When you watch a character for the actor only

[DRW50]

Either one. I mostly mean when are the times you only stick with a character because you like the actor and can put up with a lot of crap due to that. For instance, I never knew Carrie Genzel before AMC, but I loved her work as Skye and sat through a year or more of garbage because of it.

[Cheap21]

GH's Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) [People have alot of complains about her, many of which are valid but to me it doesnt phase me bc I really love Kelly Monaco, havign been a fan of hers since PC.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Well hell, Sami Brady own this for me!!

[Susan Hunter]

Right now Tom Eplin as Jake McKinnon on AW comes to mind. Jake had some good stories and some horrible stories and more personality changes than Viki Lord, but the actor sold it every time. Even when he was self righteous hero Jake at the end of AW, I still bought it.

[ellabelle]

Vincent Irizarry as David Hayward, David Canary as Adam Chandler, Susan Lucci as Erica Kane... even when the writing was horrible and they were doing things I felt were out of character, I still loved all three actors and all three characters. They made AMC for me.

[MissLlanviewPA]

James DePaiva as Max Holden, Roger Howarth as Todd Manning (I can't call TSJ Todd at all now--it just feels wrong--RH was my first Todd and he is the REAL Todd Manning! No questions asked), Kassie DePaiva as Blair Cramer, **small voice** Kristen Alderson as Starr Manning (when I came back to the show in 2008, it was in part due to her pregnancy storyline--I had to see it for myself--in my defense, I was 19 at the time and I have NOT watched her regularly on GH--so there!)**small voice**. I would put Fiona Hutchison as Gabrielle Medina on here--and in a way, I still could--but I stopped watching the show full time in 2003 after JDP was gone, so maybe I'm a bigger Jimmy fan than Fifi fan. It looks like I've been exposed!

And I really haven't seen much of her as Jenna on GL, so there you go (not that I've really watched KDP much as Chelsea, either).

[JtSmarts]

Definitely Reva Shayne and at times pre 2007 Sami Brady.

[juniorz1]

Marcy Walker's Eden. Though I sort of wanted a recast when it really seemed Walker would never be returning, there were only 2 actresses I believe I may have acceped (Brenda Epperson and she was already on Y&R at the time and Jessica Tuck, who'd just left OLTL)

But even if it were those 2, I don't believed I'd ever have had the same affinity for the character that I once did. I don't believe that certain actor's aren't recastable. I believe that the combination of actor and who the character is, their purpose, and what needs to be conveyed to decide wheter it will work.

For example, Lane Davies was FANTASTIC as Mason. Just fabulous, and you would think unrecastable as Mason Capwell. BUT, I'd be lying (and so would many SB fans, who probably kind of do lie about it now now, as it is much later and the show has been further analyze) if I didn't say that Gordon Thomson made a FANTASTIC Masons and had every quality an actor needed to play Mason (Terry Lester didn't have all of them, as Jack Abbot, Mason Capwell is not, yet neither is he Adam Carrington but I don't even see a little bit of Adam in GT's Mason, but I do see A LOT of Jack Abbott in TL's Mason.

There's just a certain sentiment, a certain strength, yet underlying vulernability but nevertheless someone who didn't wear that on her sleeve and was a heroine who was smart, elegant, and could tangle with the cold, wicked villainesses and could see through anyone who had their own private (and often somewhat sinister) agendas and motivations for things. I mean, just look at how she reacted to Victoria Lane right when she came to town all the way through until she was gone. In fact, Eden was the only character on the show who saw Victoria for exactly for what she was.

Anyhow, it just takes a certain type of actress (and not many exist) that have that talent to play that kind of role and for the audience not only accept her, but fall in love with her and every bit of who she is. Julia Roberts is one of them, though I honestly think Walker has far more depth and range than Roberts, but was equally valuable to Santa Barbara (and Eden) as Julia Roberts was to proving Hollywood wasn't just a men's club- a woman could open a movie on her own and it make money just because she alone (and not necessarily another name actor) is in it and that alone. She was the first one to show it could be done and pave the way for the Demi Moores (who didn't make smart choices as her career went on), the Helen Hunts, Cameron Diazes, and the fairly large handfuls of money than they would have been had Julia Roberts not arrived on the scene in "Steel Magnolias", "Pretty Woman", and "Mystic Pizza", which after Magnolias & Pretty Woman. It;s actually quite a feat because even though the movie and Robers were well reviewed, it made like 15-20 million in it's theatrical run. It was VHS rental and sales that made "Mystic Pizza; a [!@#$%^&*] and put it on the map (and regularly on Cable TV.

Sorry to have rambled, but it's those characters that the actor or actress completely embody in a way nobody else could that are truly unrecastable. And for me, it's a very small group. Tiny in fact.

[juniorz1]

Actually, for the ladies, there are only 2 others that were unrecastable, much for the same reason that Marcy was. And that's Julia Barr as Brooke English and Jess Walton as Jill Foster Abbott.

The three other ladies that came to my mind (that could possibly be argued IMO) are Anna Stuart as Donna Love, Marie Masters as Susan Stewart, Linda Dano as Felicia Gallant, and Louise Sorel as Augusta Lockridge and Vivian Alamain, though I think it would have been MUCH harder for another actress to capture Augusta than Vivian.