Hollywood Leading Ladies Remember Kristoff St. John

Kristoff St. John may be best known to TV viewers for his run as Neil Winters on The Young and the Restless, but the news of his sudden passing has, of course, affected many — including Yvette Nicole Brown, Viola Davis, and Kim Fields.

In addition to his nearly 30-year run on daytime dramas, St. John also worked on a variety of other shows.

Yvette Nicole Brown (Mom; The Odd Couple) was cast as Lois, Neil’s date, on Y&R. She posted on Instagram how kind St. John was to everyone, describing him as pure love.

She writes about a background artist whom St. John invited to join himself and Brown at the CBS commissary.

Kim Fields (The Facts of Life) posted a video, recalling her brief, but memorable time with St. John on the sitcom Living Single and in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations. The actress paid tribute to St. John’s ability to reinvent himself.

Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder) shared on Twitter that the pain of grief and mental health should be addressed in the same realm as physical ailments. St. John’s son, Julian, committed suicide in 2014. Reports have now surfaced that St. John was recently treated for depression.

You can read all three posts below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I am still trying to process the news that this dear, dear man is gone. Forgive me if what I say here doesn’t come together just right, but I have to say something about @kristoffstjohn. He deserves as loving a tribute as my early morning sadness can muster. #KristoffStJohn was love. Just pure and simple: love. He was the kind of person you meet who you feel like you’ve known your entire life. He had a gift for making people feel instantly at ease. He could immediately diffuse any nervousness you had. In my case, I was a ball of nerves because I was playing my first role on a soap opera ever…on #YandR which happened to be one of my FAVORITE soap operas…AND I was meeting HIM, who I had been a fan of most of my life. It could have been a scary, heavy moment. Kristoff made it LIGHT. In my character, Lois’ subsequent visits to Genoa City, Kristoff was more of the same. Kind, encouraging, playful, fun and present. He saw me. He saw EVERYONE. He made time for everyone. He celebrated everyone. No matter who you were. He saw you. We spent our last lunch break together (the day this picture was taken) eating with a background actor who had been sitting alone in the commissary. Not on Kristoff’s watch. He called her over to join us and the three of us had an amazing time. She got to geek out and ask every question she had and she and I both properly fan-girled over the gift of this lovely man. Kristoff made that moment happen. He saw her. More importantly he felt her. He didn’t want her to be alone in a new place. He did the same for me. That is who he was a man. He was just GOOD. I am heartbroken to hear that he is gone. So heartbroken. #RIP dear heart. UPDATE: Please go to @kimfieldsofficial’s page and watch the live she posted. She pays beautiful tribute to her friend from childhood. They first worked together on #Roots2.

A post shared by Yvette Nicole Brown (@yvettenicolebrown) on Feb 4, 2019 at 6:35am PST

Found my words for the moment. #KristoffStJohn pic.twitter.com/BiRfRPfRTM

— Kim Fields (@KimVFields) February 4, 2019

The pain of grief and mental health should be addressed in the same realm as “physical” ailments. No real words except….I hope you found peace. God bless those you loved who were left behind. With all my heart and empathy https://t.co/UK732Kmlr3

— Viola Davis (@violadavis) February 4, 2019