Characters that survived multiple recasts

[titan1978]

With the latest Y&R recast announcement (see the spoiler thread) Billy was mentioned as having been recast multiple times and still there on the front burner.  So I started thinking about recasted characters that were still vital, even if I did not personally like the portrayer anymore.

 

Margo Hughes- ATWT.  I’ve seen all four women and while I enjoyed Dolan at times, she’s not Margaret Colin or Hillary B Smith. But the character was still popular with Dolan.  Tom Hughes could just as easily be here too.  What couple survived as many recasts and still remained popular?

 

Carly-GH.  Again, four actresses, and the character has been a lead on the show since her arrival, and THE leading woman for almost 20 years.  And at times I have hated her, but I can’t deny three of the four actresses have been very successful as the character.

 

Any others anyone can think of?

[Antoyne]

Billie on Days more or less. I was a fan of Krista Allen’s Billie, and she was the only one of the Billies that realistically looked like Koslow’s Kate’s kid. I wasn’t big fan of Pinson’s Billie but I remember her having some fans.

[Wendy]

Going back quite a ways, but almost any of the Capwells on Santa Barbara. C.C. had like two or three actors before Jed Allan. Mason was played by three different actors. Kelly was played by four actresses. And even Ted was recast once. Eden was the only one never recast. (Technically, Judith McConnell was Sophia #2, although the only one of the two to actually play Sophia since Rosemary Forsyth [I think she was #1] was still in disguise as other people before the Sophia reveal.)

 

Come to think of it, Gina was played by two actresses. And Santana, god, I lost count.

 

Hell, just say almost the entire show of SB survived recasts galore!

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Didn’t Hillary B. Smith get to work with Deas, Marx, and Holmes (the three most popular Toms)? How was her chemistry with Deas?

[Faulkner]

I am very anti-recast, although I understand their necessity for soaps because they are perpetual and have larger ensembles. It’s usually fine if there is behind-the-scenes continuity to maintain the general vision of a character, but too often new regimes recast and mold characters to fit agendas. Joey and Kevin on OLTL just didn’t really feel like they had any specificity as characters after the third or fourth change in actor. Happy-go-lucky Kevin Stapleton to gruff and hard-edged Tim Gibbs to suave and urbane Dan Gauthier. It didn’t make sense, and it felt like they just needed a male in a general age range more than they needed “Kevin Buchanan.”

 

I do agree with Margo, although Colin, HBS, and Dolan all had different interpretations of the character. 

[Soapsuds]

Lily Walsh

 

Lucy Deakins

Martha Byrne

Heather Rattray

Noelle Beck(I hated her in the role but she was a good actress but not Lily)

[titan1978]

Ultimately, I wonder if all those recasts killed that show though.  That’s a lot of characters recast on a show that was on for a decade.

[Wendy]

 

Well, in a way, some were unavoidable as the Capwells were the main family. And since a large part of the show was C.C. versus son Mason, well, you can't have that conflict without those characters, so their recasts were necessary.

 

Kelly I think was also necessary as she carried some of the weight besides Eden in terms of the daughters.

 

I don't think Ted was ever vital, though, to be honest.

 

Kelly was doing very well under Carrington Garland; the final recast with miscast Eileen Davidson was, to me, about scoring a name than someone right for the role. CG was perfect. Why the Dobsons made that mistake, I'll never understand.

[Soaplovers]

 

Oddly... I liked everyone but Byrne (who seemed incapable of maturing Lily.. her coming back eventually caused Lily to regress from the maturity/edge Rattray brought to the part)... and I think Beck would have worked better had she been cast back in the late 80s/early 90s then near the end of the show's run.  I did like that her Lily was more calm then shrill.

 

 

Ashley Abbott

Eileen Davidson

Brenda Epperson (my personal favorite)

Shari Stattock (she had a lot of edge and intensity.. no way I could have see her Ashley having a nervous breakdown twice in the 80s.. she was too strong willed).

 

Jill Abbott

 

Brenda Dickson

Bond Gideon

Deborah Adair (pretty Jill)

Jess Walton 

[CassieFan]

Greenlee Smythe Lavery, of course.

 

Rebecca Budig

Sabine Singh

THE REAL Rebecca Budig

[Antoyne]

💀💀💀

[Faulkner]

Dinah Marler on GL. It helped that there was a gap between Turco and Moniz.

 

Jennifer Gatti

Paige Turco

Wendy Moniz

Gina Tognoni 

[Cruising Soaps]

Thorne B&B

Clayton Norcross

Jeff Trachta

Winsor Harmon

Ingo Rademacher

 

Sharon Y&R

Monica Potter

Heidi Mark

Sharon Case

 

Phyllis Y&R

Michelle Stafford

Sandra Nelson

Michelle Stafford

Gina Tognoni

 

Abby Y&R

Darcy Rose Byrnes

Hayley Erin

Emme Rylan

Melissa Ordway

 

[ChitHappens]

Billy Abbott or did I miss that one?

[Khan]

I don't know if this actually qualifies, but what about Patti on SFT?  There were sooooo many who played that role.  I think even I might have played her for a minute.

 

Although I'm sure Deas did everything he could to sabotage Tom's relationship with HBS' Margo since his then-girlfriend was no longer playing the role, I think he and HBS worked for the same reason he and Colin had worked.  They shouldn't have made ANY sense together, as a couple; and yet, they kinda did.

 

In fact, I'd go so far as to say HBS didn't really have trouble generating chemistry with ANY of her on-screen partners.  Deas, Marx, Holmes, Stephen Burleigh (on THE DOCTORS), Robert S. Woods, even Larry Lay and wooden Ty Treadway looked REALLY good when paired with her.  The only exception, IMO, would be Kale Browne, and that's due to his being, well, Kale Browne.