Jerry VerDorn has passed away

[Vee]

Maureen Garrett's also been added to the Soaphub article.

That last comment Aleksander mentions JVD making shortly before he passed - "thanks to YouTube we're all immortal" - is one of the blessings we have these days. YT has really kept soaps and their legacy alive.

Edited May 5, 2022 by Vee

[Faulkner]

Rare that you see someone get such universally glowing remembrances. 

[Soapsuds]

 

[Contessa Donatella]

And Mikey, O'Leary & JVD were the very comedic handymen in the most recent Venicetheseries and Mikey shared that Jerry had said it would be the last thing he'd do. I had been wondering if it was ever going to come up that Jerry had battled cancer back in the day & it finally was mentioned. Sounds like he was in good shape with the Universe. That pleases me. Michael Maloney is the journalist & he's the author of the recent Bell Sr. book that had the info in it about Corday owning 1% of Y&R.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Wow...I had been away, and my news feed was inundated with other things, and the algorithms probably don't even know at this point that I have/had an interest in soaps.

I've felt sad about the other daytime vets we've lost in recent months, some of whom I only came to fully appreciate more recently thanks to that immortalizing YouTube.  But I actually do have decades' worth of history with Jerry ver Dorn as a soap patriarch, so this is more personal.  He was a great actor, for sure, and he and that cohort he worked with at GL most consistently for all those years really elevated the genre; Maeve K's quote, which I could hear her reading in my head, really reminded me of that.

I had watched OLTL on and off by the time JvD came on, and in hindsight I don't understand the approach they took with the Clint recast.  Especially since it seemed like all Clint had to do was overcome his homophobia (although of course TPTB would have had to overcome their own) and be back on track to being the kind of compassionate, wise tentpole character that Jerry had played for 25 years or so, which I'd assumed was what they hired him for.  Maybe there was a payoff to Clint's turn to the dark side that I missed during one of my off periods.  In any event, as always JvD did everything he could with the material, and at least he got to be a part of one long-running soap's finale.

On a more personal note, there was a time in the '90s when my closeted adolescent self thought Ross as well as Roger and Ed were all so handsome—and I sort of envied Blake, at least as far as having them all in her life in different, bizarre ways.  (Plus Alan-Michael on the side, and a mother as fabulous as Holly to fight/conspire with.)  A big part of me still does.  I know that is weird to say right now, but going by some of the bawdy anecdotes, I can only hope Jerry wouldn't take offense.

Edited May 7, 2022 by DeliaIrisFan

[Joseph]

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A Late Yet Charming Tribute To Ladies' Man Ross, So you see there's no shame in having lusted after him back in the day