Five Significant DAYS OF OUR LIVES Stars Who Debuted In April

Barry (far l., with Frances Reid as Alice and Maree Cheatham as Marie), the second actress to play Addie Horton (Patricia Huston was the first), became synonymous with the role of Tom and Alice’s daughter, which she assumed on April 19, 1971. After her first marriage to Ben Olson ended (he died and rendered her a widow), her second left an indelible mark on history of the soap: Addie wed Doug, her daughter Julie’s fiancé, on the night they had planned to elope. The complicated turn of events intensified when Addie learned she was pregnant and had leukemia. She eventually gave birth to Hope in 1974, but was killed shortly thereafter, when she was struck by a car while pushing her daughter’s stroller out of harm’s way.

Upon arriving in Salem on April 25, 1980, Gloria Loring’s Liz Chandler was a woman of strength, stature and sexuality. She had an affair with Don, then fell in love with Neil (Joseph Gallison), before learning she was still married to her controlling ex, Tony. Liz eventually extricated her way out of the DiMera family and gave birth to Neil’s daughter, Noelle, but by that time, he had wed Marie. After serving time in prison for accidentally shooting Marie, Liz was released and married Neil in 1984. The couple survived Liz’s brief affair with Carlo, and Neil stood by his wife’s side when she briefly lost her singing voice after being shot in the throat. But all the drama eventually took its toll, the pair divorced, and Liz left town in 1986.

When 13-year-old Christie Clark took over the role of Carrie from Andrea Barber on April 14, 1986, she was poised to take the character into adulthood. (That is, after the brief, failed recast of Tracy Middendorf, 1991-92.) Under Clark’s direction, Carrie blossomed into a smart young heroine and the perfect foil to her villainous sister, Sami (Alison Sweeney), who lied and schemed to keep Carrie and Austin apart. Carrie’s most triumphant moment came when she exposed the truth about Will’s paternity — that Lucas and not Austin was the boy’s father — on Sami and Austin’s wedding day, leading Austin to dump Sami and marry Carrie on the spot in 1997 (though not before she decked her duplicitous sis). Although the pair endured their share of breakups, during which Carrie had romances with Mike, Lucas and Rafe, they always reunited.

After inheriting the role of Hope from Tammy Taylor and debuting on April 14, 1983, Kristian Alfonso ran with it and never looked back. Her Hope was flirty and fiery, and she immediately became the show’s It Girl. Things skyrocketed when she was paired with Peter Reckell’s Bo, their fervent chemistry leading them to become one of the greatest supercouples in daytime. Over the decades the pair’s epic love story has featured a romantic trip to New Orleans (1984), a lavish wedding in England (1985), and an array of trials and tribulations, including surviving Hope’s misdeeds as “Gina” courtesy of a brain chip implanted by Stefano. Throughout it all, Alfonso emerged as a leading lady for the ages, forever loved as Hope when she's even off the canvas (as she has been since 2023).

Arriving in Salem after a stint in military school, Bryan Dattilo made his daytime debut as Lucas “Roberts” on April 15, 1993 and was quickly thrust into the Sami/Lucas/Carrie/Austin quadrangle. Although he plotted with Sami to keep his brother and her sister apart, he ended up a pawn in her game, when she passed off his son, Will (Chandler Massey), as Austin’s child. Ultimately, the truth was uncovered along with another secret: Lucas learned he was the son of Bill Horton, prompting him to change his surname in 2007. Sadly, Lucas has always been unlucky at love, losing Carrie, Sami, Chloe and Adrienne to other men. Yet, Lucas is a true survivor.