Every day they invade our living rooms with their high drama and antics. And often we take them for granted–but lest we not forget our hardworking soap stars who entertain their faithful millions, while keeping the networks pumping. Whether they’ve become an afternoon ‘fix’, or they’ve leaped to primetime and beyond, these colorful actors continue to leave their mark in the industry.
As the 33rd Daytime Emmys approaches, honoring these ubiquitous luminaries, we’d like to take a look back at some of today’s higher profile celebs who got their ‘start’ working in daytime serial television.
Julianne Moore
We all know Moore as a very serious, Oscar-nominated actress, who has turned in many superb performances in films such as The Hours and Far From Heaven. Even when she was starting her career, the striking beauty ignited the same intensity. In 1985, the actress joined the cast of As the World Turns as Frannie Hughes, simultaneously playing Frannie’s look-a-like British half-sister. In 1988, she received a justifiably deserved Daytime Emmy Award. We miss seeing double Juliannes.
Marcia Cross
The attractive, icy redhead has levitated towards juicy TV plots since the earliest stages of her career. After graduating from Juilliard in the early 1980s, she made her debut on ABC’s soap The Edge of Night before segueing to the same network’s One Life to Live. Cross then graduated to primetime soap as the wacky Kimberly Shaw on Melrose’s Place. Of course, now we know her as the unabashedly rigid Bree Van De Kamp, one of the ultimate Desperate Housewives.
Marisa Tomei
Sure, we all know Ms. Tomei as the Oscar-winning actress who made us laugh in My Cousin Vinny and later cry in In the Bedroom. But did you know Tomei dropped out of college when, in 1983, she landed the regular role of teen Marcy Thompson on the long-running CBS daytime serial As the World Turns? While she was still appearing on the show in 1985, she nabbed her first feature film role in Garry Marshall’s The Flamingo Kid.
Kelly Ripa
The pert, petite actress–best known as Regis Philbin’s better half on the hit morning show Live with Regis and Kelly–had already carved a niche for herself as one of TV soap’s best loved heroines, Haley Vaughn Santos, on ABC’s All My Children from 1990-2002. Nabbing Kathie Lee Gifford’s highly coveted replacement seat, she left the soap to join Regis–and went on to also star in her own successful primetime TV sitcom Hope and Faith at the same time. She also had three babies with actor-husband (and All My Children co-star) Mark Consuelos. Busy gal.
Demi Moore
The demure, dark-haired beauty evolved into one of the top-grossing female screen stars of the 1990s, starring in favorites such as Ghost, A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal. Still, she began her career as a regular on ABC’s General Hospital as Jackie Templeton, coming in at the tail end of Hospital’s wildly popular Luke and Laura craze. Her husky voice and hushed line delivery seemed to lend itself well to the tense plots.
Meg Ryan
Before she charmed the pants off of us in classic romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, this Connecticut-born former homecoming queen was embraced by soap opera cultists as Betsy Montgomery on CBS’ As the World Turns from 1982-84. Wonder if America’s crowned sweetheart ever misses the good old days?
Josh Duhamel
Ever since he was kid, Duhamel wanted to be a dentist. But the tall and handsome actor, with a confident charm that allows him to veer between good guy and bad boy, thankfully changed his mind. Duhamel went from daytime TV star–playing lovable hustler Leo du Pres on All My Children from 1999-2002–to primetime TV star in the popular series Las Vegas.
Eva Longoria
Fiery Desperate Housewife Longoria found herself in bit parts on television at the start of her career before she eventually was cast as Isabella Brana on CBS’The Young and the Restless from 2001-2003. Longoria was honored with an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama in 2002 for her work on the soap. Now, she’s sleeping with hot gardeners on TV and making movies with the likes of Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas. Not too shabby.
Vivica A .Fox
Before playing a kick-ass villainess in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), the lovely Ms. Fox jumped around a bit in the soaps, starting out on CBS’ Days of Our Lives in 1988 then moving on to the short-lived black-oriented NBC’s Generations in 1989. But her big break came with a turn on the popular Will Smith TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which eventually led to her co-starring with Smith in the hit film Independence Day.
Lauren Holly
Holly started out as the sweet, virginal Julie Chandler on the ABC soap All My Children, for which she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination as Outstanding Ingénue in a Drama Series for the 1987-88 season. Then, she co-starred with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, as the hapless romantic interest, in Dumb & Dumber and never looked back. Now, she’s playing tough on the popular CBS series NCIS.
Courteney Cox
One of our favorite Friends worked for the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and made appearances in Noxzema and Maybelline commercials before landing a part on the CBS soap As the World Turns. But then she got her biggest break, appearing in Bruce Springsteen’s music video “Dancing in the Dark.” It’s been history ever since… Hey, it’s nice to have Friends in high places.
Tommy Lee Jones
Little may remember how this Oscar-winning actor who has played a number of grizzled cowboys, and chased alien fugitives with partner Will Smith in Men in Black–as well as a few human ones in The Fugitive and Double Jeopardy–got his start on ABC’s One Life to Live from 1971-75. Now he’s directing stellar indies (Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), and will star in Robert Altman’s upcoming A Prairie Home Companion.
The 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards airs live on ABC, April 28 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
