Unsung Soap Stars

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I was reading a post on her the other day about Gillian Spencer being an unsung soap star, and that she is. She needs to be on someone's soap. She can play Heirone (Viki Lord, Jennifer Ryan-Hughes) or she can bring on the wit (Daisy Cortlandt) She has great chemistry with the cast she works with. Name some Unsung Soap Actresses and Actors who left Daytime too soon.

[Chris B]

Ellen Holly and the woman who played her mother on ATWT. They were there for so many years and told groundbreaking story, yet they're completely forgotten. When OLTL celebrated it's big anniversary complete with a trip to 1968, where were the black characters? Honestly, instead of that awful 1968 storyline, it would've been more interesting to just take one or two old scripts, re-edit/write them into maybe a week of shows and give us a flashback into the Lord family and they could even use it as an excuse to bring back Carla.

It's just weird. Even OLTL seems to want to forget Ellen Holly exists. I would love Victoria Rowell as her daughter.

[All My Shadows]

Word. And let's not forget Al Freeman Jr. He won an Emmy for chrissakes.

[Chris B]

I don't know how a black man managed to win an Emmy way back then! BTW, didn't he return to the show later on? I seem to recall hearing that. I don't think I've ever seen a clip of him or Carla to be completely honest.

[All My Shadows]

He came back in 2000, I believe, for a short while.

There are some clips of him from the 80s on YT.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

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Ellen Holly had such a great voice and class about her. Very beautiful woman who was driven out by Paul Rauch. Have you read her autobiography One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress? It's a must read, even if she did embellish on the truth about her co-stars and experiences at OLTL a bit.

[Bright Eyes]

Veleka Gray!

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Me being an african american I forgot about those actors and characters. They have such rich history in Llanview! Kim Hamilton is one as well, she brought us the first african american Spaulding, Victoria on The Guiding Light. That actress and character could came back over the years. Instead of creating the Grants as new family, Vivian could have been Victoria.

[DeeeDee]

Rachel Ames

Kathleen Widdoes

Scott DeFreitas

Larkin Malloy

Sharon Gabet

Tim Stickney

Nathan Purdee

Ellen Bethea

Vanita Harbour

Tricia Cast

Kiko Ellsworth

Tonya Williams

Annie Parisse

Ashley Bashioum

David Tom

Dan Gauthier

Lisa Brown

Lisa Peluso

Linda Dano

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Another one is Maureen Garrett, while Michael Zaslow deservedly got a lot of attention for playing Roger Thorpe and on his end of the Roger/Holly saga, Garrett more than held her own and never got enough recognition for it. I hate that she's never won an Emmy.

Her performances are so real and subtle, you don't even know she's acting. She's THAT good.

[Bright Eyes]

To add,

Lynn Benesch

Bibi Besch

Tudi Wiggins

[Khan]

Frankly, it pisses me off that Bill Timoney (ex-Alfred, AMC) never gets the credit I think he's due. He was terrific as Greg's college roommate and later, as Tad's best friend.

[Bright Eyes]

Joseph Gallison needs to be mentioned.

[SFK]

In her book, Ellen Holly talks about how Linda Gottlieb invited her back for the 25th anniversary, but she declined feeling it was too difficult to be on set with all of her former colleagues who were now millionaires while she did clerical work to pay the bills. Plus, she'd have to buy her own dress.

Here's a nice little scene where Sheila tells Rachel the story of Carla:

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If OLTL can manage to get its [!@#$%^&*] together and is blessed with another big anniversary/episode landmark, I think they need to extend their hand once again to Miss Holly. There is no other story that Agnes Nixon is more proud of, forty years later and she still tears up talking about it. Ellen was in Agnes' Intimate Portrait and she and Susan Lucci were the only two performers she wanted to represent her work when she was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame.

[SFK]

If it's any consolation, Nathan from Boyz II Men's nickname is "Alfred Vanderpool".