Ten Soap Actors Who Went On To Win Oscars
(From l.: Julianne Moore in Still Alice, Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, Kathy Bates in Misery, and Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny.)
Demi Moore is in good company! The former General Hospital star (ex-Jackie Templeton) is currently the odds-on favorite to win Outstanding Lead Actress on March 2 for her role as age-defying fitness instructor Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance. Many other soap performers have gone on to win Academy Awards, but we whittled it down to 10 of the most famous and/or interesting. (Note: We didn’t count the Oscar winners who came to soaps after nabbing a statue, like Celeste Holm, who won for Gentleman’s Agreement in 1947 before joining ABC’s Loving.)
1. Kathy Bates: Best Actress for Misery in 1991
Bates played Erica Kane’s cellmate, Belle Bodell, on AMC in 1984 (after Erica was sent to prison for killing Kent Bogard), calling her a “troublemaking rat.” Bates’ other soap roles include Evelyn Maddox on OLTL and Phyllis Gillette on The Doctors.
2. Marisa Tomei: Best Supporting Actress for My Cousin Vinny in 1993
Tomei stirred up drama in the mid-eighties on As The World Turns as teenager Marcy Thompson, who accused Dr. Bob of sexual harassment. Marcy also befriended Kirk McColl (Christian J. LeBlanc, who now plays Michael Baldwin on Y&R) when he was blinded, but left town after marrying man of her dreams, Lord Stewart Markam Cushing. “I thought it was going to be a short little thing but they extended my part,” marveled Tomei to AARP Magazine.
3. Tommy Lee Jones: Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive in 1994
His character, Dr. Mark Toland on One Life to Live (1971-1975), had an affair with Dorian before she set her sights on Victor Lord. Mark met an ignominious end, shot and killed by a jilted husband. Years later, Jones reflected on the strange popularity he encountered in his Manhattan neighborhood after nabbing the role: “I’d only done three days of work on a soap and already perfect strangers were talking to me on the street,” he mused.
4. Susan Sarandon: Best Actress for Dead Man Walking in 1996
Sarandon got her big soap break on A World Apart as Patrice (1970-71). “I went through so many catastrophes, from getting kicked out of school to getting pregnant by a terrorist,” Sarandon told Entertainment Weekly. “That was really fun.” She also played Sarah on Search For Tomorrow in 1972 before hitting it big in Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.
5. Julianne Moore: Best Actress for Still Alice in 2015
Moore also starred on ATWT in the mid-eighties, playing Dr. Bob’s daughter, Frannie, and her lookalike half-sister Sabrina (winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Ingenue in 1988). Moore paid a visit to the soap in 2010 for Bob and Kim’s 25th anniversary months before it went off the air. “I think her return to ATWT meant as much to her as it did to us,” Don Hastings (Bob) told TV Guide.
Julianne Moore reprising her role as Frannie on ATWT in 2010 opposite Kathryn Hays as Kim and Don Hastings as Bob
6. J.K. Simmons: Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash in 2015
Simmons portrayed a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant on All My Children in 1987 in scenes when Travis Montgomery got into legal trouble trying to rescue Erica Kane in a story involving her sister, Silver Kane. “Dismiss these charges!” Erica demanded of Simmons’ character. Who could say no to Erica Kane?
7. Leonardo DiCaprio: Best Actor for The Revenant in 2016
The former child star played a young Mason Capwell when he was just 15 years old in a flashback on Santa Barbara in 1990. “The Capwells aren’t worth it,” said young Mason to Cassandra. Out of the mouths of babes!
8. Allison Janney: Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya in 2018
Who can forget Janney’s character, Ginger, who worked as Alexandra Spaulding’s maid on Guiding Light from 1994-95? She was always good for comic relief, as in one memorable scene with Dr. Rick Bauer where she revealed herself as a hypochondriac who was attracted to him. “I have a tendency to break things,” she told him at Cedars Hospital. “You’ve got to stop coming in here,” replied Rick.
9. Jaime Ray Newman: Producer for Best Live Action Short Film The Skin in 2019
GH fans remember Newman as the actress who played Alexis’s sister Kristina Cassadine from 2001-2003. Kristina died in a bomb blast meant for Sonny set by Luis Alcazar; Alexis named her daughter with Sonny in honor of her late sis. Newman added producer to her list of credits when she collaborated with her husband, Guy Nattiv, for their award-winning film about a skinhead who has an awakening and removes his tattoos.
10. Brad Pitt: Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in 2020
Pitt scored two episodes of Another World in 1987 as a teenage basketball player named Chris who developed a relationship with John Hudson. Pitt followed that with four episodes of Dallas as Randy, the boyfriend of Jenna Wade’s daughter, Charlotte. Next up? Robbing Geena Davis in Thelma and Louise.
And what was Oscar-winner Geena Davis’s first big break? She played a soap star in Tootsie in 1982!
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