Soap actors who never had a defining role

[SFK]

Yeah, I tend to think that younger generations underestimate that next level type of involvement soap fans had with their stories in the '60s and '70s. The emphasis was almost exclusively on character then opposed to actor and role as today. The Lauras, the Pennys, the Lisa, the Rachels made such strong, lasting impressions.

[IMissAremid]

I only know Michael Sabatino as Lawrence Alamain and JT Cornell but I would say Lawrence Alamain was a defining role. He was so good in it that it was never recast and he was the go-to villain for early-90s DOOL with the DiMeras off the canvas. He had a huge part in the Jack and Jen romance developing and Bo and Carly as well.

[Cheap21]

Ive seen him in alot of his soap roles and none of them really stand out more than the other. He's always playing a variation of the same type of character. I most associate him as Kinder on AMC bc he was a leading character to probably one of my most favorite soap storyline over there but still it was a typical role for him

[DeeeDee]

Jacob Young?

[Cheap21]

definetly not Lucky Spencer. Some can argue AMC's JR, but I much prefered him over at B&B as Rick. I still wish he were in the role as I didnt like any of his replacements

[SFK]

That's hilarious, it's fascinating how a simple picture can set off all types of [!@#$%^&*] in our brains.

But yeah, she died far too young, very sad, she was a trip. And you know I would never make light of her battle with cancer, but something that undeniably upped her camp quotient was the array of wigs (often flaming red) and turbans they had her wear. Carolyn never wore her own hair on the show, her naturally blond hair was very thin at that point from chemo. Whenever she wore turbans you could see that her hairline was quite high. She was a trooper though, Constance Towers says wonderful things about her in her A&E Biography.

The show made a good choice of establishing that the three "divas", Myrna, Clarissa, and Paula, had known one another since childhood and continued to alternate between bonding and being at odds even now in their fifties. I thought Debrah Farentino was great right off the bat, Leslie Graves, the first Brenda, was pretty young and raw as an actress, but she had charisma. However, I think the first Julie, Kimberly Beck Hilton was not that great of an actress.

I remember someone at WoST pointing this out, but there seems to be a popular misconception that VW took over the role and Rachel was reformed overnight. From what I've seen and understand, VW was even worse than RS, like the diference between naughty and downright nasty. I don't know what Lemay's personal history was with VW, maybe he'd seen her in some off-Broadway play or something, but he seemed pretty confident that she'd bring more layers to the role than Robin. I wish I could have seen VW's Charlotte on GL.

[SFK]

I'd go with J.R. just given the years and material, but if he ever returned to B&B and stayed there for a while I'd say Rick. That role just seems so "him".

[SFK]

I'm going to agree with you guys on Sabatino, I think he's truly a case of most memorable based solely on what show you happen to watch. I'm thinking of him from Knots too. BTW, I just looked him up to see if there was another role I'd forgotten... I didn't know that he's from Venice.

[DRW50]

Yeah that photo of Carolyn in the red wig is so striking. I looked at the wig, and that confident smile on her face, for several minutes. She has such presence and she makes those hairpieces a natural part of her. There was an episode of Sisters, one of the better episodes of their not so great run later on, where Swoosie Kurtz's Alex was battling cancer and as she tried on each new wig, she would invent a new backstory for herself. I don't envy Marj Dusay in replacing such a force of nature. I really don't know how Marj managed the stress of replacing iconic actresses for almost her entire soap career. I think that's why I was hooked on her Vanessa, even when she became a cartoon later on (oddly enough I think I loved her more when she became a cartoon -- I loved the split personality story), because Marj was obviously so thrilled to be creating a character. But Carolyn seemed to really invest herself in every role, no matter how ridiculous the surroundings might have been. She could have put on airs and not bothered when she played Morticia, or when she played Myrna, but she transcended.

Constance Towers also has that force of will and ability to transcend just about anything. She's probably one of the classiest actress ever on soaps. How do you manage to make Helena classy? She did.

I remember Lemay's book said he wrote Wyndham's Rachel to be very nasty for a while. He had her Rachel send Alice a baby present after Alice had a miscarriage, didn't he? Or a present with the ribbon you would put on a baby's head, or something. That's vile. He said he started redeeming her when Ada got pregnant with Nancy.

It sounds like her Charlotte was a real malicious type, just pure venom and greed. Must have been great to watch. I'd love to have seen that. Or even the story after she left, where Fee's Charlotte manipulated Nancy Addison's Tracy Delmar, not realizing how nuts she was, and Tracy killed her.

[SFK]

I know it's not funny, but that part about Rachel sending Alice a baby present made me LOL, that is just so terrible. You've probably seen the ep floating around where Rachel tries to kick Alice out of the house because she asserts that *Steven* left it to her and Jamie, not Alice, and Rachel cracks, "What child did you ever give him?" and Liz (who makes the best pained facial expression when Rachel says that) has to hold her back as Alice LUNGES for Rachel, oh man, great stuff.

That Marj is Rent-a-Diva, I'm so glad that she got to create Vanessa. But what's so great about her though is that she just always brings that Marj Dusay *thing*, it may not always jive with your idea of the former portrayer, but she's always wonderful in her own way. I love her early GL stuff, that scene at Nick and Mindy's engagement party at the club where she's in that flowy gown and she slaps Roger and he slaps her back, good times...

[TC]

Damn I only got about 30 something in the time allottted.

[DRW50]

I'll have to look for that episode with Alice and Rachel. It does sound a little familiar though.

[TC]

Have you ever seen any of Constance Towers' "B" movies? Worth a look if you get the chance. There's something urgent and lurid, yet feminine and classy at the same time.

Also I seem to remember Wyndham herself saying she didn't want to play Rachel as cookie cutter evil as she had played Charlotte.

The "Rachel sends Alice baby clothes" thing seems almost engraved in my memory but I'm not sure if I actually witnessed it. I know at least one of my two sisters did, perhaps even my older brother. Hell, at that time even my mom was tweaking her teaching/counseling schedule to catch a few episodes of AW each week. It was a BIG THING. Looking back I wonder if it was about giving the recast Wyndham her bad girl baptism.

[TC]

Rent a diva - love it. Love her too. I always feel bad saying Bev was the definitive. Marj gives her all and is so entertaining, so enjoyable.

[DRW50]

I saw one of Constance's B movies, a musical. I can't remember it now. It was on TCM.

I think she was in one or two with Richard Egan, then was in Capitol with him. She talked about when his widow asked her to sing at the funeral. She sang "With a Song In My Heart," which was his favorite song. Then she sang another song, an Irish song, I believe, and she couldn't make it through that one.