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Then-and-Now Photos of 15 Soap Superstars’ Forgotten — Sometimes Forgettable! — Daytime Debuts
Wednesday, March 1st, 2023
Your favorites weren’t always superstars. Remember?
The saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” was almost made for would-be soap stars. Why is that? Because few and far between are the afternoon-TV contenders who go from hopeful to legendary their first time out. More often than not, it takes… well, time… a false start… a learning curve… trial and error… a role that isn’t a slam-dunk to get to the one that most definitely is.
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With that in mind, Soaps.com has compiled a list of 15 soap superstars whose debuts in the genre scarcely indicated that they would be stars, much less ones of the “super” variety! Included among them are a General Hospital hit man who didn’t always strike the target, a handsome devil from The Young and the Restless who used to pick up a halo every day from the wardrobe department (if you can imagine that!), a badass barrister who got her start pleading her case to what amounted to deaf ears, and a Days of Our Lives hottie whose first foray into soaps was to die for in the worst way possible! (In other words, even Rolf couldn’t have brought him back!)
To find out which of your favorites we’re talking about — that is, if any of your personal favorites made this strange, strange list — just click on the photo gallery below. Then hit the comments with any other inauspicious beginnings that you feel should have been featured in this article before its ending.
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Image: NBC (2)
1/15
<p>When NBC’s <em>Santa Barbara</em> debuted, this then-17-year-old Jersey girl was front and center as thimble-brained Jade Perkins. The acting newbie was excited to have gotten her big break… until the ratings came in. “All of a sudden, they started killing everybody,” she recalled to <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-melissa-reeves/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 1988. “You never knew if you’d be next.” In the end, Jade survived, only to go on a date from which she never returned. But it all worked out fine for Reeves (then Melissa Brennan); she crossed right over to <em>Days of our Lives</em>, where she’s played Jennifer Horton off and on for <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/days-of-our-lives/news/569861/days-of-our-lives-melissa-reeves-black-lives-matter-controversy/" target="_blank">more than a quarter of a century</a>.</p>
Image: XJ Johnson/JPI, ABC
2/15
<p>Almost a decade before the future Emmy winner would make her first big splash in daytime television (as <em>Santa Barbara</em>’s whip-smart Julia Wainwright), she played <em>One Life to Live</em>’s Beverly Wilkes, a gal Friday who was tasked with the thankless job of trying to talk sense into incorrigible boss man Marco Dane (the late Gerald Anthony). Not until almost 20 years later would Grahn join <em>General Hospital</em> in what has over the years become her most famous role, that of Alexis Davis — like Julia, another brilliant attorney with dubious taste in men.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, CBS
3/15
<p>Everybody remembers this Emmy winner’s star turn as wackadoo Nurse Annie Dutton on <em>Guiding Light</em>. Heck, they remember it <em>so</em> fondly that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that they would’ve accepted Signy Coleman (ex-Hope, <em>The Young and the Restless</em>) in the role. But Annie wasn’t Watros’ daytime — or even her <em>Guiding Light</em> — debut. The actress — now <em>General Hospital</em>’s Nina — had previously played a good-time gal who made hay with Matt Reardon before Vanessa Chamberlain became his one and only.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, J. Graylock/JPI
4/15
<p><em>All My Children</em> never seemed to know what a hot commodity it had in Scott, who went on to become so popular as <em>Days of our Lives</em>’ EJ DiMera that after he was killed off, HBO’s <em>Last Week Tonight</em> resurrected his character for a reunion with Alison Sweeney’s Sami Brady. (Click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umqvYhb3wf4&feature=emb_title" target="_blank">here for video.</a>) The British-born actor lasted just two years in Pine Valley as Ethan Cambias before the conniver was put six feet under by an explosion at Erica Kane’s Mardi Gras ball — in other words, invited to have his potential realized by another soap!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, ABC
5/15
<p>This scene stealer, best known now for doing the impossible and succeeding Eileen Davidson (Ashley, <em>The Young and the Restless</em>) as<em> Days of our Lives</em>’ Kristen DiMera, was already a primetime mainstay when she made her daytime debut as as <em>All My Children</em>’s Hannah Nichols in 2007. But, as with her on-screen son (see previous item!), the ABC soap didn’t take near enough advantage of her beauty and talent. So, after a year, Hannah was rubbed out, allowing Haiduk to move on to the showier role(s) of <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Patty Williams and Emily Peterson, the shrink whose face her patient stole — and whose life she would’ve if she could’ve!</p>
Image: ABC, Howard Wise/JPI
6/15
<p>Nope, the <em>General Hospital</em> fan favorite (owing to his portrayal of Julian Jerome) didn’t get his start, as you might think, as <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> heartbreaker Storm Logan or as <em>All My Children</em> baddie Michael Cambias. His first soap role — and the fact that you forgot it is the whole point of this article, after all! — was Tim Dolan on the <em>General Hospital</em> spinoff <em>Port Charles</em>. A sign of things to come, the character was a bartender who was especially prone to bending an ear in the direction of Ian Thornhart (Thorsten Kaye, now <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>’s Ridge Forrester).</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI, ABC
7/15
<p>OK, no one could say that the Emmy winner’s first soap role was forgettable: He played <em>All My Children</em>’s halo-clad Dr. Cliff Warner off and on for a decade — and, as an added bonus, was half of a supercouple. (They would’ve been #Clina, had Twitter existed back then!) But Bergman has done such a bang-up job of making the role of <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Jack Abbott his own (after replacing the now-deceased Terry Lester) that Cliff isn’t foremost in our thoughts anymore, he’s barely even an afterthought!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, CBS
8/15
<p>If you don’t recall Walton’s daytime debut, no worries — you are forgiven; it <em>was</em> almost 40 years ago, after all. Back then, the future Emmy winner (as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Jill Abbott) stepped in as a recast for the original Kelly Harper on <em>Capitol</em>, CBS’ pre-<em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> soap opera… which, by the way, would be must-see TV now! Not nearly enough viewers were tuning in at the time, but Walton’s star power was so undeniable that she lasted until the sudser’s cancellation in 1987.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, CBS
9/15
<p>If your thoughts on this Emmy winner begin and end with his long run as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Michael Baldwin, we understand. But — and this is one <em>big</em> “but” — the shady lawyer wasn’t his first soap role. Almost a decade before LeBlanc set foot in Genoa City, he spent two years on <em>As the World Turns</em> playing poor little rich boy Kirk McColl. And though his tenure might have been — OK, <em>was</em> — forgettable, his leading lady wasn’t: He was paired with future Oscar winner Marisa Tomei as Marcy Thompson.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, NBC
10/15
<p>A few of you might think that the actress who brings to life <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>’s Quinn Forrester got her soap start playing spunky Rocky McKenzie on <em>Loving</em> in the late 1980s. But she didn’t. A <em>lot</em> of you might think that Sofer made her daytime debut as Lois Cerullo on <em>General Hospital</em> in 1993. But she didn’t. Sofer <em>actually</em> lathered up for the first time a year before she was cast on <em>Loving</em>; she briefly appeared on <em>Another World</em> in 1987 as Sam Fowler’s ex-girlfriend, Joyce Abernathy.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI, NBC
11/15
<p>So synonymous is Hall’s name with that of Marlena Evans, the <em>Days of our Lives</em> heroine that she’s played for more than 40 years, that it’s almost impossible to think of her in any other role. (Well, except maybe Electra Woman.) However, Salem’s beloved Doc wasn’t her first part in daytime. That would be <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Barbara Anderson, a nurse whose neurosurgeon boyfriend took flight after fatally botching what should’ve been a life-saving operation on her son.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, NBC
12/15
<p>It was as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Brad Carlton that Diamont became a bona-fide soap star. But the card-carrying smokeshow did his first sudser a year prior to his 1985 debut on that show; by then, the actor, who is now <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>’s Dollar Bill Spencer, had already spent months at <em>Days of our Lives</em> playing Carlo Forenza, a vengeful hottie who bedded Liz Chandler while trying to bury her husband, Neil Curtis.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, NBC
13/15
<p>Back in 1978, before Lauren Fenmore was even a gleam in <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ late co-creators’ eyes, her portrayer made her daytime debut on <em>Days as our Lives</em>. And the character was <em>not</em> one of the ones that you’d call forgettable, that’s for sure. Donna Temple Craig was trouble with a capital T, an incorrigible teenager who, in just two years’ time, managed to throw herself off a building (to protest her father’s remarriage), get knocked up and, however accidentally, become a nudie model.</p>
Image: XJ Johnson/JPI, ABC
14/15
<p>Zeman lasted just over a year as <em>One Life to Live</em>’s Lana McClain, a waitress who had the misfortune of serving as Brad Vernon’s mistress: He wound up killing her with a glass of drugged milk! But the story still has a happy ending, at least for Zeman. She so impressed <em>General Hospital</em>’s then-executive producer Gloria Monty with her turn as the hash-slinger-turned-nurse that she was soon cast as hooker-turned-nurse Bobbie Spencer, a role she’s now held for more than four decades.</p>
Image: ABC, NBC
15/15
