The Wolek family are fictional characters from the American soap opera One Life to Live present at its debut in 1968. The Woleks were created as a working-class reflection of the affluent Lord family, and storylines focused on the shared relations of the two families.
Anna Wolek (Doris Belack, Kathleen Maguire, Phyllis Behar) Original character. Born off-screen early 1940s as of 1968. Sister of Vince and Larry, distant cousin of Karen and Jenny.
Vincent "Vinny" Wolek (Antony Ponzini, Jordan Charney, Michael Ingram) Original character. Born off-screen mid-1940s; dies onscreen July 9, 1981. Brother to Anna and Larry, distant cousin of Karen and Jenny.
Cathy Craig (Catherine Burns, Amy Levitt, Jane Alice Brandon, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Jennifer Harmon) Born off-screen 1951 to Jim Craig and unnamed mother, adopted by Anna Wolek Craig.
When the Wolek family is first introduced at the inception of One Life to Live, Dr. Larry Wolek is presented as the youngest of an upwardly mobile clan of siblings who live in a rough-and-tumble west Llanview apartment building directly opposite Llanfair housekeeper Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman). Larry's siblings are shown to be elders Anna Wolek, sibling matriarch and Llanview Hospital volunteer, and Vince Wolek, an auto mechanic. The mother and father of the three original Woleks are deceased at the show's inception,[1] and the two older siblings personally and financially sacrifice to enable Larry to pursue his expensive dream of being a doctor. Anna sacrifices for her brother's medical career selflessly, but their brother Vince is shown as being particularly resentful of the prestige and opportunity a medical career affords resident physician Larry and the studying doctor's romantic relationship with Meredith Lord, the daughter of Llanview media mogul Victor Lord.[8]
After Meredith's death, Wolek distant cousins and siblings Jenny and Karen Wolek arrive in fictional Llanview the mid-1970s. Larry and Karen marry after a whirlwind courtship and romance, but she later cuckolds him when she becomes a prostitute and the two divorce. Jenny engages in a series of romances from the late 1970s through the 1980s.
