Molly Wainwright (born Molly Hendrix) was a character, and the former primary villainess on the ONtv series, Harpers Falls. She was played by Melissa Claire Egan, best known for her role of conniving Annie Lavery on All My Children, until the character was murdered in prison.
"The role of Molly was a lot of FUN," Melissa bubbled after she left the show, "I worked on the series for two years and was perhaps the most fun I had as an actress. Molly was one hell of a real bitch, one of the few people who people LOVED to hate, and I also saw the evil and comedic purposes of Molly. She was a mix of Madame De Farge and Mimi Bobeck (from the Drew Carey Show) in she could commit the most DESPICABLE of acts and yet be completely cartoonish and delusional. She was a mix of hilarity and downright pure evil. Before I left, Albert told me that writing for Molly was absolute pleasure, because he could write some of the most wicked things imaginable and I could pull it off with absolute aplomb. He and I still keep in touch, and I see the successor in Jennifer Barrett. She's as crazed as Molly was and even more cartoonish and over the top! I miss the show and I miss the cast, and it was two years of pure unadulterated fun!"
The Queen of Mean[]
Molly Hendrix was a beautiful, but extremely vain and self centered woman who was known far and wide as the most deadliest of the Harper family's enemies. In fact, it would be safe to say that she was their prime enemy, or even moreso, their arch enemy.
She was known for two common traits. Her constant bragging about how she loves to be evil and her descriptions of how wonderful it was when she carried out her crimes, and her merry laugh which she often used as a taunt against her enemies. She also tried to bat her eyes to make herself look cute even after she had done the most despicable crimes humanly possible.
This troublemaker began early in her school years. She cheated on a math test and Sheila Wainwright (as she was known then) reported it to her grandfather, Harper Academy's headmaster, Richard Harper. Molly was confronted and was flunked out of the class. Then she threatened to get even with Sheila for her daring to report her to her grandfather. Upon hearing this, Molly was expelled from Harper Academy in ignominy, and was ordered to attend Poshly Academy, a lesser known boarding school in nearby Merrillton. Molly, at this point, began to have her fierce resentment of the Harper family, whom she blames for her expulsion.
However, she became very arrogant and also began to see herself as the best and the brightest, a self-proclaimed moniker she felt befit her. Molly also began to spread a fiction about herself as the best person at Harper Academy, having had won the Woman of the Year award all four years she had attended there, and that she had graduated with honors. However, this was all lies perpetrated by her, to hide the fact that she had been expelled and had been drummed out of Harper Academy.
To Molly, murder was child's play. She murdered her enemy's brother's boyfriend, to try to get to Dylan Harper. Alex Warren had thrown himself in front of Dylan to save him from being murdered. This infuriated Molly, and she then took her campaign of terror all over Harpers Falls. She killed a young girl, who was the daughter of Sandra Jacobson, and her first husband, Kevin. She stole Julie Wadsworth's car from the local shopping center and made a cross-country trip to Somerset, Illinois to take care of Susannah Lucas after her father, Sam, had told her where to go. She even aimed her evil at George Cleypool, a powerful businessman in town, when he didn't immediately side with her.
Her biggest arch-enemy is Sheila, with whom she had more than her share of catfights. One of those fights landed Sheila in the hospital with a mild heart attack, which Molly was absolutely gleeful about. The biggest catfight between them was when Molly married Sheila's father, Joe Wainwright. Joe completely chose Molly over his own children. This infuriated Sheila, who, in retaliation, legally changed her last name to Harper.
After holding the town pretty much in thrall with her terror, Molly was finally extradited to Illinois to stand trial for the house invasion charges that Susie had filed against her. She was hauled to prison in Marion, where she was ceremoniously killed while she was in general population. One of the inmates heard about her child killing, and paid her back in kind. To this day, nobody misses her.
However, her spectre still leads. She has a faithful disciple in Libby Atchison, who sees her as the gold standard in evil. A chance remains that Molly could well be her half-sister, but given what Libby has heard about the wicked woman, she is not sure of what she could think of her.
Eventually, though, Libby washed her hands of any connection of Molly, and she bonded with the Harpers. Libby dated Molly's arch-enemy, Dylan for a very short time, and are now the best of friends. It seems that Molly's haunting spectre has been finally laid to rest, and she is burning in hell, where she belongs.