The 10 Most Underrated Actors in Soaps

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have just moved 1,300 miles and changed jobs, so this is a time when the lazy blogger makes lists.

We all know the titans of the genre, the actors and actresses who get paid (relatively) big bucks and whose nominated names are announced each year on The View. It seems like everybody’s always talking about their characters and their performances on the message boards and in the soap magazines. I’d like to spend a little time highlighting twenty people who often slip under the cultural radar, but who consistently give great performances. First, the men:

1. Matthew Ashford (ex-Jack, Days of Our Lives). There’s a reason Jack and Jennifer were one of the most popular couples on this show, and I believe it has very little to do with Melissa Reeves. Ashford took a dour, underdeveloped character and turned him into a comic leading man in the vein of Lane Davies’ Mason or Kin Shriner’s Scotty. Despite all the nonsense he was given to play over the years (and Days actors are given a lot of nonsense), Ashford always spun his material into semi-believable gold. His repeated firings from Days just indicate that no one in daytime knows how to write anything funny anymore.

2. Robert Bogue (Mallet, Guiding Light). A soap newcomer, Bogue has the potential to be a great leading man. He brings a regular-joe sensibility to Mallet that compliments each woman he is paired with in GL’s current commitment-phobic storytelling. In every scene, he is confident, sexy, and even funny. On a show with so much strong talent, it’s easy to overlook Bogue’s subtle charm, but he’s the dependable performer to watch.

3. Thomas Calabro (Michael, Melrose Place). History has now given Heather Locklear sole credit for revitalizing Melrose, but in truth the show owes just as much to the reimagining of Michael Mancini as an out-and-out villain. While Amanda’s vamping was causing trouble for Billy and Alison, Michael started causing trouble for everyone else, and Calabro relished his newfound freedom by playing the character at full-tilt camp. His giddy delight when he screwed someone over (most memorably Jack Wagner’s Peter Burns, time and again) helped make Melrose so fun to watch. And Michael’s memorable pairings with two fellow scene-stealers, selfish Sydney (Laura Leighton) and unhinged Kimberly (Marcia Cross), were the two pounds of butter in this rich confection.

4. Ron Hale (Mike, General Hospital; Roger, Ryan’s Hope). About once a year for the past twelve years, Sonny Corinthos and his dad have an ugly, monologue-driven heart-to-heart that lays bare their wasted souls and usually ends with little resolved. At first, these scenes seemed a great excuse to watch Maurice Benard do his thing, but the guy we really watch is Hale, who has been General Hospital’s hidden jewel for a long time now. A true supporting player, Hale’s never been given an actual story but has instead just serviced those of others, even poor long-lost blond daughter Courtney’s. When Courtney died (from the monkey virus!), Hale’s Mike found the occasion to pretty much verbally eviscerate his living child. It was a raw, almost physically upsetting performance. Wouldn’t it be fun to see Hale act with a woman again? Maybe his old sparring partner Ilene Kristen?

5. Rick Hearst (Ric, General Hospital; ex-Alan-Michael, Guiding Light). Hearst has an Emmy for playing Alan-Michael, and has a shot at another one as Ric, if his writers can figure out who Ric is. So far, Hearst has played villainous, heroic, tortured, deceitful, adoring, adulterous, crusading, and duplicitous, and has completely invested himself in each. He’s more intriguing and watchable than almost any other man on the show, and that’s saying something. If GH could find where this complex puzzle piece fits, Hearst should clear off some more space on his mantel.

6. Ronn Moss (Ridge, The Bold and the Beautiful). Just kidding!

7. Michael Park (Jack, As the World Turns). Park is the Robert Newman of his show: He’s paired with the flashier, troublesome woman who gets all the attention while he has to play the rock and put up with all the shenanigans. It’s a tough position, but Park does it with aplomb—time and again, Jack saves the day, and when he has occasion to let out the emotions, Park comes through too. Quietly, without much notice or fanfare, Park has developed Jack Snyder into perhaps the only quintessential soap opera hero on air today. He’s timeless.

8. Stephen Schnetzer (Cass, Another World, other P&G soaps). Schnetzer was critically overshadowed in AW’s later years by Tom Eplin’s exceptional portrayal of Jake, but it’s no coincidence that the show ended with Cass’s wedding to Lila. Since then, Cass has showed up in Springfield and Oakdale because we are all so reluctant to lose him. The clothes, the curl, the eyes, the voice: Schnetzer’s Cass is still interesting. A permanent gig somewhere—Cass or no Cass—would be welcome.

9. Timothy D. Stickney (R.J., One Life to Live). Which mobbed-up club owner came first? Sonny or R.J.? I can’t remember, but though Maurice got all the early credit and the meatier scenes, Stickney has been stealing his for a long time now. Maybe it’s because R.J. is less tortured and really seems to revel in his own shadiness, but it’s always a pleasure to watch Stickney do his thing. It’s a shame he keeps getting saddled in unlikely relationships, because while he’s gotten to be vengeful and double-dealing, I don’t know that we’ve ever really seen him be passionate about someone. Yet even in the most preposterous stories, Stickney makes R.J. scenes essential viewing.

10. Billy Warlock (ex-Frankie, Days of Our Lives; ex-A.J., General Hospital). Without question, killing off Warlock’s A.J. Quartermaine should go down in GH history as one of the stupidest and most short-sighted decisions the show ever made. While Sean Kanan’s accomplished performance gave us a boorish and frat-boy sexy A.J., Warlock brought out the character’s inner weasel. Like Cliff Barnes, A.J. was the classic soap opera loser: a spoiled rich brat, a drunk, a deadbeat dad. And yet while he did despicable things we still felt sorry for him. (Sometimes, when A.J. was getting dressed down by Edward or Alan, we were actually on his side!) Warlock was poised to take A.J. into true complex soap villain territory, up there with Roger Thorpe, Craig Montgomery, or Todd Manning. Unfortunately he was a victim of astonishingly unimaginative writing, a mistake repeated with less passion on his most recent return to Days. Hopefully another show will pick him up when they realize what an asset he can be.