Hope Brady may be suffering the loss of another romantic partner — this time the devilishly handsome and roguish Ted Laurent – but actress Kristian Alfonso certainly has a reason to celebrate.
That’s because she was born on September 5, 1963, in Brockton, Massachusetts, which means that this talented performer is turning 56 years old today! Alfonso’s childhood passion was figure skating and the Junior Olympic Figure Skating Campion planned to parlay her talent into a career but a tobogganing accident fractured her landing leg and scuttled her future prospects in that arena.
However, the prestigious Wilhelmina modeling agency soon came calling and the 15-year-old Alfonso soon found herself gracing the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and over 30 more magazines. A casting agent for NBC was captivated by one of Alfonso’s photographs and she was cast opposite Rock Hudson in the 1981 made-for-television film The Starmaker.
One year later Alfonso was asked to audition for the producers of Days of Our Lives who were looking to re-introduce the character of Hope Williams but she passed because she did not want to relocate to the west coast.
But in 1983, she did indeed screen test for the producers and her clumsiness tickled them so she was hired and debuted in April of that year.
Alfonso stayed in the part until 1987 when both she and onscreen husband Peter Reckell departed. They both returned in 1990 but Alfonso’s contract was only for 13 weeks and at the end, the character of Hope was presumed dead. Four years later Alfonso reprised the role but for a time amnesiac, Hope was believed to be a lookalike named Gina.
Outside of daytime, Alfonso is best known for her two-season stint on Falcon Crest as Pilar Ortega and her multi-episode guest stint on Melrose Place as a vicious Heidi Fleiss inspired madam.
Her other acting credits include Murder She Wrote, Burke’s Law, Baywatch and Who’s the Boss. Alfonso appeared opposite Dolph Lundgren in the action thriller Joshua Tree and she also played an exaggerated version of herself on Friends.
Soap Hub would like to wish Kristian Alfonso a very happy birthday and you ca too by clicking on the Twitter link below. Days of Our lives airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.
Send Kristian Alfonso a birthday tweet now: Happy Birthday @kristianalfonso! Have a wonderful day. Click To Tweet
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