Loving “Y&R”‘s Kate Linder: Our Funny Valentine

In the classroom, Marlena has taught endlessly that you have to be objective if you are a journalist. Mes chers, that’s out the window this week. I interviewed Kate Linder, who has played the seriocomic supporting character Esther Valentine on “The Young and Restless” for 40 years. The character, who started out as the maid to Kay Chancellor (the late great Jeanne Cooper, who died in 2013) is so entertaining and dear. And so is the actress who plays her.

Many years ago, the great headwriter Douglas Marland told me he felt it was very hard to cast an actor whose personality is very different from the character they are playing, because a soap role is a five days a week job. Talking with Kate, all I could think of was what a big heart the actress has – just like the character she plays.

“I still feel Jeannie’s presence,” says Linder of the momentous Jeanne Cooper, who played Esther’s boss. “’Dinner is served’ was my first line I remember from my first ‘Y&R’ episode. “Mrs. C.” as Esther always called her, was a very complex character. There was plenty of pain in her life: her husband Phillip Chancellor (Donnelly Rhodes) cheated on her with the sexpot Jill Foster (first Brenda Dixon and then Jess Walton.) Despite this, the Cooper/Linder scenes together were always funny and engaging.

And since then, Esther has continued to serve as a valuable supporting character on “Y&R.”  She’s mother to Chloe, played by Elizabeth Hendrickson (“She’s directing now, I’m so proud of her,” Linder says.) And now Esther is the manager of Genoa City’s coffee house, Crimson Lights, where, she says, “I’m always eavesdropping and getting into everyone’s business.”)

Linder was born in Pasadena, California, and went to the University of Nevada. She says she was a singer and a dancer even then. At the same time, early on, she became a flight attendant, a second job she still does to this day. She explains, “I knew acting was a very insecure day to day business. That’s why I took the job.”

Do traveling soap fans ever recognize her? Indeed, they do. What a nice surprise for them. Over the years, she says, she’s had may pleasant conversations with passengers who also watch “Y&R.”

“I remember that I was on a flight to Denver when word came that I was going to be on The Hollywood Walk of Fame.” I can imagine the scene: a glowing Linder announcing, “Fasten your seat belts please. We’ll be on the ground in Denver in just a few minutes.” (Incidentally, the only other soaps stars who are on the famous Walk are Cooper and Susan Lucci (Erica, “All My Children”).

Acting and air travel would be plenty to keep most of us busy. But not Linder. She has a life that is even busier. She was happily married to the late Dr. Robert L. Linder for 41 years. He passed away in 2017. They were married on Valentine’s Day, which is how her character got her name, she says.

Being a giving person, she knows how to give back. She is still thankful to the late William J. Bell and his wife Lee Phillip, the creators of “Y&R.” She says Bill Bell  wrote the character of Esther for her.

Linder has also been actively involved with the TV Academy, presently serving as one of its two governors. At this year’s Daytime Emmys she received a Siver Circle award, along with Jane Elliot, who plays Tracy on “General Hospital.”  Linder is also on the board of SAG-AFTRA. “Actors, writers, directors, we all have to stick together in this business.” she says.

And though “Y&R” is her first love, found time in 2013 to do a movie called “A Little White Lie” with Kate Hudson and Don Johnson.

As Linder says of her life’s philosophy, “In this life you have to be there for each other.”  Thus, she has been a tireless worker for a variety of charities, including the ALS Association, for which she’s served as celebrity spokesperson since her brother-in-law passed away from the disease. She leads the ALS Network’s annual Walk & Roll to Cure ALS. She has also worked for AIDS charities including Habitat for Humanity and the Los Angeles Mission.

She even has her own charity, the Kate Linder & Friends Tea in the Garden with a rotating group of “Y&R” castmates, supporting such local charities as the Toronto’s March of Dimes and Vancouver’s Canucks for Kids.

Upcoming is Kate Linder and Friends Charity Tea to benefit Camp Dream, a Florida summer camp for children and adults with disabilities and special needs. Joining her in Boynton Beach’s Benvenuto Restaurant on Sunday, April 12 will be “Y&R” cast members Christian Le Blanc (Michael Baldwin, Bryton James (Devon Winters), Camryn Grimes (Mariah Copeland), Hayley Erin (Claire Newman) and Sam Kerrigan, an anchor on CBS Morning News.

Camp Dream is described as a place “Where Disabilities Disappear.” Sounds just like Linder’s cup of tea.