Soap opera recasts

[ClassyCo]

I had this random thought run through my mind this evening. "Which soap opera character has been recast the most?" Peter Barlow on CORONATION STREET has been played by six different actors, but I'm unsure if he really holds the title of having the most recasts.

Which soap opera characters have been played by the most actors? What are your thoughts on soap opera recasts? Do they or don't they work and why?

I remember watching one daytime soap opera several years ago where a guy had an automobile accident. The very next day, the same "character" sat up from his injuries and was played by a new actor. I can't for the life of me remember what soap that was on, or even if I'm remembering it right.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Which soap opera characters have been played by the most actors?

The three that immediately come to mind are all "legacy characters" from their respective shows--that is, characters born on the show who grew up onscreen and were part of major families on the shows. I'll likely think of a few others later on after I post this.

Tom Hughes from As the World Turns was played by at least* thirteen actors from childhood (born onscreen in 1961) until the final episode in 2010.
Kevin Buchanan from One Life to Live was played by at least twelve actors from childhood (born onscreen in 1976) until he was last written out in 2010.
Jamie Frame from Another World was played by at least ten actors from childhood (born onscreen in 1969) until he was last written out in 1993.

* There were typically uncredited babies playing the role(s) in their earliest existence, which we typically don't count.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Which soap opera characters have been played by the most actors?

One that always kind of bothered me was Mindy Lewis on The Guiding Light. If I’m counting correctly I think the character was portrayed by four actresses over the years. Nothing as bad as some of the others mentioned here already but considering she was one of the more popular (and one of my favorite) characters on the show it did get a little frustrating at times. Two of the actresses I absolutely adored in the role while the other two just didn’t feel right in my opinion.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The recent situation with the character of Molly Lansing-Davis of General Hospital will be talked about for a long time. The OG Molly, Haley Pullos, was arrested for a DUI in mid-May 2023 and ultimately fired from the show, forcing an emergency recast named Holiday Mia Kriegel to be hired. The show opted to audition for a new, ostensibly permanent Molly rather than keep Kriegel, who was last seen in the role mid-July. Brooke Anne Smith assumed the role immediately after Kriegel left, but fans immediately objected because the actress looks to be about fifteen years older than Molly was supposed to be (I christened her "GrandMolly"). Smith lasted two short months in the role, soon replaced by Kristen Vaganos, who has been playing her since then. So in the course of four months they had four Mollys.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Robin Mattson wasn't the original Heather on General Hospital, but she was the best one.
No disrespect to Alley Mills, who is doing a great job.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Peter Barlow on CORONATION STREET has been played by six different actors, but I'm unsure if he really holds the title of having the most recasts

Peter has actually been played by seven different actors, which I think, makes him the most recast character on a UK TV soap (it’s possible that radio soap The Archers might match or surpass this figure). Ben Mitchell on EastEnders is close behind him with six different actors. During a recent interview with Max Bowden (Ben #6) the interviewer compared Ben to the Sugababes, in that the lineup is constantly changing. Given Ben’s young age (I think he’s about 30?) it’s feasible that the character will be back again in the future, possibly with a new head , to match Peter’s record.

 

[ChrisSumner]

One role I remember being recast seemingly endlessly was Dr. Mike Powers on The Doctors. In about 15-20 years I wanna say there were 7 or 8 adult versions of the character. I found it very irritating because each one was completely different from the previous one so it felt like the character was constantly being reset.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I found it very irritating because each one was completely different from the previous one so it felt like the character was constantly being reset.

On this subject, how jarring did viewers find some of the big recasts that happened over the years and which were the most seamless? Big characters played by big names. I’m thinking of Guiding Light’s Alexandra Spaulding going from Beverlee McKinsey to Marj Dusay to Joan Collins and back to Marj Dusay. Or headline B&B characters like Ridge and Taylor being recast (I know the recent recast of Taylor has raised some debate).

 

[ChrisSumner]

On this subject, how jarring did viewers find some of the big recasts that happened over the years and which were the most seamless? Big characters played by big names. I’m thinking of Guiding Light’s Alexandra Spaulding going from Beverlee McKinsey to Marj Dusay to Joan Collins and back to Marj Dusay. Or headline B&B characters like Ridge and Taylor being recast (I know the recent recast of Taylor has raised some debate).

Alexandra on Guiding Light - Beverlee McKinsey was a hard act to follow, but there was a gap before the recast and initially Marj took on Beverlee's mannerisms and worked to sound like her. I didn't mind her at first, but she became campy and over the top to the point I got sick of her. Joan Collins was surprisingly great in the role. She had issues with one of the producers which is a shame because she shoould've lasted longer.

With Ridge and Taylor on B&B, it was easier because the original actors (while extremely popular), weren't very good. Thorston is very different from Ronn Moss, but he fits and is fine in the role. Krista Allen was the perfect recast for Taylor. She looked similar to Hunter Tylo and could act. Fans quickly fell in love with her. The latest Taylor, Rebecca Budig, is dreadful. Not only is she way too young, but she looks it. The actress also excels at playing vixens so having her as a heroine is not her strong suit.

Y&R I feel has some of the most successful recasts.

Jill - Brenda Dickson was hugely popular in the role and they recast with Deborah Adair who brought a softer touch, but grew the role. Then Brenda came back at the height of Dynasty and made the character extremely over the top and Jess Walton came in and took what she did, but grounded the character by being a much stronger actress. She's easily the best Jill they've had.

Ashley - The third Ashley was awful, but when they initially recast with Brenda Epperson, she was excellent. She looked similar, could act and really helped grow Ashley as a romantic heroine.

Jack - Fans can sometimes be divided on this one, but Peter Bergman has been hugely successful in this role. He's a bit different from Terry Lester, but I don't think they could've done a better job recasting.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Joan Collins was surprisingly great in the role. She had issues with one of the producers which is a shame because she shoould've lasted longer.

Do tell! I knew her run was shorter than planned but I thought it was because she had issues with keeping up with the hectic pace of five episodes a week rather than an issue with a producer.

 

[Daniel Avery]

....and I thought JC left early because of a scheduling conflict. Sounds like they released all the "usual excuses". I agree she was really good in the role and did not make it feel like "the primetime actress slumming it in daytime" the way she could have. Still, I felt that whether the recast was Dame Joan or Marj, no one was really "replacing" Beverlee. Alexandra was just one of those characters the show needed around, and no matter who was playing her post-McKinsey, I saw "an actress playing the role of Alex" carrying on the tradition begun by McKinsey.

I agree that Jess Walton's Jill was/is the best of the bunch on Y&R. They could not have realistically continued writing Jill as the tacky fortune-hunter that Dickson played since times changed. Bill Bell likely felt Jill was the last true link to the early years and wanted to re-tool her to help keep her relevant. Brenda Epperson looked so similar to Eileen Davidson that when Epperson took over as Ashley, I had to argue with my mother that she was a new actress. A similar "doppelganger" situation occurred when Another World recast the role of Josie Sinclair from Amy Carlson to Nadine Stenovitch, the two looking so similar that it was hard to tell them apart.

I've told the story of the controversial recast of Nicole Travis on The Edge of Night elsewhere, so the short version: Maeve McGuire was forty-something and playing Nicole as a matriarch-type married to the town's top attorney, Adam Drake. After Adam was killed off, the show opted to recast her with twenty-ish Jayne Bentzen and re-tool her into a young heroine, essentially chopping twenty years off the character and asking the viewer to forget most of what had happened to her prior to that.

One of the more fun stories I've read concerning a recast happened when Robin Strasser left her very popular role of Rachel Davis on Another World. They recast Rachel with an actress named Margie Impert, but the producers and Head Writer were not happy with her work. Head Writer Harding Lemay, Executive Producer Paul Rauch and another producer all met at a restaurant near the Brooklyn studio to discuss their options. One of the men was trying to convince the others to kill Rachel off, even offering several plot scenarios to write her out. Several patrons at the restaurant mis-interpreted what they heard and thought Rauch and Lemay were mobsters planning to kill some woman named Rachel and alerted the manager of the restaurant. Luckily for the show, they ultimately "let Rachel live" and found Victoria Wyndham, who made the role even more popular.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Alan Spaulding on GL comes to mind as well. I’m counting five actors playing the role including flashback scenes. Unusual for such a long running villain to be portrayed by so many different people. I’d say Chris Bernau was the best in the role but unfortunately his health sadly declined.

I’m probably one of the few that preferred Marj Dusay as Alexandra but I can certainly appreciate the other viewpoint on that argument. I have no memory of Joan in the role as I had already stopped watching by that point. I can definitely see her doing well with it.

Jill Abbott is another great example. I think we’ve had six actresses play the role in total. No disrespect to Jess Walton. She’s made the character her own over the last 37 years but to me Brenda will always be the best Jill. Campy, over the top, charismatic and beautiful, she had it all. She was the reason I watched Y&R back in the 80s. I won’t get into her departure and that whole sorted mess but for me it was never the same without her.

In the case of Jack Abbott I think the recast with Peter Bergman actually worked out for the best. I’ve always enjoyed him more than I did the original for some reason.

Always preferred Ronn Moss as Ridge Forrester, although I do like Thorsten as an actor. I think he’s much more talented than he gets credit for but Ronn and KKL had much better chemistry imo.

Hunter Tylo is Taylor for me but I don’t think the recasts are the biggest problem with that character anymore. What’s killed her for me (sorry, bad pun) are the multiple deaths and the constant leaving and returning. Not to mention the fact she always loses in the end. It’s all become so boring and predictable and at this point the character is probably best left off camera.

 

[Soaplover]

Ryan's Hope was notorious for recasting quite a few of their key roles with varying degrees of success and failures.

I think a recast needs time to settle into the role, and I think immediately recasting a character that was played by a popular performer does the replacement no favors. Usually you want a few weeks to a couple of months before recasting a role in order to give viewers time to adjust.

It sounds like Rebecca Budig has been a failure as a recast in two soap roles now (GL and B & B)

 

[Monzo]

I wonder how it is decided whether a character who has been portrayed by the same actor for decades dies or is recast when the actor retires.

When Susan Flannery decided to leave The Bold and the Beautiful, Stephanie Forrester could easily have been recast with an actress ten or fifteen years younger, so that the character could stay on the show for another twenty or more years. I personally thought it was good that Stephanie died, because it was a very strong storyline.

Days of our Lives showed that things can be done differently, and in a different bad way in my opinion. When John Clarke retired, Mickey Horton could have died, but instead there were three recasts of Mickey in the next four years and strangely, when you look at photos of Mickey on Days today, you don't see the last recast Kevin Dobson but John Clarke.

Are there any other big recasts for characters who have been portrayed by the same actor for decades and did any of them work?

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Are there any other big recasts for characters who have been portrayed by the same actor for decades and did any of them work?

This isn’t a character who had been portrayed by the same actor for decades but rather someone I’d consider an iconic legacy character that (in my opinion) would be hard to recast. Michelle Fowler was an original character in EastEnders, with Susan Tully playing her from the show’s debut in 1985 until 1995. She was involved in some of the show’s biggest storylines in the first ten years she was there and is among the most recognisable faces of the show’s golden era. Two decades later, they brought Michelle back, this time played by Jenna Russell (Susan Tully had been asked a number of times to return but had moved on to a career in directing). While Russell is a very good actress (she has an established career in theatre) the recast just didn’t work. For one, the writing wasn’t great. The original Michelle, while her personal life was often a car crash, was quite feisty. New Michelle was written a bit mopey if I remember correctly. Also, while it may not have mattered to newer viewers, as someone who remembers Michelle from first time around, it was jarring to see her in scenes with other originals. It was like she didn’t fit, particularly alongside Sharon, who was Michelle’s best friend and who’d been involved in major storylines with her previously. The recast didn’t work and less than 18 months after her return, Michelle was written out again.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Are there any other big recasts for characters who have been portrayed by the same actor for decades and did any of them work?

David Lewis had played Edward Quartermaine on General Hospital for ten years. The show went through some recasts, firings, re-hirings and such to keep Edward around, but when Lewis finally departed, John Ingle ended up being very well accepted by fans. Oddly enough, @Monzo, Ingle had been one of the Mickey Hortons on Days after John Clarke. But anyway, when Ingle died, they opted to kill off Edward. When Oscar (the grandson of Edward and Lila) died a few years ago, they had a scene where we saw the spirits of his grandparents (from the back) escorting Oscar to heaven, and we knew it was Edward because he was wearing the same type of hat that Ingle had always worn when in character. So even as Lewis created the role and played it for a long time, I think Ingle's version of the role is what GH wants to remember.

The character of Meta Bauer on Guiding Light was created in 1948 (!!) when the show was still a radio soap. In 1953 Ellen Deming took on the role when the show transitioned to TV and played her through 1974. Mary Stuart assumed the role in 1996 and played her for seven years or so. Obviously enough time had passed that there was no clamor for Stuart to play the role the way Deming had, but the writers wrote for Stuart (daytime royalty from her time as Jo Tourneur on Search for Tomorrow) to play Meta much like she had played Jo rather than try to remain faithful to a character basically forgotten.

 

[ChrisSumner]

Do tell! I knew her run was shorter than planned but I thought it was because she had issues with keeping up with the hectic pace of five episodes a week rather than an issue with a producer.

Joan Collins had a six month contract with an out to go on a book tour in the middle of her contract. In her words, "the big fat female producer" refused to honor the contract and told her if she left to go on tour that she'd be fired. She went on tour and the rest is history lol. She actually said she enjoyed her time on the show. The producer she bumped heads with was Proctor and Gamble exec Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin who was nicknamed MADD by fans. She had a lot of issues with staff on their soaps, particularly women (older women especially).

 

[ChrisSumner]

I've told the story of the controversial recast of Nicole Travis on The Edge of Night elsewhere, so the short version: Maeve McGuire was forty-something and playing Nicole as a matriarch-type married to the town's top attorney, Adam Drake. After Adam was killed off, the show opted to recast her with twenty-ish Jayne Bentzen and re-tool her into a young heroine, essentially chopping twenty years off the character and asking the viewer to forget most of what had happened to her prior to that.

This reminds me of something baffling that happened on Search For Tomorrow. Jo's daughter Patti was there when the show began and had been SORASed, got married and had kids on the show. She wasn't featured in the 80s, but they brought either her daughter or granddaughter on, I forget which. The crazy thing about it is that they didn't bring Patti back to interact with her and had the character murdered by a serial killer. Then after she died they brought Patti back, but they had deSORASed her to be 30 something when she should've been mid-to-late 40s. Much like what you mention with Nicole, they disregarded all of her history with the show. The actress was fine, but I didn't understand the thought process behind this. Patti was such an important part of the show, especially being the sole child of the shows heroine and I couldn't believe they got it so wrong.

Ryan's Hope was notorious for recasting quite a few of their key roles with varying degrees of success and failures.

Those Ryan kids got recasted a lot, but I think most of them were successful which made it easier to take. The show had so many behind the scenes issues which led to some of these recasts which I found unfortunate to learn.

 

[Monzo]

I was amazed that General Hospital twice dared to recast characters who were originated by stars, I mean real stars at the time they were on the show.

First there was Elizabeth Taylor. Her character Helena Cassadine offered a lot of villainy and that was actually carried through in the recasting, but at the same time Helena often seemed very cartoonish.

Was James Franco the only young moviestar ever to appear in a soap for a longer time while being extremly popular? On Sunday night, James Franco hosted the Oscars and a day later on Monday afternoon he was on General Hospital. It couldn't have gone better! Not only did his character Franco have his name, James Franco's own mother played Franco's mother, but then he was recast with a random daytime star and Psycho-Franco was redeemed with a brain tumor. As cool as Franco once was, the character was totally ruined with the recasting - and ultimately killed off.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

David Lewis had played Edward Quartermaine on General Hospital for ten years. The show went through some recasts, firings, re-hirings and such to keep Edward around, but when Lewis finally departed, John Ingle ended up being very well accepted by fans. Oddly enough, @Monzo, Ingle had been one of the Mickey Hortons on Days after John Clarke. But anyway, when Ingle died, they opted to kill off Edward. When Oscar (the grandson of Edward and Lila) died a few years ago, they had a scene where we saw the spirits of his grandparents (from the back) escorting Oscar to heaven, and we knew it was Edward because he was wearing the same type of hat that Ingle had always worn when in character. So even as Lewis created the role and played it for a long time, I think Ingle's version of the role is what GH wants to remember.

The character of Meta Bauer on Guiding Light was created in 1948 (!!) when the show was still a radio soap. In 1953 Ellen Deming took on the role when the show transitioned to TV and played her through 1974. Mary Stuart assumed the role in 1996 and played her for seven years or so. Obviously enough time had passed that there was no clamor for Stuart to play the role the way Deming had, but the writers wrote for Stuart (daytime royalty from her time as Jo Tourneur on Search for Tomorrow) to play Meta much like she had played Jo rather than try to remain faithful to a character basically forgotten.

David Lewis was a terrific actor.
He also had a recurring role as Warden Crichton on "Batman"
7 episodes on "Perry Mason"
roles in "The Apartment" and "The Absent Minded Professor" among many roles.
Both David Lewis and John Ingle were excellent as Edward Quartermaine