Actors who successfully transitioned to behind-the-scenes roles

[bellcurve]

+1

[remos]

Agreed. And it opens another part of the discussion - just because they can, should they have? Some are truly gifted in story telling and can see things from a variety of angles. Some can not.

[DeeeDee]

Tony Geary

[remos]

To the best of my knowledge he's only given them storyline suggestions but he hasn't written scripts. Did he do something else?

[DRW50]

Jane Elliot was also a producer at Loving.

While we're talking about Martha, did she ever go back to writing for B&B?

[ghfan89]

Harding Lemay

Maggie DePriest

[EricMontreal22]

I think he was one of the first endlessly recycled "show killers", but ego-maniacal, Actors' Studio host, James Lipton, started off as an actor on GL.

Did we mention Millee Taggert? I really wouldn't include Lemay--yes he trained as an actor, but he was all but clueless about soaps before P&G hired him on...

[DRW50]

I just realized no one mentioned the incomparable Ellen Weston.

[EricMontreal22]

Oh and Gail Kobe who I loved on Peyton Place.

[Sylph]

What I always wanted to know is... is there more good or more baaad when an actor becomes a writer?

[DRW50]

Irna Phillips also started out as an actress.

[EricMontreal22]

Sylph, that's a good question. I think there's more good overall--many of the great playwrights also started off as actors--and I think there's usually more of a knowledge of what works for actors, etc. There seems to be less of an overall "success" rate when actors become producers though--maybe because they don't have to deal primarily with the actors and lines like a director or writer would, but with balancing more issues?

[remos]

That's really a good question.

I'm going to hedge a guess that if they're a good actor then they have probably understood the essence of story thus making them a decent writer. If they couldn't get the essence of story to act it out, I don't see how they could ever convey it through the written word.

Essentially you either are a story teller or you're not. You can learn techniques but that doesn't make you a writer, just someone who writes.

Kind of like Charles Emmerson Winchester III so wisely observed to a patient who was a composer and had lost his right hand - one can play the notes but that doesn't mean they can make music.

[quartermainefan]

This may be obscure and in the wrong thread but the soap actor who I think achieved the most influence and success behind the scenes was Frank Maxwell (Dan Rooney GH) who went on to become, of all things, the President of AFTRA.

[SFK]

Although I know and know of several ambitious actors who've successfully helmed their own projects, it is my opinion that most actors are not hardened and focused on the bottom line enough to wear the producer hat. Actors are great "creative consultants" but the ones I know tend to get bored easily, have a hard time staying focused doing something that does not interest them, and have somewhat of a "que sera sera" attitude when they lose interest or things don't work out as planned. So it takes a certain kind of actor to make those successful transitions. Just my 2¢.