Seven Oscar-Winning Stars Who’ve Appeared on Daytime Soap Operas

The 93rd Annual Academy Awards will bring Oscar gold to talented actors, producers, writers, directors, and other folks who work in the film world. Some who already have a gold statue on their mantels either came from or later spent time in the soap opera world.

From Soap Operas To Oscar Winners

Soap Hub offers a look back at the following stars who have both movies and daytime dramas on their resumes!

Elizabeth Taylor (ex-Helena Cassadine, General Hospital)

One of the big screen’s most famous actresses, Taylor won Best Actress awards for her roles in BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966). Her third came in 1993 when the academy bestowed on her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

In 1981, Taylor, an admitted fan of GH, as evil Helena Cassadine, crashed Luke and Laura’s wedding. She cursed the two and apparently, it took as the couple eventually divorced. FYI: Taylor’s the only star on this list who did soaps after winning her Oscar.

Jaime Ray Newman (ex-Kristina Cassadine, General Hospital)

Taylor’s Helena isn’t the only Cassadine on this list. In 2002, Newman had a brief stint as Alexis’ sister Kristina (both women were fathered by the late Mikkos Cassadine, played by John Colicos).

Kristina died in an explosion, but Newman, along with her husband Guy Nattiv, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019 for producing the movie Skin.

Morgan Freeman (ex-Roy Bingham, Another World)

In 1982, Freeman started a two-year stint in Bay City on Another World as Frame Construction architect Roy Bingham. Freeman found that the fourth time was the charm when he took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2004 for his role in Million Dollar Baby.

He’d also been nominated in the same category in 1987 for the film Street Smart and twice as Best Actor for the films Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994). He’s been nominated since his win for Best Actor in Invictus (2009).

Marisa Tomei (ex-Marcy Thompson, As the World Turns)

Tomei’s Marcy got a happy ending just before exiting Oakdale by marrying Lord Stewart Markham Cushing (Ross Kettle) and moving to England. In real life, the actress became Hollywood royalty in 1992 after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in the comedy flick My Cousin Vinny.

Melissa Leo (ex-Linda Warner, All My Children)

Leo had a brief run in Pine Valley in the mid-1980s playing Cliff’s (Peter Bergman) troubled sister Linda Warner on AMC. Linda got mixed up with bad boy Zach Grayson (Robert LuPone), who killed her. (Before her corpse was discovered, Linda was a suspect in Zach’s killing.)

Leo was honored with a Daytime Emmy in the inaugural Outstanding Ingenue category in 1985. Twenty-five years later, she won the Oscar for her role in the boxing drama The Fighter in the Best Supporting Actress category. Leo’s upcoming films include Always on My Mind, Shelter, and Measure of Revenge.

Tommy Lee Jones (ex-Mark Toland, One Life to Live)

In the early 1970s, OLTL’s Dorian Cramer (Nancy Pinkerton; later, Robin Strasser) drew Jones’ Mark Toland into her schemes, which led to the death of a patient. Later, Mark planned to blackmail Victor Lord (Ernest Graves; Shepperd Strudwick) with information about Vic’s illegitimate son Tony (George Reinholt), but he was killed by a woman who mistook Mark for her cheating spouse.

In 1994, Jones won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar 1994 for his role as Samuel Gerard, the lawman who tried to bring Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) to justice for the murder of his wife (played by Sela Ward). Before Samuel came to realize the good doctor was innocent, he was relentless in going after the wrongly accused killer. Jones has three other Academy Award nominations Best Supporting Actor nods for JFK (1991) and Lincoln (2012) and a Best Actor nod for In the Valley of Elah (2007).

Julianne Moore (ex-Frannie/Sabrina, As the World Turns)

Moore played out two major storylines during her 1985-88 stay in Oakdale. Her character discovered the man she fell in love with, Douglas Cummings (John Wesley Shipp), was a serial killer; later, Frannie discovered her long-lost half-sister/cousin Sabrina in London.

After exiting ATWT, Moore has worked practically nonstop in films, earning five Academy Award nominations for her roles in the films Boogie Nights (1998), The End of the Affair (1999), The Hours, and Far From Heaven (both in 2003), taking home the Oscar for Best Actress in Still Alice (2015). Moore won the hearts of ATWTs even more than she already had by reprising Frannie in 2010, ATWT’s final year.