Soap opera icon Susan Lucci, 79, looks half her age in low-cut gown... 7 years after she almost died from a heart attack

Susan Lucci does not seem to age. 

On Thursday evening the former soap opera actress - best known for her role as Erica Kane on the long-running soap opera All My Children - looked sensational at 79 on the red carpet.

The looker lit up the American Heart Association Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

She had on a low-cut strapless scarlet red gown that came in at the waistline as she added a diamond heart pendant necklace and matching hoop earrings.

This comes seven years after she suffered a near-fatal heart attack in October 2018.

One night in October 2018, discomfort was radiating around her rib cage. She was short of breath. Something definitely wasn't right.

But it was late in the evening, and she didn't want to bother her doctor. At first, she didn't even tell her husband. She went to bed.

'I was just going to let it all go,' Lucci said at AHA. 'Then I felt a sharp pain in the left side of my jaw. I had read that can be a symptom for women having a heart event as well. It really kind of woke me up.'

Urged by her husband, she finally called her cardiologist at home. He didn't hesitate. 'He said, "I'll meet you at the ER. Call me when you're close,"' she said.

By morning she had a stent implanted in a coronary artery that was 80% blocked, potentially avoiding a serious heart attack.

'You can never really tell how quickly it could have happened, but certainly within a year,' said Dr. Richard Shlofmitz, chairman of cardiology at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York. He diagnosed the problem and performed the procedure. 'It's like if you have a log in a river and some twigs get attached. It just builds up.'

Years earlier, the actress had her first cardiovascular episode, when doctors discovered that two other arteries were blocked, one 90% and the other 75%.

Lucci had ignored mounting symptoms for a couple of weeks until crushing chest pain finally sent her to the hospital. Two stents – small wire mesh tubes that widen clogged arteries and ensure adequate blood flow to the heart – quickly fixed the problem, and probably saved her life.

'Life returned to normal very quickly,' said the actress who lives on New York's Long Island. 'I was on stage two days after I was discharged, and life continued to be wonderful.'

In December 2024 she honored her late husband as she accepted her Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards in New York. 

The actress began her speech by raving that it was 'the icing on the cake' that her and Susan Lucci's son, Andreas was in the audience. 

'It means so much to me to have you here with me,' she said as she accepted the honor,' she said to him from the stage. 'I feel your dad's presence here with us tonight too. 

She continued: I thank my husband, Helmet Huber, because he has everything to do with me standing up here tonight and receiving this incredible award.'

Lucci's husband of nearly 53 years passed away in March 2022 at age 84. The two met while they were both working at a hotel and got engaged after three weeks of dating.  They tied tied the knot in September 1969. 

She and the Austrian-born writer and producer shared two children Andreas and Liza. 

Huber acted as Lucci's manager throughout much of her career and was the CEO of their production company, Pine Valley Productions, named for the fictional town where All My Children took place. 

Lucci played Erica Kane beginning in 1970 and continued to portray they spunky character until All My Children ended in 2011.