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Daytime MVP Breaks Her Silence to Pay Tribute to the Late Castmate Who Meant So Much to Her: ‘My Favorite Memory Is This… ’
Sunday, January 15th, 2023
“We went to hell and back.”
A lot of times, when an actor passes away, their co-stars take to social media to express their condolences and share their memories. And after the January 11 death of Passions scene stealer Ben Masters, Lindsay Hartley wanted to do just that. She couldn’t, though.
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“It took me a minute to post about Ben,” she Instagrammed. “It was the pain that prevented me from posting earlier.”
With that, the soap-hopper — whose mischievous Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald was at one point married to his villainous Julian Crane — disclosed what made Masters so very special. “Ben Masters was an extraordinary human. So talented, so witty, such a pleasure to be around and such a gift to work alongside,” she wrote. “My favorite memory is this: If any of you watched Passions, the character I played did a lot of questionable things, and there were times I would be stressed or anxious playing her because of it.
“One day on set, I was in a scene with Ben, and he picked up on my anxiousness and inquired,” she continued. “I told him my concern and he looked at me so empathetically and with a gentle smile said, ‘If it’s love, is it wrong?’ And this huge relief washed over me. He understood and just had that power to make you feel better. He was so aware… ”
Over the course of the soap’s 1999-2008 run, the castmates, both of whom stuck around for the duration, were dropped into one bonkers scenario after another. In fact, “as you can see from the picture, we went to hell and back…but I felt completely safe for the whole ride,” Hartley noted. “So many love you Ben. You are in our hearts.”
Revisit highlights of Masters and Hartley’s stints on Passions in the below photo gallery.
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Image: John Paschal/JPI
1/21
<p>Even before NBC had premiered <em>Passions</em> in 1999, we knew that we were in for a wild ride. Its creator was James E. Reilly, the daring <em>Days of Our Lives</em> headwriter who’d buried Carly Manning alive and given Marlena Evans the ultimate “The devil made me do it!” excuse. Still, nothing could have prepared us for what <em>Passions</em> held in store — at least not until we’d met wicked witch Tabitha Lenox (Juliet “Nanny” Mills) and her living doll, Timmy (Josh Evans).</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
2/21
<p>When Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald (future Hallmark Channel heartthrob Jesse Metcalfe) took a soak in the Jacuzzi with true love Charity Standish, he found himself in not only literal hot water but figurative. Why’s that? As you might have been able to guess from the photo, she’d jumped on the zombie bandwagon years before <em>The Walking Dead</em> had reanimated its first corpse.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
3/21
<p>Miguel’s sister Theresa (Lindsay Korman, later Arianna on <em>Days of Our Lives</em> and Cara on <em>All My Children</em>) was kinda-sorta the heroine of the show. But she was also so sneaky that it wasn’t entirely a shock when she wound up “down under” with card-carrying baddie Julian Crane (Ben Masters) and a Who’s Who of Who’s Been Evil throughout history.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
4/21
<p>Though Miguel and Theresa’s big brother Luis (Galen Gering, now Rafe on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>) and Nurse Precious (BamBam) look so cozy that they could be posing for a <em>Soap Opera Digest</em> cover, she actually wasn’t his true love. Who was? We’ll get to her; stay tuned. Or, well, keep scrolling. You know what we mean!</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
5/21
<p>Through a series of incidents too mind-boggling and complicated to possibly sum up in a single caption, a soused Dr. Eve Russell (Tracey Ross) found herself tasked with reattaching sometime lover Julian’s severed johnson. And miraculously, she pulled off the feat, too. Just one teensy problem, though: She put it back on upside-down!</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
6/21
<p>So mortified was Eve’s daughter Whitney (Brook Kerr, now <em>General Hospital</em> doc Portia) to think that she’d accidentally hooked up with her half brother that she formed her own, ahem, sister act — with soap vet Julia Duffy (better known for <em>Newhart</em> and <em>Designing Women</em>) lending moral support. Emphasis on the “moral.”</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
7/21
<p>We knew that they were destined to be together from the moment Theresa dumped fish on the object of her obsession, Richie Rich Ethan Winthrop (future primetime funnyman Travis Schuldt). But off screen, an altogether different love story was being told, one that put… Wait for it…</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
8/21
<p>While Theresa took a hands-on approach with the aptly-named Fox Crane (<em>This Is Us</em> leading man Justin Hartley), their portrayers fell for one another for real, tying the knot in 2004 and welcoming into the world a daughter shortly thereafter.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
9/21
<p>The castmates’ marriage didn’t last — they split in 2012 — but they remain close. In fact, when Hartley came under fire during his divorce from second wife Chrishell Stause (formerly <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Jordan), <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/574995/lindsay-korman-hartley-defends-young-restless-justin-hartley/" target="_blank">his ex came to his defense</a>, saying, “Today, I appreciate Justin for not only being [an] exemplification of a solid man but for being my dear friend and [a] devoted father to our daughter. Simply put, for being a family.”</p>
Image: Aaron Monthomery/JPI
10/21
<p>Thoughout <em>Passions</em>’ run, Theresa fought tooth and nail to keep Ethan away from fellow moneybags Gwen Hotchkiss (here Natalie Zea, so good on <em>The Detour</em>). When the cameras stopped rolling, however, nothing could separate Ethan and Gwen’s portrayers. <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/gallery/soap-actors-real-life-longest-marriages-couples-photos/natalie-zeatravis-schuldt/" target="_blank">They married in 2014</a> after being one another’s significant other for a decade.</p>
Image: JPI (3)
11/21
<p>Rarely did <em>Passions</em> take itself seriously, much less <em>too</em> seriously. So the odds were as good that you’d tune in on any given day and find Tabitha looking like she was dressed for Halloween as they were that you’d find Miguel only half-dressed. Did he even <em>own</em> a shirt?</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
12/21
<p>When Schuldt left the role of Ethan to take primetime by storm, the show was faced with the impossible task of finding a replacement who was handsome and talented, charming and charismatic… and we’ll be damned. The powers that be rose to the challenge, bringing in Eric Martsolf (now <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Brady) to make his daytime debut.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
13/21
<p>It probably didn’t hurt Martsolf’s chances of being accepted as a recast that a whole lot of his storylines found him leaving the wardrobe department wearing… well… not a whole lot.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
14/21
<p>When Zea took a powder, <em>Passions</em> brought back Gwen’s original portrayer: Liza Huber, the daughter of Susan Lucci (Erica, <em>All My Children</em>). And as she always had, Huber gave it her all. But her legendary mom, she simply wasn’t. (Huber is now an entrepreneur and mother of four.)</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
15/21
<p>Arguably <em>Passions</em>’ most controversial character, Vincent Clark (Phillip Jeanmarie) was Julian and Eve’s long-lost son, who turned out to be an intersex blackmailer so scarred from past abuse that he slept with his father and gave birth to his own brother!</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
16/21
<p>Most definitely <em>not</em> a fan of Charity (Molly Stanton) and her goody-goody goodness, Tabitha moved <span style="text-decoration: line-through">heaven</span> hell and earth to tarnish her halo. The sorceress even went so far as to turn Ms. Nice Guy evil enough that she was ready to boink the glasses right off of adorkable Reese Durkee (Seth Hall). Wait, does that mean we’re <em>already</em> evil?</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
17/21
<p>If only Timmy and Charity had been better at deciphering the fog in that crystal ball, they might have known that their future included a battle with her zombified self that — aw, no! — would leave her pint-sized admirer mortally wounded. Even seducing Reese Durkee couldn’t ease <em>that</em> pain. Though we guess it couldn’t hurt to try…</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
18/21
<p>Irony doesn’t get much crueler than this: The same day that <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/574220/josh-ryan-evans-passions-died-same-day-timmy/" target="_blank">Evans passed away at just 20 years old</a> after undergoing a medical procedure related to a congenital heart condition, Timmy died on screen. The plan had been for the actor to continue on, playing his character as an angel; instead, alas, he became one.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
19/21
<p>Though Luis met the love of his life — socialite Sheridan Crane (McKenzie Westmore) — when the cop pulled her over for speeding, there was nothing fast about the progression of their relationship. They’d hit one speed bump (his loathing of her family) after another (her marriage to his brother Antonio) after another (his unstable former girlfriend, Beth Wallace) before saying, “I do.”</p>
Image: Doug Pieburn/JPI
20/21
<p><em>Passions</em> was so bonkers, it didn’t really <em>need</em> fantasy sequences — every episode was one long one! But it indulged, anyway, and to great success. A 2003 flight of fancy that found Precious, Beth (Kelli McCarty), Charlie Lapson (Jordan Baker) and Edna Wallace (Kathleen Noone) putting their own spin on “Cell Block Tango” from <em>Chicago</em> scored a Daytime Emmy.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
21/21
