Driving to Ocean City in the mid-1970s with the Beck family, local television producer Sean Hearn remembers a young Noelle Beck singing along to the Eagles’ “Desperado” as it played on WCAO.
“We all had to be quiet while she sang it,” he said.
And she didn’t disappoint.
“I knew [then] she was going to be a star,” Hearn said.
As did Bono of U2, who pulled a surprised Beck from the audience at Cole Field House at the University of Maryland in College Park during the band’s inaugural American tour in 1981, took pictures and whispered to her, “We’re going to do an Irish jig.”
From Italian and German ancestry, she grew up in various neighborhoods around Baltimore including Parkville, Towson and Guilford while attending school at St. Ursula’s and then the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
While a freshman at Notre Dame Prep, Beck auditioned for the Baltimore School for the Arts and was accepted. She loved the school, joining Jada Pinkett Smith, Tupac Shakur and Project Runway winner Christian Siriano as distinguished graduates.
Her big break came from agent Pat McCorkle, who, on a role-scouting mission to BSA, told her, “If you are ever in New York, come and see me.”
Beck took him up on the offer, and in December 1984 — with money earned by working the coatroom at the Water Street Exchange — she went to New York with friend Megan Ward, got a screen test through McCorkle, and on her 17th birthday — Dec. 14 — landed a part on “Loving” after her first audition.
“I went to bed every night with my scripts underneath the pillow,” she said. “I prayed that through osmosis I would learn my lines. I was petrified.”
She played Trisha Alden for eight years, earned a Daytime Emmy nomination and became a star in Italy long after the show ended in America. She won an Italian Emmy, and both the show and the actress remain hugely popular in Italy.
“I even thought about doing films in Rome,” she said. “But I wanted to raise a family.”
In 1990, Beck, 39, married Eric Petterson, owner of New York restaurants The Coffee Shop and Live Bait. A former Ford model, Petterson won Beck’s heart by surprising her on her 21st birthday with 21 stuffed ducks purchased from a street vendor they met on their first date.
“It worked in his favor,” she said. “I knew I would never find another man who could come up with [ideas] like that.”
They have three children — Forrest, Spencer and Brock.
Beck has appeared on “Law & Order,” “Rescue Me” and “The Evidence” and has played roles in three series created by Darren Star: “Sex in the City” (as Mr. Big’s Wife), “Central Park West” and “The Cashmere Mafia.” Her recent filmography includes “Trust the Man” and “If I Didn’t Care” with the late Roy Scheider.
Beck returned to daytime television this past May as Lily Snyder on “As the World Turns.” She replaced Martha Byrne, who played the part for several years.
“I was apprehensive about it at first,” said Beck, who sought the counsel of good friend and actress Julianne Moore. Beck’s son Brock and Moore’s son Cal — born four days apart — play in a New York City rock band “Call Me 212.”
“You have no idea how lucky you are,” Moore, who played the dual roles of twins Frannie and Sabrina Hughes on “As The World Turns” in the 1980s, told Beck. “It’s weird when actors turn down parts. Go for it, and do your best work.”
With the popularity of soap operas declining and reality television reducing the number of available nighttime options, Beck appreciates the chance.
“I’m doing 10 scenes a day,” she said. “I’m not sitting around all day in a trailer waiting to perform 10 lines.”
Beck says she misses Baltimore, especially Matthew’s Pizza, Berger Cookies and steamed crabs.
And she has one Baltimore regret.
In the late 1980s, Noelle landed the part of Amber Von Tussle in John Water’s original movie “Hairspray,” but her “Loving” producer told her not to do the film.
“I will never again let anybody make that kind of decision for me,” said Beck, who added that she would love to do a film about her hometown.
“My hidden Baltimore accent is waiting to make its debut,” Beck said.
