Best known as Erica Kane on All My Children, Lucci dazzled at the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She wore a strapless scarlet dress with a fitted waist, paired with a diamond heart pendant and coordinating hoop earrings.
Her glamorous appearance comes years after a frightening health crisis in October 2018. One evening, she felt pressure around her rib cage and struggled to catch her breath. Initially brushing it off and heading to bed without calling her doctor, she reconsidered when a sharp pain shot through the left side of her jaw — a warning sign she recognized as a possible heart attack symptom in women.
Encouraged by her husband, she phoned her cardiologist, who immediately told her to head to the ER. By the next morning, doctors had inserted a stent into an artery that was 80% blocked, likely preventing a major heart attack.
Her cardiologist, Dr. Richard Shlofmitz of St. Francis Hospital, explained that plaque buildup can rapidly worsen — comparing it to debris collecting around a log in a river. Years before that incident, Lucci had already undergone another procedure after doctors found two additional arteries blocked at 90% and 75%. At that time, she had ignored symptoms for weeks until severe chest pain finally sent her to the hospital, where two stents restored proper blood flow.
Remarkably, she bounced back quickly. Within days of being discharged, she was back on stage and resumed her normal life.
In December 2024, Lucci was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards in New York. During her emotional speech, she expressed gratitude that her son Andreas was in the audience and said she could feel the presence of her late husband, Helmut Huber.
Huber, an Austrian-born writer and producer, was married to Lucci for nearly 53 years before his passing in March 2022 at age 84. The couple met while working at a hotel, became engaged after just three weeks of dating, and married in September 1969. Together they had two children, Andreas and Liza.
Huber also managed much of Lucci’s career and served as CEO of their company, Pine Valley Productions — named after the fictional setting of All My Children. Lucci portrayed the iconic Erica Kane from 1970 until the show concluded in 2011, cementing her place as one of daytime television’s most enduring stars.
