1 Meg Ryan, "As the World Turns" Ryan was studying journalism at New York University and acting to earn money when she got the call to play Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropoulos on ATWT. The role made her part of one of daytime’s biggest 1980s super-couples.
2 Anne Heche, "Another World" Heche played only-on-a-soap characters: both good and evil twins Vicky and Marley. Producers tried to cast her at 16 but her wise mom insisted she finish high school first. “People thought [soap opera training] taught me how to act," Heche recently said, "but it really taught me how to walk in high heels.”
3 Julianne Moore, "As the World Turns" Moore won a Daytime Emmy in 1988—just the start of accolades to come. The famous redhead played half-sisters Frannie and Sabrina Hughes.
4 Kate Mulgrew, "Ryan's Hope" The role of Mary Ryan was originated by Mulgrew and played by three successors after she left the show in 1978. Mulgrew later became the first woman to helm a Star Trek show, in the series Star Trek: Voyager.
5 Kim Delaney, "All My Children" As Jenny Gardner Nelson, Delaney was one of daytime’s star-crossed lovers. She overcame age and economic differences, an obsessed ex and temporary paralysis to be with the man she loved. Her character died at 20 in a jet ski explosion.
6 Kyra Sedgwick, "Another World" Sedgwick entered the soap universe at 16, playing teenager Julia Shearer. After a year, she headed to the University of Southern California to study drama and the rest is history (or, in the case of her hit show The Closer, mystery).
7 Marg Helgenberger, "Ryan's Hope" A scout from the show discovered Helgenberger acting in a Northwestern University production of Taming of the Shrew. Two years after leaving the soap, she won prime-time fame as prostitute K.C. Koloski on China Beach.
8 Melina Kanakaredes, "The Guiding Light" Kanakaredes found her character, Eleni Andros Spaulding Cooper, to be so sweet and innocent that she worried viewers would “get sick of her.” What prep went into the role that landed her two Daytime Emmy nominations? Not much: “I don’t even read other people’s scenes,” she said. “I figure Eleni is supposed to be naive and in the dark.”
9 Demi Moore, "General Hospital" Did her soap experience, playing reporter Jackie Templeton, set Moore up for success? “She had street smarts,” said General Hospital castmate Norma Connolly. “She learned fast.”
10 Robin Wright Penn, "Santa Barbara"
Wright Penn, who’s featured on MORE’s September cover, said that her character, Kelly Capwell, had been “raped, kidnapped and married about eight times, all in one month.” The melodrama made for good TV—Wright Penn earned three Daytime Emmy nominations.
