General Hospital Vet Kimberly McCullough Shattered After Race Through ‘Apocalyptic Smoke’

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

“This is real, people,” the Emmy winner warns.

Sometimes real life is far more harrowing than even our soaps; those days suck — and we suspect that Kimberly McCullough would agree. “So,” she tweeted on August 19, “me and my family drove back from Cambria today. We were supposed to go to Big Sur, but I had nightmares that kept me up all night, and I made the call to not go to Big Sur and lose a lot of money I spent on a rad hotel for us.”

So… me and my family drove back from Cambria today, we were supposed to go to Big Sur but I had nightmares that kept me up all night and I made the call to not go to Big Sur and lose a lot of money I spent on a rad hotel for us.

— Kimberly McCullough (@whitewatercrew) August 20, 2020

Good call, it turned out. And also bad news. “I woke up this morning to learn that Big Sur is on fire, and highway 1 is closed,” explained the Emmy winner, who’s played Robin on General Hospital off and on since she was 7 years old. “Driving back through apocalyptic smoke was hard — especially because our 3-year-old son was confused as to why we couldn’t stop or roll the window down.”

I woke up this morning to learn that Big Sur is on fire and highway 1 is closed. Driving back through apocalyptic smoke was hard. Especially because our 3 year old son was confused as to why we couldn’t stop or roll the window down

— Kimberly McCullough (@whitewatercrew) August 20, 2020

As fires raged across Northern California, the actress-turned-director hoped that people would take what was happening seriously. “This is real, people,” she wrote. “My nerves are shot, and I keep thinking about all of the animals who may not be able to make it out safely.

“Please think good thoughts for the people in the area,” she added, “and have a ‘go bag’ if you live in California. Much love to you Cali — it’s hard to see you like this.”

This is real people. My nerves are shot and I keep thinking about all of the animals who may not be able to make it out safely. Please think good thoughts for the poeple in the area and have a “go bag” if you live in Ca. Much love to you Cali. It’s hard to see you like this.

— Kimberly McCullough (@whitewatercrew) August 20, 2020

Need cheering up after that upsetting story? Try the below photo gallery, a rundown of soap vets like McCullough who have grown up before our eyes on screen.

soap stars who grew up on screen gh laura

2/16

When at 14 years old, the future daytime icon was picked to replace Stacey Baldwin as General Hospital’s Laura, she had no idea just how much her life had just changed. But despite the parts of her childhood that her blossoming career took from her, “I don’t regret a bit of what I’ve done,” she told <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bBYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=true">Orange Coast</a> magazine as far back as 1982. “What I have is a curiosity of what it would be like to be ’normal,’ to be a kid, because I gave that up.”

soap stars who grew up on screen days hope

3/16

By the time a 19-year-old Alfonso landed the role of Days of our Lives’ Hope, she was already an accomplished figure skater (she’d earned a gold medal at the Junior Olympics) and model (she’d even appeared on the cover of Vogue). But she was shaking in her boots when she screen-tested. “I was already a huge fan of Days of our Lives, because I would watch it when I would come home from school,” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-kristian-alfonso-interview/">Soap Opera Digest</a> in 2019, so “being in [the Horton house] set, I was a nervous wreck!”

soap stars who grew up on screen yr paul

4/16

Twenty-three when he first appeared on The Young and the Restless as Paul, this Emmy-winning fan favorite wasn’t exactly a kid. But when you think of how far he’s come — in terms of decades, in terms of growth, in terms of accolades — we suspect you’ll agree that he grew up before our eyes as much as anyone else on this list. Certainly, his character did! “The transition from this bad guy out for himself,” he recalled for <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/photos/yrs-doug-davidson-paul-looks-back-on-his-genoa-city-stories/">Soap Opera Digest</a> in 2020, “started with April pressuring Paul to take responsibility” for daughter Heather. The rest, as they say, is history.

soap stars who grew up on screen lily yr

5/16

At the tender age of 14, Khalil really was young and restless when The Young and the Restless hired her to play the pivotal role of Lily in 2002. She left three years later, saying, “I don’t have a mortgage to pay, so it’s the right time to be unemployed and really <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/191/davetta-sherwood-lily-yr-is-let-go/">go after my dream</a>, which is to be a movie star.” She returned in 2006, replacing her replacement, Davetta Sherwood, and is now the real-life mother of a 10-year-old.

soap stars who grew up on screen oltl jessica

soap stars who grew up on screen days jennifer

7/16

Today, her name is synonymous with that of Jennifer, the Days of our Lives heroine she’s played off and on since 1985. But a year earlier, when the actress was just 17, she got her big break in soaps when she was cast as airhead Jade on Santa Barbara. Not that she remembers it as a terrific experience. After the show debuted to depressing ratings, “they started killing everybody,” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-melissa-reeves/">Soap Opera Digest</a> in 1988. “There was so much pressure and so much tension, I hated going to work.” Which, after less than a year, she didn’t have to — Jade was sent on a date from which she simply never returned!

8/16

In the decades that followed after General Hospital cast Shriner as baby-faced older man Scotty Baldwin opposite Genie Francis (Laura), a lot, as things tend to, changed. He switched shows (over and over), roles (except when he starred on Port Charles), coasts, co-stars, hairdos. But one thing has remained constant: his need for speed. In a 1979 interview with <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-kin-shriner/" target="_blank">Soap Opera Digest</a>, he shared his enthusiasm for riding his motorcycle down the freeway; now, of course, his love of his Vespa is the stuff of legend.

soap stars who grew up on screen atwt lily

9/16

Having already done Broadway’s Annie, Byrne was a very young “old pro” in 1985, when As the World Turns initially passed on the 15-year-old to play Lucinda’s daughter, Lily, in favor of Lucy Deakins — who wound up beating her out for the lead in The Boy Who Could Fly, too. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m done with this business,’” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-martha-byrne-interview/">Soap Opera Digest</a> in 2020. “’I want to get braces. I want to have a normal life.’ And I got a phone call… saying, ‘We wanna give you the job of Lily’” — which she held off and on for nearly two decades!

soap stars who grew up on screen yr christine

soap stars who grew up on screen gh jason

soap stars who grew up on screen yr devon

12/16

The two-time Daytime Emmy winner was 17 when he joined the cast of The Young and the Restless as Devon. But he’d actually been in showbiz even longer than that, appearing in commercials and magazine ads since he was 2 and starring on the ABC sitcom Family Matters since he was 4. Co-star Darius McCrary, who later joined Y&R as Devon’s uncle, Malcolm, “was like the brother I never had,” he told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-bryton-james-interview/">Soap Opera Digest</a> in 2018, “and he really looked out for me on set.” At Y&R, the late Kristoff St. John (Neil) filled that role. He “helped me think that I could be just as good as everybody else,” James recalled. “He really made me feel like an equal.”

soap stars who grew up on screen gh molly

13/16

Even before General Hospital recognized the future five-time Young Artist Award winner’s star quality and cast her as Molly at age 11, she knew that the path she wanted to stroll was the Walk of Fame. She was beyond intent about becoming an actress. “I bugged my parents about it so often that they finally looked into it for me,” she jokes on <a href="http://www.haleyalexis.com">her website</a>. “I think they were shocked when my manager signed me!” Shocked maybe… but proud for sure!

alison sweeney then now gary null nbc ec nbc

14/16

Although she was just 16 when Days of our Lives cast her as human hurricane Sami Brady, Sweeney was already an old pro who’d been doing commercials and such for more than a decade. “Discipline and work ethic [were] always instilled in me as a kid,” she told <a href="https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/allison-sweeney-tv-roles-146889/" target="_blank">Closer</a> in 2018. “I was really lucky to have rock-solid parents who helped me through the industry and didn’t pressure me to do it. It was my choice.” And, it turned out, a hell of a smart one!

15/16

At 19, the future soap stud was <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/577164/young-restless-brytni-sarpy-joshua-morrow-revealing-interview/" target="_blank">“crushed,”</a> he said in 2020, when after a rigorous series of auditions to play stripper Dylan Shaw on The Bold and the Beautiful, he didn’t get the part. But more than a quarter of a century later, he’s come to view the disappointment as “the greatest failure” ever, since it led directly to his being cast in the role for which he’ll always be known — that of Nicholas Newman on The Young and the Restless.

soap stars who grew up on screen gh robin

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