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That Was Then, This Is Now: Feast Your Eyes on Photos of Your One Life to Live Favorites Back in the Day… and Today
Friday, March 18th, 2022
If we’re not mistaken, it’s been a few years. And yet, you wouldn’t know it to look at the pictures.
To put it mildly, time has been kind to the stars of One Life to Live. Whereas so many of us wear the years like weights around our necks, the actors who played the movers and shakers of Llanview seem to be taking their cues from fine wine: In other words, they’re only getting better with age.
But of course, what would we expect from performers who wrung the drama out of storylines in which they survived everything from tumbling over Iguazu Falls to being replaced by a maniacal lookalike to splintering into enough alternate personalities to populate a whole other soap opera? Doing the unthinkable — heck, the impossible — is kinda their brand, folks.
More: Remembering One Life to Live great who died by suicide
Included in our new photo gallery of then-and-now shots of our One Life to Live favorites are the record-holder for most Daytime Emmy wins in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress, a pair of kids who grew up before our eyes (and kept right on going), a Hamilton Tony victor whose performances never failed to leave us “satisfied,” and four — count ’em, four! — couples who met on the soap and are still together in real life today.
Ready to join us in doing the time warp? All you have to do is click on the photo gallery below. Then check out our idea to revive One Life to Live and hit the comments with your own notions for bringing back the much-missed daytime drama.
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
1/21
<p>Though we always regarded it as hyperbole when the residents of Llanview called <em>One Life to Live</em>’s Dorian Lord a witch, it <em>does</em> appear that her enchanting portrayer knows the spell for remaining forever stunning. Hmm…</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, ABC
2/21
<p>Hair today, gone tomorrow. It’s a cleaner-cut but no less handsome version of the Emmy winner who played Todd Manning that later brought to life Austin Gatlin-Holt, the ill-fated most recent addition to the Quartermaine family on <em>General Hospital.</em></p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
3/21
<p>Bing Crosby’s “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” might as well have been written for Starr Manning’s real-life alter ego, who landed her pivotal part when she was just 6 years old and played it from 1998-2015 (along the way crossing over to <em>General Hospital</em>, where she eventually originated the role of Kiki Jerome).</p>
Image: Emiley Sweich/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Dee Cercone/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
4/21
<p>Megan Gordon and Jake Harrison’s love outlived… well, sadly, Megan. But at least the actors who made us swoon during the supercouple’s doomed early-’90s romance are still looking as vivacious as ever. Where <em>are</em> their Dorian Gray portraits, anyway?</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
5/21
<p>The saying is “older and wiser,” but we’ll be damned if the actress who gave Nora Buchanan her quick wit and radiant smile isn’t turning the phrase so far that it’s become “older and lovelier.” We should all be so lucky as to age this gorgeously.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
6/21
<p>No matter the decade in which the photo was taken, Bo Buchanan’s portrayer still has that trademark twinkle in his eye. And admit it — it’s hard, isn’t it, to look at these pictures of his infectious smile and resist the urge to crack one of your own!</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
7/21
<p>“Mad about you” took on a whole new meaning when the onetime Miss Maryland USA took federal agent Alex Olanov right off the rails in her pursuit of her estranged beau. Er, Bo. Well, both, technically. Bo was the beau, you’ll recall, over whom the future Mob moll lost her marbles.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Denis Guignebourg/JPI
8/21
<p>After playing poet Patrick Thornhart, the soap-hopper went on to appear on <em>Port Charles</em>, <em>All My Children</em> and now <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> (as Ridge Forrester). But he remains true to the real-life leading lady whom he met when he was tapped as a love interest for her Marty Saybrooke.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Evans Ward/JPI
9/21
<p>Just 8 years old when she joined the cast of <em>One Life to Live</em>, the charismatic child star grew up before our eyes — and along the way blossomed into a striking young woman — as Clint and Viki Buchanan’s headstrong daughter, Jessica.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
10/21
<p>Mustache or no mustache, the soap vet who played Hank “The Cannon” Gannon still carries himself with a gravitas that turns heads when he enters a room. Probably when he leaves a room, too, but we haven’t checked that to be sure.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI, ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Priscilla Grant/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
11/21
<p>They made the cutest of couples as <em>One Life to Live</em>’s Evangeline Williamson and Cristian Vega — but only <em>on</em> screen. Behind the scenes, the hunk wasn’t falling for the <em>Hamilton</em> Tony winner and <em>Girls5eva</em> scene stealer but a certain <em>other</em> co-star…</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Priscilla Grant/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/21
<p>Adriana Cramer’s portrayer — Melissa Gallo prior to her marriage — probably wouldn’t have looked so pouty way back when if she’d known that she was going to end up raising a family with her hunky co-star and headlining a hit primetime sitcom (<em>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</em>).</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
13/21
<p>Yeah, go ahead and put on your glasses. All you’re going to discover is that the actor who made Max Holden such an irresistible devil is as attractive now as he was when he made his daytime debut. And as an added bonus, that mullet-adjacent hairdo is a thing of the past. Mind you, the way that time has stopped for him is nothing compared to the way that it has for his better half…</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
14/21
<p>We wouldn’t lie to you. These pictures of the soap vet who replaced Mia Korf as impetuous Blair Cramer were taken decades apart, not mere minutes. It just so happens that the actress, more recently Eve Donovan on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>, only grows more beautiful as time goes by.</p>
Image: ABC, Jill Johnson/JPI
15/21
<p>Keri Reynolds and Antonio Vega may not have had the kind of relationship that stands the test of time, but their portrayers sure did. The former Llanview denizens and primetime mainstays were married from 2007 until <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/711990/kamar-de-los-reyes-remembered-tribute/" target="_blank">de los Reyes’ passing</a> in December 2023.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Howard Wise/JPI
16/21
<p>The Hollywood legend has received enough accolades to throw her own award show. But to those of us who were glued to <em>One Life to Live</em> in the heyday of Love in the Afternoon, she’ll always be most vividly remembered as Karen Wolek, the respectable married lady whose courtroom confession that she’d turned tricks won her portrayer a Daytime Emmy.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, ABC
17/21
<p>Somewhere between his big break as teenage dream Joey Buchanan and his primetime successes on <em>Castle</em> and <em>The Rookie</em>, the rising star went from boy-next-door adorable to leading-man handsome. Kinda makes you wonder how dashing he’s going to go on to get, doesn’t it? The mind boggles!</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Howard Wise/JPI
18/21
<p>Though Dorian’s niece Kelly Cramer was initially a wild-maned pot-stirrer, her look calmed down considerably once the powers that be realized that the future Emmy winner playing her didn’t need gimmicks to hold anyone’s attention. By the time <em>The Young and the Restless</em> tapped her as its Phyllis Summers recast, <em>everyone</em> knew that Tognoni could focus eyeballs with nothing more than a pointed gaze.</p>
Image: Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images, Getty Images
19/21
<p>Kids — they grow up so… hot? Wow. The moppet who played an adolescent Joey Buchanan from 1990-93 — <em>and</em> was central to the soap’s Billy Douglas storyline focused on Ryan Phillippe’s gay teen — morphed into a hubba-hubba hunk. These days, the alum of <em>The Young and the Restless</em> (as Mark Harding) appears mostly in movies like <em>King of the Ants</em> and its sequel, <em>Suitable Flesh.</em></p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI, ABC
20/21
<p>She’s come a long way from the youngster that <em>One Life to Live</em> chose back in 1978 to play Victoria Lord’s eventual half sister (and frequent headache), Tina Clayton. Yet Evans is to this day such an effervescent presence on screen that even champagne looks upon her with envy. Oh, and don’t freak because Viki’s included here, too. As <em>if</em> we wouldn’t give an individual slide to…</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
21/21
