Hollywood discarded many 1970s teen idols when the decade turned. O'Connor evaded that fate by treating television not as a demotion, but as an expansive theatrical canvas. In 1976, she appeared opposite John Travolta in the iconic ABC drama The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, lending empathetic groundedness to a narrative that easily could have drifted into camp. Two years later, she took on the grueling physical and emotional role of 1950s tennis titan Maureen Connolly in Little Mo, performing tennis sequences herself after intensive athletic training.
When the daytime television industry reached its cultural peak in the early 1990s, O'Connor stepped into Oakdale. Taking over the beloved role of detective Margo Montgomery Hughes on CBS's flagship daytime drama As the World Turns from 1993 to 1994, she brought tough vulnerability to an established character without alienating longtime viewers. In subsequent years, she became a familiar, commanding presence for East Coast television shoots, making repeated appearances across Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise, playing complex defense attorneys and conflicted witnesses who demanded moral ambiguity.
