- Soaps
- News
20 Monumental Soap Exits That We’re Still Not Over — and May Never Be!
Wednesday, July 29th, 2020
Some wounds just never heal.
We feel for you, Days of our Lives fans. Hell, we are you. So we are reeling — reeling and reeling — from the news that in addition to Casey Moss (ex-JJ), the NBC soap will soon be losing Kristian Alfonso (Hope), Galen Gering (Rafe), Chandler Massey (Will), Freddie Smith (Sonny), Kate Mansi (Abigail), Victoria Konefal (Ciara) and, now, Greg Vaughan (Eric). That is — let’s call it what it is — a lot to process.
But we can do it. No, we can — probably. We have done it before. Plenty of times. Mostly. Actors who are so closely associated with their characters that they share DNA have left their shows a lot over the years — and we have, however miraculously, persevered. To remind us of that fact, Soaps.com has compiled a list of 20 of the exits that we didn’t think we‘d ever get over yet somehow did. Er, mostly. Somewhat. Kinda.
Included on the list are a hottie from The Young and the Restless whose six-pack is in a league of its own, a leading man from The Bold and the Beautiful who was a hard act to follow, a General Hospital fire-starter to whom we thought no one could ever hold a candle and a Days of our Lives hero for whose equal we are still holding out…
Wait, did we type that out loud? OK, fine. Maybe we aren’t altogether over these exits. But when you read the Who’s Who of Who We’ve Loved and Lost that made this list, we suspect you’ll understand all too well. Some s–t, you just don’t get over.
To see if the departures that left you bereft made our Top 20, click on the photo gallery below. Then — hey, don’t be shy — hit the comments with any other exits that killed you in such a way that even Days of our Lives’ Dr. Rolf couldn’t bring you back!
Image: ABC
1/20
<p>From 1979-98, this former Westerns star was da man on <em>One Life to Live</em>, tough-as-leather, sweet-as-sorghum cowpoke/tycoon Clint Buchanan. Jerry verDorn was a fine, if very different, replacement. But his charisma did little to make us forget what we’d lost in the character’s originator.</p>
Image: JPI Studios
2/20
<p>Sorry, there was just something special about this newbie who went on to win a Daytime Emmy 20 years ago for his work as Malcolm Winters on <em>The Young and the Restless</em>. And no, that “something special” wasn’t the abs (although let’s be real, they were — and are — nice.)</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
3/20
<p>Will you never learn, <em>General Hospital</em>? When the ABC soap killed off this Daytime Emmy winner in 1989 and tried to recast him, fans revolted. So they killed off the recast and resurrected the original in 2012. Only to kill him off <em>again</em> five years later!!! Are you <em>trying</em> to upset us? No. Seriously. W the actual H?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
4/20
<p>“The bitch is back!” hollered <em>General Hospital</em> fans every time Elliot reprised her role of sasshole Tracy Quartermaine. But the cheering stopped in 2017, when she called it quits for what we feared was for good. (Thank goodness she subsequently proved us wrong!)</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
5/20
<p>Upon being let go as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Cane Ashby in 2019, the actor admitted to his fans that “I am as <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/comings-and-goings/539026/daniel-goddard-leaving-yr/" target="_blank">shocked and gutted</a> as you are.” He was wrong, though; after spending over a decade enjoying his work — not to mention Cane and Lily’s roller-coaster romance — fans were, and remain, even more gutted.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
6/20
<p>It’s true that we accepted Drake Hogestyn as <em>Days of our Lives</em>’ Roman Brady before we found out that he was really and always had been John Black. But he’s flippin’ Drake Hogestyn; that doesn’t mean that we didn’t miss Northrop after he skedaddled in 1984. Or, for that matter, 1994!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
7/20
<p>You know you’ve done something not just right but <em>extremely</em> right when the soap you’ve starred on — in Scott’s case, <em>Days of our Lives</em> — resurrects your “deceased” character — in Scott’s case, EJ DiMera — but refuses to recast, keeping your alter ego swaddled in enough gauze to stock a CVS shelf full of Band-Aids.</p>
Image: Evans Ward/JPI
8/20
<p>So deathly a blow was it to <em>Another World</em> when this future Emmy winner (for her work as Dorian Lord on <em>One Life to Live</em>) left her role of scheme queen Rachel Davis that its first recast failed utterly — she lasted just a couple of months — before a more suitable replacement was found. <em>Miraculously</em>, we might add.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
9/20
<p>Newer soap viewers will be like, “Who the hell is <em>this</em>?” Who she <em>is</em>, people, is the siren who played <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Lorie Brooks, a man-eater on par with the Great White in her proficiency. When she cut bait and ran in 1982, she changed the entire landscape of Genoa City.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
10/20
<p>Imagine a salsa dip without spice. That’s kinda what we felt that <em>Days of our Lives</em> was like without this natural born scene stealer playing Sami Brady. So when she took a powder from her long-running role, there wasn’t enough Frank’s RedHot in the world to make us feel better.</p>
Image: Evans Ward/JPI
11/20
<p>We thought that <em>As the World Turns</em> had learned its lesson when it tried — and utterly failed — to recast this Emmy winner after she got the hell outta <span style="text-decoration: line-through">Dodge</span> Oakdale in 1989. But no, they tried to replace her again as Lily Snyder in 2008, which only rubbed salt in a wound that never should’ve been inflicted.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
12/20
<p>Don’t get us wrong, we love Thorsten Kaye and have gotten over — well, mostly — what an entirely different character <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>’s Ridge Forrester has seemed to be since he assumed the role in 2013. (Well, he’s <em>still</em> a horndog!) But losing Moss after 25 years… c’mon, people. That was a shock to the system!</p>
Image: Lisa Rose/JPI
13/20
<p>When <em>General Hospital</em>’s Sonny Corinthos left Brenda Barrett at the altar, he had his henchman, Jason Morgan, tell her that it was a great ride. But, as she well knew, what they’d had had been much more, which is why Marcil’s exits, especially the one in 1998, still smart like a bruise that worsens rather than heals.</p>
Image: JPI Studios
14/20
<p>Honestly, they should’ve just cancelled <em>Santa Barbara</em> when Eden Capwell fell into the ocean in 1991; the show was never the same. Her portrayer went on to enjoy a highly successful return to <em>All My Children</em> as Liza Colby, sure, but we remained as wrecked as Eden’s widower, Cruz Castillo.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
15/20
<p>Jennifer Bransford notwithstanding, we can’t say that <em>General Hospital</em> hasn’t done a bang-up job of casting new Carly Corinthoses. But that in no way diminishes the “Oh my God, no!”-ness of her original portrayer’s exit in 2001. Hey, you always remember your first… Carly.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
16/20
<p>If we knew then what we know now, that there weren’t going to be any takesy-backsies on the death of <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Drucilla Winters, we would’ve begged — make that <em>pleaded</em> — with her portrayer to have stayed off that cliff in 2007.</p>
Image: Associated Press
17/20
<p>The incomparable diva who first played <em>Guiding Light</em>’s Alexandra Spaulding sure knew how to make an exit: In 1992, she exercised an out in her contract that the powers that be had apparently overlooked, walking just before her annual two-month vacation… and continuing to walk ever further away!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
18/20
<p>We know, we know. The soap legend who originated the role of <em>Days of our Lives</em>’ Bo Brady left more than once (and we even named his replacement one of <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/wp-admin/_wp_link_placeholder" target="_blank">daytime’s best recasts ever</a>). That doesn’t mean that we’ve recovered from his last — and we <em>do</em> mean last — exit; it killed us as surely as it did his character.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
19/20
<p>The record-holder for most Daytime Emmy wins as Outstanding Lead Actor — he has eight statuettes for his work as <em>General Hospital</em>’s Luke Spencer! — retired to Amsterdam in 2015 and never looked back. Well, except for that one time that he returned to help usher off the canvas the superstar at No. 17 on this list.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
20/20
