“Hillary B. Smith (Nora) is a lady in every sense of the word, but at the same time, she can easily hold her own as one of the guys because nothing intimidates her,” says her OLTL co-star Nathan Purdee (Hank). “She’s coming from such a secure place, and a big part of that has to do with her love for her husband,” he explains. “She just loves that man like nobody’s business. She talks about him like he’s the only guy on the planet, and that is something that makes her even more beautiful in my eyes.”
The husband in question is Philip “Nip” Smith, and hearing his wife talk about him, it’s easy to understand what Purdee means, “I feel like I’m in a unique position,” Smith theorizes. “I’m with my soul mate, and once you’ve got that, everything else just falls into place.”
The “everything else” could refer to her preeminence on daytime television, her feature film and primetime television career, her work on Broadway or her thriving family life. And what does the busy actress herself perceive beauty to be? As Smith tells her two children, “Beauty starts on the inside and works its way out. It’s as simple as that.”–Art Smith
(Soap Opera Magazine July 14, 1998)