Catch Up With the Stars of As the World Turns With Then-and-Now Photos That’ll Take You Right Back to Oakdale

Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (6)

Elizabeth Hubbard

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Priscilla Grant/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

After playing As the World Turns’ formidable Lucinda Walsh for more than a quarter of a century, this Daytime Emmy winner (for her earlier portrayal of Althea Davis The Doctors) earned herself another nomination for her work on the web soap Anacostia.
Terri Conn

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, J. Graylock/JPI

The only actor among the young set introduced to As the World Turns in 1998 to catch on and stick around, Katie Peretti’s portrayer enjoyed a dozen-year run on the soap before moving on to One Life to Live as Aubrey Wentworth. And as a lovely souvenir of her time in Oakdale, she got to take with her her real-life husband…
Austin Peck

Image Credit: George De Sota/JPI, J. Graylock/JPI

After being killed off As the World Turns as Brad Snyder in 2009, the onetime Playgirl coverboy briefly played pornographer Rick Powers on One Life to Live and, in 2021, reprised his on-again/off-again Days of Our Lives role of Austin Reed for the Peacock limited series Beyond Salem.
Ming-Na Wen

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

In the wake of her late-1980s stay in Oakdale as Tom Hughes’ daughter Lien, the actress hasn’t just gone on to make it big in TV and movies, she’s become the only performer ever to play a Star Wars character (Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian), a Disney princess (Mulan, of course) and a Marvel superhero (Melinda May in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
Jesse Soffer

Image Credit: Ali Goldstein/JPI, Jason Mendez/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

A child star before ever being cast as Will Munson — fun fact: he was Bobby in the Brady Bunch movies — this fan fave parlayed his four-year stint in Oakdale into a high-profile primetime career that since 2014, has landed him front and center Detective Jay Halstead on the NBC hit Chicago P.D.
Jennifer Landon

Image Credit: Ali Goldstein/JPI, Paramount Network

Some actors might have found it tough to follow three Daytime Emmy wins in a row. But the daughter of Michael Landon, beloved for her work as Gwen Norbeck, simply kept on keeping on, dazzling in one primetime series (Animal Kingdom) after another (Yellowstone, where she now plays marble-mouthed ranch hand Teeter).
Don Hastings

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, George De Sota/JPI

Aside from the late Helen Wagner, who played his mother Nancy Hughes, Dr. Bob’s portrayer is the longest-serving actor ever on an American soap. So you could hardly blame him when he told We Love Soaps in 2010, “I always figured I’d die on the job.”
Kathryn Hays

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)

After wrapping her nearly 40-year run as Kim Hughes with the soap’s final episode, the veteran actress — a sci-fi legend owing to her guest appearance on the original Star Trek — relocated from the East Coast to her home state of Illinois. (Ed. note: Sadly, Hays passed away in 2022.)
Julianne Moore

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Nick Sined/JPI

The Daytime Emmy that this then-up-and-comer won for playing twins Frannie and Sabrina Hughes in 1988 was only the beginning. She’s gone on to become one of the most well-respected actresses in showbiz, with a mantel full of trophies that includes an Oscar and a Golden Globe (both for Still Alice) as well as a Primetime Emmy and SAG Award (both for Game Change).
Peter Parros

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, OWN

Following his 1997-2005 stay in Oakdale, Peter Parros ditched Dr. Ben Harris’ stethoscope and halo to spend eight years playing corrupt judge David Harrington on Tyler Perry’s addictive OWN soap The Haves and the Have Nots.
Annie Parisse

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John. P. Iblis/JPI

Following her late-1990s stint as Jack Snyder’s unstable wife Julia, Parisse became an in-demand primetime fixture. But despite her long list of credits — which includes Friends, Netflix’s Friends From College and many series without “friends” in their titles — she holds the unusual distinction of being the shortest-serving assistant D.A. in Law & Order history.
Michael Park

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

The stage vet who played Jack Snyder not only returned to Broadway following As the World Turns’ cancellation (in the megahit Dear Evan Hansen, no less), he’s nabbed roles on everything from Blue Bloods and Bull to Stranger Things and Tales of the City.
Maura West

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

During her 15-year stay in Oakdale as pot-stirrer Carly Tenney, the Emmy magnet bagged the first two of her three (and counting) statuettes. Subsequently, The Young and the Restless botched its chance to call the MVP a cast member, leaving her free to slay for General Hospital as femme fatale Ava Jerome.
Scott DeFreitas

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

Married to West for more than two decades, Andy Dixon’s former portrayer now has five children with his onetime leading lady. In 2012, DeFreitas and two of their kids took part in a reading of the musical Hazel at the NoHo Arts Center.
Colleen Zenk

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

The same year that As the World Turns ended, designing woman Barbara Ryan’s portrayer split from husband Mark Pinter, whom she’d met when he’d played Brian McColl on the show in the 1980s. She has since acted primarily on the stage, in productions like Marrying George Clooney and Looped, and in her own one-woman show.
Peyton List

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Dee Cercone/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

After her three-year stint on As the World Turns, this rising star was ready for takeoff — and take off she did. Lucy Montgomery’s former portrayer has gone on to star on series such as FlashForward, Frequency and The Tomorrow People. Of course, we’ll always remember her as half of an on-screen supercouple with…
Grayson McCouch

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Howard Wise/JPI

Following As the World Turns’ cancellation, the soap vet landed a recurring role on Gotham (as young Bruce Wayne’s ill-fated father) and passed through General Hospital (as Kyle Sloane, a love interest for Finola Hughes’ Anna Devane).
Lesli Kay

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

The Emmy winner who played reformed bad girl Molly Conlan — and, between As the World Turns stints, Felicia Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and Lois Cerullo on General Hospital — has gone on to appear in Lifetime movies like The Wrong Crush and The Wrong Cheerleader.
Billy Magnussen

Image Credit: George De Sota/JPI, Elizabeth Goodenough/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Since leaving behind As the World Turns and his role of Casey Hughes, this heartthrob has won accolades for everything from TV’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson (he was Kato Kaelin) to the big-screen adaption of Into the Woods (as Rapunzel’s prince).
Zach Roerig

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, The CW/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Magnussen’s predecessor as Casey has carved out for himself an enviable niche in primetime, going from a long run as the rare human among the supernatural beasties on The Vampire Diaries to appearances on its spinoffs and a memorable turn as a lovestruck soldier on USA’s Dare Me.
Tamara Tunie

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Kristin Callahan/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Though she played attorney Jessica Griffin on As the World Turns off and on for nearly two decades, this primetime perennial is nonetheless probably better known for her even longer run on Law & Order: SVU (she’s medical examiner Melinda Warner) or her recurring roles on NYPD Blue and Blue Bloods.
Eileen Fulton

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, George De Sota/JPI

A 50-year stretch as much-married supervixen Lisa Miller would’ve been accomplishment enough for most people — but not this daytime legend. Besides the soap, Fulton appeared on Broadway, had her own nightclub act, wrote two memoirs and half a dozen murder mysteries.
Kelley Menighan

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

Since the soap’s sayonara, the actress who brought to life mantrap Emily Stewart has tackled satire (via Showtime’s Reality Show) and lathered up once more (by appearing on the web soap Tainted Dreams). Also of note, she has three children with her former husband…
Jon Hensley

Image Credit: CBS, Howard Wise/JPI

Much to fans’ chagrin, Holden Snyder’s former portrayer hasn’t had much screentime since As the World Turns ceased to spin. Our hopes rose when he was cast as a doctor on The Bold and the Beautiful (hence the lab coat and stethoscope above), but dang it! He scrubbed out as fast as he did in.
Martha Byrne

Image Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI

As the World Turns may have unceremoniously recast her in the role for which she won two Emmys, but she’ll always be Lily Snyder to us. And the actress, who earned a third statuette for her work on Anacostia, has never stopped fighting for the show. “I’ve had many conversations and many outreaches on different levels,” she told SoapHub in 2016, “to try to see where this home could be.” Here’s hoping!