Five Things That Happened On February 2 In Soap History

In 1988, Another World’s Wallingford, played by Brent Collins, passed away from heart failure. Collins had been a cast member since 1984, with a stint on As The World Turns as Mr. Big prior to that (1982-83), and died early in 1988 from a heart attack. His AW alter ego's death was scripted after his real-life passing. Wallingford, also known as Wally, was a close confidant to Felicia Gallant and Cass Winthrop and had become a fan favorite.

In 1993, Renee Jones debuted as Lexie Brooks Carver on Days of Our Lives. The character of Lexie had actually been introduced in 1987, and had been played by a series of actors (Cyndi James Gossett, Angelique deWindt Francis and Shellye Broughton) before Jones assumed the role. Prior to appearing on DAYS as Lexie, Jones had played the role of Nikki Wade in 1982. Both characters were romantically linked to James Reynolds's Abe Carver, Lexie's husband. Jones remained with the show until 2012, when she decided to retire from acting, leading the show to script Lexie's death from a fatal brain tumor.

In 2006, General Hospital's Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary, r.) reunited with his old pal Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), who had been presumed dead since 1992. Earlier in the episode, Robert had had a lot of explaining to do to his daughter, Robin Scorpio, who railed at him for allowing her to believe that he was dead for so many years. Robert told Robin that he was now a containment specialist, and was in town to try to prevent a deadly encephalitis outbreak. Robert broke the news to a stunned Luke that he had reason to believe that Luke was the carrier of the rare strain of the virus.

In 2015, General Hospital's Franco Baldwin (Roger Howarth) — fresh from a prison break out of Pentonville — burst into Shadybrook brandishing a gun just in time to prevent his mother, Heather Webber (Robin Mattson) from injecting Nina Reeves with a syringe filled with LSD. Nina had stalled for time by getting Heather to give her a history lesson about how she had similarly overdosed Diana Taylor with the hallucinogenic back in the day. Franco's well-timed arrival spared Nina, but the next day, he deliberately injected himself with the syringe in order to get himself committed to the institution and remain with Nina.

In 2021, Days of Our Lives's Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford) was floored to discover that Gwen Rizczech's (Emily O'Brien) claim that he was her father was true when she angrily showed him the results of the paternity test he had undergone. "Read 'em and weep, Daddy. You see that there? They ran the test twice, so there's no denying that I'm yours anymore," she hissed.