Soap character stories that mirror the actor’s real life

[Faulkner]

There are some obvious ones (Sonny’s bipolar diagnosis on GH, Katherine’s alcoholism and facelift on Y&R), but are there any others you can think of?

[ReddFoxx]

Suzanne Rogers' Myastheina Gravis was written into Days of Our Lives.

[Faulkner]

That’s a good one.

Also, Alicia Coppola mentioned that her father died just before Lorna’s father Lucas passed away on AW, and the story actually helped her grieve.

[Liberty City]

As the World Turns' Colleen Zenk (Barbara) introduced the character's oral cancer storyline from her own diagnosis.

[Faulkner]

Lots of interesting health stories seem to come out of actors’ real-life diagnoses.

On B&B, Taylor lost Phoebe not long after Hunter Tylo’s real-life son died by drowning.

 

[soapfan770]

Tracy E Bergman’s real life pregnancy and miscarriage in 1990 was written into the show as of course how Lauren met Sheila. Bregman was pregnant again later that year so the show had Lauren get pregnant again as well. 

[Liberty City]

Mhmm. In regards to Zenk, she approached TPTB about doing the storyline, and they agreed.

[applcin]

OLTL - Bringing Michael Zaslow back to have David Renaldi return with ALS. Also, although it's not any specific story, Clint Buchanan was, to some degree, written around Clint Ritchie's cowboy personality and lifestyle. CB's Happy Horse ranch was named the same as CR's, and they used some of CR's horses on the show.

GH - Jon Hanley, Lucy's friend/assistant during the early Nurse's Ball years, was HIV+ as was his portrayer, Lee Mathis

GL - I wasn't watching at the time but I am aware of Charita Bauer's amputation, thus resulting in the same for Bert Bauer.

AMC - JR Martinez being brought on to portray a disfigured vet.


 

Edited May 27, 2022 by applcin

[carolineg]

Something not health related-

I believe Julianne Morris Christian beliefs (and Austin Peck's then beliefs) made Greta an eternal virgin and lead us to the Garden of Eden story on Days.

[applcin]

I forgot...I imagine Richard Simmons playing himself as a recurring character on GH back in the day had to be one of the more unique cases. He was a celebrity known for something other than acting (although he had yet to reach his highest success), just playing himself in the GH universe, giving exercise classes and basically being a supporting talk-to character in other people's stories.

GH had Jack Wagner having hit songs IRL when Frisco sang them on the show. Ricky Martin also sang on the show when he played Miguel.



 

Edited May 30, 2022 by applcin

[wonderwoman1951]

surprised that no one’s mentioned kate mulgrew. my understanding was that claire labine wasn’t planning to have mary ryan become pregnant so soon after marrying jack, but wrote it in when kate became pregnant, leading to  a protracted, and beautifully wrought, conflict between jack and mary.

finding out years later that mulgrew had given up her daughter for adoption, then immediately had to play the mother of a newborn still gives me the shivers. 

[Broderick]

Another "famous" case is Y&R's Donald Feinberg (a/k/a Don Diamont) who'd spent 20+ years using a non-Jewish stage name and living a non-Jewish identity.  Just as Diamont began embracing his heritage, the Y&R writer, Lynn Marie Latham, decided to retcon Brad Carlton into a Jewish guy named George Kaplan who'd been hiding out in plain sight marrying Gentile heiresses.  Now suddenly he was at odds with the Evil Art Thieves, and Victoria Newman was crafting faux reliquaries out of construction paper and glitter.  Nevermind, let's just forget that one, lol.    

[Faulkner]

Yeah, that story had good intentions, but man. What a disaster.

Y&R more effectively used Victoria Rowell’s ballet background and advocacy for foster children in stories for Dru.

[applcin]

GH seems to have a fair amount of these situations. I'm also reminded of the death of Rosalind Cash and how, at Mary Mae Ward's funeral on the show, Cash's real life-friends Esther Rolle and Lou Rawls, among others, were there.

Although John Perkins (Father McShane, RH) wasn't a priest, I read that he was very active in his Catholic church at the time. Probably helped to make him so believable in the role. I think, also, Jumbo Marino's portrayer, Fat Thomas, wasn't too far removed from his role. I tend to think of him as the Luca Brasi/Lenny Montana of RH...not much of an actor but comes with a certain familiarity.


 

[DemetriKane]

Please register in order to view this content