"The Halo Effect"

What actors from the past or present have gotten by on mostly their looks/charm/whatever and not really a talent for acting? They pretty much phoned it in and kept their job or booked new roles on soaps. This can include both day/night soaps.

In keeping with B&B Scott Clifton. His IMDb bio is gag inducing.

I'll also toss Cameron Mathison into the pile.

Rebecca Budig. Greg Rikaart. Robert Scott Wilson.

(Rikaart isn't stud material but clearly he won a lot of industry friends)

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by DRW50

Karla Mosley. She's OTT too much for me. I also don't think she does really emotional scenes well.

Soaps are especially bad for this, because there have often been hair models and abs and charisma/chemistry prioritized more than range as an actor. They also are filled with people that got lazy over the years, due in part because of the repetitive nature of what they had to say and stories told over and over again. Soaps also prioritize women who can cry, and sometimes it’s just tears with no real emotion behind it. I also think the halo effect happens on a soap if they strike gold with a decent pairing.

Drake Hogestyn is someone that through sheer force of his attractiveness and charisma and likability made a Roman recast work. He didn’t even have Deidre for very long before she left to cement him. But was he a stronger actor than Wayne? No. But he also grew into being a competent performer who could handle emotional material enough to tell the story and have you rooting for John.

I always use Morgan Englund as Dylan on Guiding Light for this topic. He was handsome, has some likability, and yet he is the epitome of the soap hunk that is mostly there to take his shirt off in romance stories. All the soaps had them, a mostly good guy who was often in triangles. Austin Peck has always needed to take his shirt off and a stronger actress in scenes to keep him afloat. Plus Austin Reed was also just incredibly stupid. David Fumero was such a classic recast used to hunk up a character on OLTL with Christian Vega. But he also had a likability that just pushed through to me.

I’m going to say a possibly controversial person, but until she became the actual lead of the show in the mid/late 2000’s, especially when younger in the 90’s, Ali Sweeney as Sami was not a good actor. She got better, but it took a long time for it to happen. But playing the villainous sides of her character on the show during a period of time where the characters were dumbed down gave her longevity.

These kinds of lists also easily sink into people you just don’t like. Scott Clifton plays an asshat, admits it, and has been stuck on B&B in terrible cycles of the same thing. But he is a decent actor. Admittedly, I know him more from GH than B&B.

2 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

To me, this post was the clincher. No follow-up posts needed. LOL

Steve Burton

Amelia Heinle

Joshua Morrow

I have to say this in defense of Ronn Moss though. Despite his obvious lack of acting ability he was pitch perfect as Ridge Forrester. I don't know how it came to be that he was given the role, but it was an inspired piece of casting. He perfectly embodied that character in a way that Thorsten Kaye simply cannot do even though he's clearly the better actor. Ronn was simply there to look tall and handsome as Ridge while the more dynamic female characters battled it out around him and he did that without fault.

31 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

Steve Burton

Amelia Heinle

Joshua Morrow

Steve Burton may have gone through lazy periods, but he is a good actor. Jason is nothing like his real life self, and has carried a lot of emotional material between Stone Colds. Especially recently, but even before that. And I am not some super fan of SB of Jason. This is very much in line with just not liking him, which is not the same thing.

AH was much better on Loving than anything I have seen since, she’s so lethargic on Y&R. Morrow had limited abilities for sure. Not quite Ronn Moss though lol.

20 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

Ronn was simply there to look tall and handsome as Ridge while the more dynamic female characters battled it out around him and he did that without fault.

His Ridge was a prime example of why are these women fighting over him though, including Stephanie. Although watching the very early stories, like his relationship with Caroline, I kind of got the appeal there. He plays a lot of that softer than his normal bluster. But Brooke and Stephanie and Taylor really just eat him alive.

Robert Scott Wilson. How long did we have to deal with a serial killer being turned into the show's hero?

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

These kinds of lists also easily sink into people you just don’t like. Scott Clifton plays an asshat, admits it, and has been stuck on B&B in terrible cycles of the same thing. But he is a decent actor. Admittedly, I know him more from GH than B&B.

I thought he was good on OLTL. I know he is hated by B&B fans, but I haven't sat through that show in 15 years.

4 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

I found him really attractive in his first year only

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Greg Rikaart.

(Rikaart isn't stud material but clearly he won a lot of industry friends)

I've never found him attractive. I've always felt he's got dirt on people that's why he stays employed.

47 minutes ago, 1974mdp said:

Robert Scott Wilson. How long did we have to deal with a serial killer being turned into the show's hero?

He should appear shirtless in ever episode because he has absolutely no acting talent.

1 hour ago, SoapDope78 said:

Joshua Morrow

I've never found him attractive. He has big crooked teeth. He's not much of an actor either.

Edited 47 minutes ago47 min by Soapsuds

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I thought he was good on OLTL. I know he is hated by B&B fans, but I haven't sat through that show in 15 years.

This is just my opinion but I think most of the hate for Clifton on B&B is because he was sort of shoehorned into becoming the next Ridge?? All the airtime didn’t help but I think he was never the type of character deserving of that type of leading role. Oddly enough now he’s mostly MIA and unless Liam had an annual brain tumor he works better now in a supporting role.