor and friend Colin McCabe. During her pregnancy, Reva's cancer returned, but she managed to survive.
Edmund Winslow, who had been a thorn in the side of the Lewis family for many years but had attempted to turn over a new leaf, came unwound once again, and decided to kidnap baby Colin, only to be stopped when Reva broke out of the hospital and stabbed him with a hypodermic needle. Edmund continued to threaten the family but was soon found dead in a local pond. Reva was arrested for the crime, but Jeffrey began to believe Edmund was still alive. Jeffrey left town to track down leads; a few weeks later, Reva learned that Jeffrey had been killed.
Reva was grief-stricken for months, only finding comfort in Colin and in speaking to photos of Jeffrey. In actuality, Jeffrey had survived Edmund's attempt on his life, but Edmund told him if he ever returned to Reva, then Colin and the various other children in the Lewis family would be killed. Jeffrey decided to stay "dead" and pursue Edmund as best he could.
Meanwhile, Reva managed to find new happiness in life through her family, and time with her children and grandchildren revived her bond with Josh. Josh decided he needed to move on from Springfield, and, knowing Reva was still mourning her husband, told her that in a year's time, he would return to Springfield's lighthouse, and if Reva wanted to be with him, she would meet him. A year later, Reva, along with young Colin, met Josh at the lighthouse, and in the last Guiding Light scene ever broadcast, they drove away to a new life. Reva was credited for reading the last line in Guiding Light history when she said "Always" to Josh. Jeffrey and Reva are currently still married; however, Reva is unaware of this, believing Jeffrey to be dead, and viewers are left to assume that she remains happy with Joshua.