• David Hasselhoff

  

  One of the show’s original sex symbols — hey, it was a long time ago! — Snapper Foster’s portrayer had the whole audience wanting to “play doctor” with him. Since then, he’s become such a legend that everyone knows who you mean if you just say “The Hoff.”

• Brenda Dickson

  

  From 1973-80 and 1983-87, the onetime Miss California in the Miss World Pageant brought to life Genoa City’s camptastic queen of mean, Jill Abbott. Back then, the opportunistic mantrap was less “older and wiser” than she was “cattier” and “greedier” (and we loved it!).

• Michael Damian

  

  Young & Restless’ resident pop idol — who rocked our world along with Traci Abbott, Lauren Fenmore, Cricket Blair and Phyllis Summers’ as Danny Romalotti in the big-hair 1980s — has transitioned to the other side of the camera and is now a sought-after writer/director.

• John McCook and Jaime Lyn Bauer

  

  The soap vet who played Richie Rich Lance Prentiss is an original cast member of Bold & Beautiful, where he still plays Eric Forrester. His on-screen love interest — scheming Lorie Brooks to his Lance — went on to play Days of Our Lives’ ill-fated Laura Horton.

• Heather Tom

  

  Since originating the role of Victoria Newman — and playing Victor and Nikki’s tempestuous daughter for so many years that she pretty much grew up on screen — the Daytime Emmy winner has moved to Bold & Beautiful, where she now makes waves Katie Logan.

• J. Eddie Peck

  

  Cole Howard’s portrayer followed up his six years in Genoa City with a three-year stay playing doctor on All My Children as Jake Martin (before Ricky Paull Goldin but after Michael Brainard). Still, Peck is perhaps best known for starring in 1990’s Lambada.

• Emily O’Brien

  

  All these years after she played “colorful” Jana Hawkes, the British-born actress still knows how to stir the pot — she does it on the regular as Gwen Rizczech, Jack Deveraux’s surprise daughter on Days of Our Lives.

• Phil Morris

  

  After his mid-’80s Young & Restless run, during which Tyrone Jackson posed as a white dude to infiltrate and bring down the Mob, the actor became iconic, owing to his appearances as lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld.

• Alex Donnelley

  

  Off and on from 1982-2001, the German-born actress played Diane Jenkins, the upwardly-mobile model that the camera loved even more than Jack Abbott did. Though her version of the vixen wasn’t the one that was killed off, it also wasn’t the version that the soap resurrected in 2022.

• Robert Parucha

  

  From 1985-87, the only mustache that could compete with Victor Newman’s was found on the handsome face of his brother, Matt Miller. Alas, when his portrayer revisited Genoa City in later years, it was nowhere to be found.

• Grant Cramer

  

  Though he made a lasting impression in the mid-1980s as Lauren’s obsessed fan Shawn Garrett — need we remind you he buried her alive?!? — the California native was asked back to the soap a decade later to play Adam Hunter, a short-lived love interest for Ashley Abbott.

• Thad Luckinbill and Linsdsy Fonseca

  

  J.T. Hellstrom’s former portrayer has gone on to become a highly successful Hollywood producer. (La La Land, anyone?) Meanwhile, the leading lady who played Colleen Carlton opposite him in the early 2000s is now a primetime mainstay.

• Eva Marcille

  

  In the late 2000s, the America’s Next Top Model winner struck a chord, not a pose, when she hit Genoa City as (tee-hee) Tyra Hamilton, the manipulative minx who turned both Neil Winters and Devon Hamilton’s heads years before Hilary Curtis would.

• David Lago

  

  The Daytime Emmy winner transformed Raul Guittierez from a teenage dream into a man about town during his 1999-2004 stay in Genoa City. Somehow, even all these years later, the handsome fella has still managed to retain his boyish charm.

• Kelly Kruger

  

  It’s been nearly 20 years since the actress played Katherine Chancellor’s granddaughter, Mackenzie Browning, but she still has soap in her veins: In real life, she’s happily married to Darin Brooks, Wyatt on The Bold and the Beautiful (where she occasionally guest-stars as Eva the Publicist).

• Don Diamont

  

  After being written off following a wildly successful 20-plus-year run as Brad Carlton — originally the gardener that everyone wanted to, ahem, prune their bushes — the daytime MVP was snatched up by sister soap Bold & Beautiful to make it rain as Dollar Bill Spencer.

• Eva Longoria

  

  It wasn’t just viewers were mad about the then-newcomer’s portrayal of loca Isabella Braña. Hollywood was, too. So as soon as she left Genoa City, she was made one of the leads on the primetime hit Desperate Housewives. The rest, as they say, is history.

• Tom Hallick and Janice Lynde

  

  Back when The Young and the Restless was really, really young, these were the actors who were paired to make Brad Elliot and Leslie Brooks its first supercouple. She later did Another World and One Life to Live; he, Days of Our Lives.

• Maura West

  

  One of Young & Restless’ all-time biggest failings was its inability to make the most of As the World Turns Emmy winner Maura West, who made a pit stop at the CBS soap as Diane on her way to General Hospital, where every (!) freaking (!) day (!) she’s elevated the daytime genre with her work as femme fatale Ava Jerome.

• Doug Davidson

  

  Not even a detective as sharp as Paul Williams could track down this fan favorite in Genoa City anymore. After more than 40 years of crimefighting and lovemaking as the reformed cad, he’s no longer a cast member (and maybe you’ve heard, not too happy about it).

• Victoria Rowell

  

  The fan favorite still holds out hope that one day, Drucilla Winters will pull a Diane and get herself resurrected (and frankly, so do we). But whether it ever happens, we’ll always tip our hat to the actress who created one of the soap’s all-time most popular characters.

• Scott Reeves

  

  Following a two-decade stretch as baby-faced playa Ryan McNeil, the actor, who in real life is married to the former Melissa Brennan (aka Jennifer on Days of Our Lives), passed through General Hospital as as Steven Webber on his way to Nashville, both the city and the series.

• Brenda Epperson

  

  When Eileen Davidson left behind her role of Ashley, she left it to her lookalike… who, even now, could pass for her long-lost sister? Or maybe Patty Williams after one of her extreme makeovers? In any case, the resemblance remains noteworthy!

• Tricia Cast and Michael Corbett

  

  The marriage of wealthy Nina Webster and literal lady killer David Kimble in the 1990s was toxic to the nth. But at least one of their portrayers, fondly recalling the fireworks that it generated, would be willing to come back for Round 2.

• Shemar Moore

  

  Once primetime got a load of the easy-on-the-eyes Emmy winner who played photographer Malcolm Winters off and on from 1994-2005, it never let go. Instead, it kept the rising star busy in one hit series (Criminal Minds) after another (S.W.A.T.).

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