ALL: Actors who returned in a new role - has it ever worked?

[Paul Raven]

Several soaps have tried to capitalize on an actor's popularity and fix past blunders by bringing back the actor as a different character-sometimes related to the original but often someone completely new. But has it ever been a success?

Is it a bad idea from the get go? Is there any actor you would like to see back (past or present)?

Some examples

Days

Josh Taylor - Chris/Roman

Wayne Northrup - Roman/Alex

Y&R

Mishael Morgan - Hilary/Amanda

Ted Shackleford - Will/Jeffrey

AMC

Francesca James - Kitty/Kelly

OLTL

Lee Patterson - Joe/Tom

GH

Anthony Geary - Luke/Bill

 In the above list, most of the return roles were flops. Only AMC seemed to get it right. There are many more. Please add and discuss.

[kalbir]

If we're counting long-lost twins, some more to add

Y&R: Camryn Grimes - Cassie/Mariah

B&B: Joanna Johnson - Caroline/Karen

GL: Vincent Irizarry - Lujack/Nick

[Paul Raven]

It seems the second role is never as successful. Mariah is still around but she pretty much just morphed into Cassie.

[AMCOLTLLover]

I do think it worked on GH with RH as Franco Baldwin !

 

I know people will disagree but I do find myself enjoying ME as Finn on GH ever since they re-introduced him in 2016.. Silas on the other hand was a flop 

[Lye-C]

Judi Evans as Bonnie

[titan1978]

I think Finn was initially more successful than Silas was. But McBain was better and so was Caleb. And Franco was never as successful as Todd Manning.

On GH I think Kevin ended up an overall better character than Ryan, and was more successful in longevity and fan support. And Kevin was created to keep JL after the fact.

 

[Vee]

Few, but some. Kevin on GH is the one I can think off the top of my head, which is frustrating since I was just thinking on this the other night.

People could make an argument for Maggie Stone on AMC but I wouldn't necessarily agree. The character only worked when stuck to Bianca, like Frankie, and even then was a muddle. I wouldn't know enough about Francesca James' Kitty/Kelly to know if that was a success, but she was in a prominent couple with Linc.

[Liberty City]

How would you categorize Sarah Joy Brown's return as Claudia? 

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[Vee]

I've never seen the point of Sarah Brown returning to GH as anyone but Carly, and I still don't. I think she did very solid work, even if it was often very redolent of Carly. I think there are some very watchable moments in her run despite it mostly being very dark, ugly story; if you can accept that then you can enjoy some of the material. I never really cared about Claudia or what she wanted or her in any pairings; I saw her as strictly an antagonist and I thought the gothic, incestuous Zacchara family was an interesting, kooky bunch at first that ultimately got overplayed (especially Anthony). I thought she did well and didn't embarrass herself or bore me like most of the soap twins we could cite. But ultimately I didn't need Claudia, I wanted Carly.

[Paul Raven]

AW tried several times with Robert Kelker Kelly formerly Sam as Bobby/Shane, John Aprea Lucas/Nikos and Alice Barrett Frankie/Anne.

[Efulton]

All complete failures and missed opportunities to bring back popular characters. 

[BoldRestless]

I'm counting totally new characters - twins and doppelgangers tend to run in the same circles and often morph into the same character as the original.

 

Quinn Redeker on Y&R was the best... from abusive Nick Reed to lovable rascal Rex Sterling. Completely different chacter.

 

As much as I hate her origin story, Hayley Erin is doing a much better job as Claire than she did as Abby (or as she did on GH).

 

I enjoyed Sarah Joy Brown and Tamara Braun as Claudia Zacchara and Kim Nero on GH. Would have rather seen them as Carly, but that wasn't going to happen.

 

Dark Shadows did this all the time. Mostly the actors played the characters similarly, but one standout was Joel Crothers transitioning from heroic Joe Haskell to scoundrel Nathan Forbes. Marie Wallace also showed great variety as Eve, Jenny, and Megan, and I enjoyed all of Nancy Barrett's roles too.

[Khan]

If anyone really wants to know how TPTB at GH felt about Claudia, look no further than how they dispatched with her: blow to the head with an axe handle, followed by a burial in the woods.

The intensity of this scene makes the whole, shitty story that led up to it almost - almost - worthwhile:

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Edited January 25, 2024 by Khan

[Vee]

Oh yeah. It got personal because Sarah got vocal with the show. But I also kind of liked how that whole thing was done, because frankly it was realistic - they would bury her in the Pine Barrens. Michael was a dysfunctional product of that life who would do that to her to protect his mother, and he paid for it with a prison term and everything that happened after, all because of Sonny's unquenchable, aging will to power.

The problem was Guza too often wanted to have it both ways at this point in his GH run: Push the envelope towards primetime and cable, but still always walk things back to poor put-upon, heroic Sonny and Jason (mostly Jason in that period, as he'd begun edging Sonny to a more organic role as a very flawed patriarch and had begun openly acknowledging Sonny's many mistakes as a family man).

[Maxim]

Karen was... nothing... compared to Caroline. They tried, but didn't succeed in making her work. Her exit was pathetic. They gave her nothing.