Hubbard was born on December 22, 1933, in New York City,[2] to Elizabeth Wright Hubbard and Benjamin Alldritt Hubbard. Her mother, a physician, was a pioneer in homeopathy and one of the first women to earn a medical degree from Columbia University. She had two brothers, Theodore and Merle, an opera talent manager.[3][4]
Hubbard with James Pritchett celebrates The Doctors 10th anniversary in 1973
Hubbard made her Broadway debut as a replacement actress in a revival of The Threepenny Opera in 1955. She later performed in 14 Broadway productions, including The Passion of Josef D., The Physicists (for which she received the 1965 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female), A Time for Singing, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, I Remember Mama and Dance a Little Closer.[5] Hubbard began her screen career in 1962, starring as Anne Fletcher on the soap opera Guiding Light. The following year, she joined the cast of The Edge of Night as Carol Kramer. In 1964, she inaugurated the role of Dr. Althea Davis on NBC's year-old soap opera The Doctors. Hubbard played the role until October 1969, when she left to pursue a career in Hollywood.[6] She returned to the role as of October 1, 1970[7][8] and continued the role until 1977. She returned again in 1981 and remained with the show until its cancellation in 1982. In 1974, Hubbard was awarded the first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.[9] Hubbard's pairing with the character of Dr. Nick Bellini (Gerald Gordon) made them one of the most popular romantic couples in soap operas, dominating the show's storyline during the later half of the 1960s and for most of the 1970s.
After The Doctors was cancelled, Hubbard joined the cast of One Life to Live in the recurring role of society matron Estelle Chadwick. In 1984, she joined As the World Turns as businesswoman Lucinda Walsh. She was nominated nine times for a Daytime Emmy for the role.[9] Hubbard left the program in 1999 due to a disagreement over the character's direction, but was persuaded to return several months later by the show's new executive producer. Hubbard was featured in a prominent storyline in 2005 when her character was diagnosed with cancer. She was in the show's 50th anniversary episode in April 2006 and remained with the show until its final episode in September 2010.
In July 2009, she began a recurring role on the Dutch soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (Good Times, Bad Times), and played the role of Sair Poindexter, an American sexologist and mother of character Irene Huygens, played by Anita Donk. Hubbard, who traveled frequently to the Dutch province of Friesland where her boyfriend resided, was cast after meeting the writers on one of her visits. As the World Turns also aired in the Netherlands and Hubbard was already well-known there as a result.
