Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (TV series) Porter paid Jim Abbott to perform an illegal abortion on girlfriend Terry Andrews, who later died, a disenchanted Mia decides to return to Hong Kong. Iris becomes emotionally involved with Jim, but the scandal surrounding Terry Andrews forces him to leave San Francisco for New York. Laura decides not to take her final vows and leaves the church for Mark, who ends his relationship with Iris and begins a career as an architect. Lt. Tom Donnelly (Robert Burr) helps Helen (Grace Albertson, Gloria Hoye) overcome her grief when husband Phillip (Len Wayland) dies suddenly, and after a short courtship, the
Laura Donnelly (Love Is a Many Splendored Thing) Laura Donnelly (Love Is a Many Splendored Thing) Laura Donnelly Elliott is a fictional character in the American soap opera "Love is a Many Splendored Thing". She was played by actress Donna Mills, who is closely identified in the role; Laura was also played by Barbara Stanger and Veleka Gray later on. Laura, the daughter of widowed pathologist Dr. Will Donnelly, was studying to be a nun. She was a novitiate, Sister Cecilia, but before she was to take her final vows she discovered that the cloistered and sheltered life of a nun was not what she wanted. She left