They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but we wonder what good is a picture when you can’t recognize the subject? Above is a snapshot of a future star of soaps, but can you guess who this impeccably dressed youth grew up to be?
Star Of The Soaps
Obviously this young woman (now all grown up) is either currently starring in, or is 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 that’s probably not enough of a hint.
So try these on for size. Her first professional acting role was in a production of Come Blow Your Horn at the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago. She starred opposite Clint Eastwood in a feature film (which is now considered a cult classic). She was placed under contract by Universal Studios. She released her own line of cosmetics. And despite being no stranger to daytime, she is more well known for her work in primetime programs.
But just who can she be? Is this a photograph of Susan Flannery (ex-Stephanie Forrester, BB), Deidre Hall (Dr. Marlena Evans Black, DAYS), Donna Mills (ex-Madeline Reeves, GH), or Joan Van Ark (ex-Gloria Fisher Abbott Bardwell, YR)?
Susan Flannery
Though she’s appeared in several feature films – including Guns of Diablo and The Towering Inferno – and a plethora of primetime series, Flannery is much more well known for work in daytime soap operas (in addition to her 25 years spent at BB, she also played DAYS’ Dr. Laura Spencer Horton). So she’s automatically out of the running as the potential answer to our identity query.
Deidre Hall
And the same goes for Hall. Though she has appeared in a number of primetime series – including Adam-12, Emergency! (on which she recurred as Nurse Sally Lewis), Columbo, Wiseguy, Murder, She Wrote, and Our House (in which she starred) – Hall is known far and wide as DAYS’ Marlena. (Certainly helped by the 1995 storyline that saw the good doctor possessed by Satan himself!)
Joan Van Ark
Van Ark spent the majority of the 1970s under contract to Universal Studios. And though many daytime fans might recall that she was the actress who originated the role of YR’s Gloria, millions of TV watchers recall the 13 years she spent playing Knots Landing’s Valene Ewing. However, she isn’t today’s featured star.
Donna Mills
Following her stint at Drury Lane, Mills joined the cast of a touring production of My Fair Lady. Later, she joined the casts of The Secret Storm (where she played the aptly named Rocket) and Love is a Many Splendored Thing (where she played Laura Donnelly).
Prior to her signing a contract with Universal Pictures, Mills had won acclaim for her work in the thriller film Play Misty for Me, which starred Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter.
Thanks to said contract, Mills spent the majority of the 1970s employed in dozens of series and made-for-TV movies produced by the studio including Live Again, Die Again, McMillan and Wife, and The Six Million Dollar Man.
Between 1980-1989, Mills played her most prominent role – Abby Cunningham, the scheme queen that everybody loved to hate on Knots Landing — often at odds with Van Ark’s Valene, including stealing her husband, Gary (Ted Shackelford; also ex-Jeffrey/William on YR).
So, if you guessed that the future star of soaps seen in the image above was Donna Mills – who won a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on GH and posted the picture to Instagram with a message that read in part, “I was quite a fashionista even as a little girl. My grandmother made this outfit for me, hat and all” – then you were absolutely correct!
