Questions about Unexpected Soap Actor's Deaths and How The Soaps Handeled Them

[SFK]

I think it's sweet that Frances Heflin encouraged the show to recast Mona when she fell ill (which they refused). After she died, there was an episode where Erica was hearing Mona's voice in her head. They used audio of FH with some filler provided by another actress in voiceover to sort of link the thoughts.

[sungrey]

The biggest one I can remember was Douglass Watson on Another World. He passed away unexpectedly in 1989 and they killed off Mac shortly after.

That had to be so hard on all of the actors, especially Victoria Wyndham. Not to mention the loss of Mac really affected AW for several years after.

[ChitHappens]

Unfortunately, David Bailey (Trassions) died 2 weeks after first appearing in a canoeing accident. At the time, he was the best thing about the show, which says a lot, because the show was hideous on every level. Before David arrived, Allistair Crane was just a pair of ridiculous hands. David showed up and had massive chem with everyone, and we were finally going to get a face and a reason for everything this man was doing. They recast with John Reilly and it all went to hell. Probably was going to anyway, but we had just wanted something good for so long.

[SFK]

Canoeing? I thought he drowned in his pool. He had worked on AW and I recall Robin Strasser giving him tribute on her hotline.

Actually, I thought Alistair's face being unseen was pretty cool. Then again, Alan Oppenheimer is one of my favorite voice actors, from Vanity Smurf to his various Filmation roles like Skeletor, Cringer/Battle Cat and Man-at-Arms on He-Man, and Prime Evil on Ghostbusters. I had an equal appreciation for Melendy Britt (She-Ra) voicing Kevin's unseen therapist on Y&R. I suppose this could be a thread of its own, but I wonder what other soap characters were unseen but only heard through voiceover.

[cassadine1991]

Wasn't John Black when he was all bandaged as the Pawn??

[SFK]

I wasn't watching DOOL at that time so I don't even know what that's all about. However, I do remember catching some episodes of Marlena's possession and thinking that DH's altered satan voice sounded an awful lot like DH. Oop, wow, same initials. Marlena-satan sounding like John, I mean.

[Cheap21]

It bothers me that B&B still hasn't killed Sally off

[ChitHappens]

As for Josh Ryan Evans, when he died, Trassions botched it so badly. Not sure why, but they edited out all of his remaining scenes and made a complete mess. The scenes were repeating themselves and some were incredibly long, 7 or 8 minutes long. It was awful, even more so than usual. Then the replacement was the vile Cracked Connie. Ugh! Never thought the day would come to where the audience would prefer one talking doll over the other!

[P.J.]

I'd completely forgotten about WR's accident as well. Then Larry Gates died the next year...whatever had remained of GL's heart after Maureen's death just evaporated.

I can't believe I spaced MDM's death. So sad to realize it's been more than 20 years now.

[YRBB]

I could potentially agree with you, but it'd be useless to do it now. With Macy, Darla, CJ and, probably most importantly, Stephanie gone, her death would have very little impact. I try to imagine a memorial-type of scenario for her and it's just weird... there's hardly anyone there to mourn. Let her be away with sexy muscle boys. It's a comforting thought.

[sheilaforever]

At first, I was pissed that they did not kill Sally off as it looked like lazy writing. But by now the show has made use of Sally and kept her memory alive (like Amber chancelling Sally's knock-off skills and Alexandria talking about Sal when she came to town recently) which is by far the greatest treasure. Those scenes with Fabio during LaFlannery's swan song were also great.

I still would have prefered an on-screen death but it is clear that Brad Bell decided against it for respect for Darlene Conley's legacy and I'm more than ok with it.

[YRfan23]

I remember that! I thought I was just seeing things when it looked like they kept repeating scenes......what's sad is that I still wonder to this day what they would have done with Timmy if JRE had lived

[ChitHappens]

Funny thing is, leaving in the Timmy scenes would have bought them more time to give him an exit. Timmy could have finally gotten fed up with Tabby and put his little sack at the end of a stick, tossed it over his shoulder and left. Didn't even need JRE to pull this off. He could have been in a different room as Tabby tries to make amends with him. Later, she finds a note that he's gone. Anything would have been better than the way they handled it.

[dragonflies]

Eileen Herlie died while AMC was on the air

Pratt and Frons from what I understand originally vweren't going to do anything to honor her or Myrtle

[allmc2008]

So why did they change there mind?