In 1983, Barbara Crampton (pictured with John de Lancie as Eugene Bradford) made her daytime debut as Trista Evans on Days of Our Lives. Trista was Marlena’s cousin, and married Eugene. Crampton left the show the following year, when Trista was killed by Andre DiMera, also known as the Salem Slasher. She went on to play Leanna Love on Young and Restless, Mindy Lewis on Guiding Light and Maggie Forrester on Bold and Beautiful.
In 1993, All My Children’s Kendall (Sarah Michelle Gellar, l.) realized that she had been conceived via rape. Kendall had refused to believe that her father, Richard Fields, was a pedophile who had forced himself on Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), Kendall’s birth mom. Anton implored her to face facts, telling her, “Richard Fields is the worst kind of criminal, the kind who preys on young children!” Talking with Richard, who claimed that Kendall’s half sister Bianca (then a child) had made advances on him, Kendall could no longer avoid the terrible truth.
In 1996, Luan Volien Abbott (Elizabeth Sung) passed away from a fatal disease on Young and Restless, leaving behind a grieving widower, Jack Abbott, and son, Keemo Volien. Luan and Jack, who had been lovers back in her native Vietnam when he was stationed there during the war, had reunited in Genoa City and married not long before she took ill.
Photo credit: CBS /Courtesy Everett Collection
In 2014, General Hospital‘s Ava Jerome (Maura West) held a gun on AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan), prepared to kill him to prevent AJ from exposing what he had finally figured out: Ava had killed Connie Falconeri in cold blood and framed him for her crime. He begged for his life, but Ava shot him anyway. However, the gun jammed! AJ lunged for her and the gun dropped. He grabbed Ava by the throat and ranted at her for ruining his life. Sonny Corinthos entered, and misinterpreted the situation, believing that AJ had intended to kill Ava and not the other way around. He picked up the gun and, goaded on by Ava, shot AJ, who slumped to the ground.
In 2024, Steve Burton returned to General Hospital as Jason Morgan, who had been presumed dead (this time around) since 2021, when he appeared to have met his maker as a result of a tunnel collapse in Greece while trying to take down Peter August. Burton’s return was announced in January 2024, during a prime-time special celebrating the show’s history. Burton enthused to Soap Opera Digest that he was loving all the theories fans were sharing online about what Jason’s storyline would be upon his return to Port Charles. “I love the speculation,” he said. “I love how invested people are in this and they’ll be dying on their sword that they’re right! I happened to talk to a fan and she was like, ‘So, this is what it is. You’re doing this, then this happens.’ I go, ‘Hey, guess what? None of that is right! So, watch March 4th!’ “
