Burnout can be a terrible thing. However, it can also make anyone — including a soap star — susceptible to considering options previously unthinkable and it can force you into stepping out of your comfort zone to take a real chance.
Who Is The Soap Star In Question?
All of these actors either currently star in, or are an alum of, one of the four remaining daytime dramas – The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless. But only one of them can say that they nearly eschewed their acting career in order to enroll in a pre-med program.
But just who can that actor be? Is it Hunter Tylo (ex-Dr. Taylor Hayes, BB), Judi Evans (ex-Adrienne/Bonnie, DAYS), Leslie Charleson (Dr. Monica Quartermaine, GH) or Mark Grossman (Adam Newman, YR)?
Judi Evans
Fifteen-year-old Judi Evans thought she had her future all mapped out, and it included a career as a physician. However, those plans flew right out the window the minute she landed a role in her high school’s spring play.
She was bitten by the performance bug and within four years she had earned her diploma, studied at Northern College, and landed her breakout role: Beth Raines on Guiding Light.
Leslie Charleson
She’s not a doctor but she has played one on TV since August 1977. And playing pretend is the only thing that Charleson ever envisioned herself doing. It’s a trait that apparently runs in her family, seeing as how her sister, Kate Charleson, was also an actor.
Mark Grossman
Grossman may have been roped into playing the eponymous Beast in his middle school’s production of the beloved fairy tale, but his dream was to become a star motocross racer.
Hunter Tylo
Tylo was fired from her first daytime soap – All My Children, where she played Robin McCall – for becoming involved with a co-star (who in turn became her second husband, Michael Tylo). Her second attempt at soap stardom – on Days of our Lives where she played Marina Toscano – ended with her character being bludgeoned to death.
Dejected by her experiences, Tylo decided to forgo her acting endeavors and enroll at Fordham University, intending to be a pre-med student. But just as she and her husband were preparing to make the move from the West Coast to the East, Tylo received an offer the join the cast of The Bold and the Beautiful. Her acceptance resulted in (near) steady employment as an actress for the next 12 years.
So, if you guessed that the soap star in question was Hunter Tylo, who made her BB debut on June 6, 1990, then you were absolutely correct!
