Lamon Archey (Eli)
First Position: Mason Wilder, Y&R, 2012-14
In A Previous Life: Businessman Mason got caught up in the corporate war between Victor and Jack and had a short-lived romance with Hilary.
Memory Lane: “I was horrible. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing,” the actor told Digest in 2017. “I didn’t really learn how to act, honestly, until maybe a year or so after I left Y&R.”
Matthew Ashford (Jack)
First Position: Drew Rawlston, ONE LIFE TO LIVE, 1982-83
In A Previous Life: Doctor Drew stepped up to marry a pregnant-by-Bo Becky Lee Hunt, but was killed during a robbery on his way to the wedding.
Memory Lane: “I was the youngest doctor in living history,” Ashford joked of his stint on Digest’s podcast, Dishing With Digest, in 2018. “My real education began when they told me I was going to be let go, fired.... It ended up being one of the best things that could happen.”
Photo credit: ABC Photo Archives
Judi Evans (Bonnie)
First Position: Beth Raines, GUIDING LIGHT, 1983-86
In A Previous Life: Besties Rick and Phillip both fancied courageous Beth, who was raped by her stepfather.
Memory Lane: Evans explained to Digest in 2013 that she left after her first contract because “I was young, and as young people often do, wanted to see what else was out there. It was my first job.”
Stacy Haiduk (Kristen)
First Position: Hannah Nichols, ALL MY CHILDREN, 2007-08
In A Previous Life: Hannah was the emotionally unstable mother of Zach Slater’s late son, Ethan, and died when she plunged from the side of a cliff.
Memory Lane: On Dishing With Digest in 2019, Haiduk noted that AMC “was the first time I learned that you have so much dialogue in one day [on a soap].... I was panicked!”
Jackee Harry (Paulina)
First Position: Lily Mason, ANOTHER WORLD, 1983-86
In A Previous Life: Prostitute-turned-club-owner Lily was a doting aunt to Thomasina.
Memory Lane: In 2012, Harry recalled to Digest, “I remember looking at the first show going, ‘Oh, my God, I actually got that job?’ But they poised me and refined me. After about six shows, I was brilliant and they gave me a contract, and I just kept getting better and better.”
Lauren Koslow (Kate)
First Position: Lindsey Wells, Y&R, 1983-86
In A Previous Life: Jack’s ex, Lindsey snapped a scandalous pic of him trysting with stepmother Jill and blackmailed him.
Memory Lane: “Lindsey and [her follow-up B&B role] Margo were challenging in their own ways, and in retrospect, seem like a primer for portraying Kate,” Koslow mused to Digest in 2017.
Emily O’Brien (Gwen)
First Position: Jana Hawkes, Y&R, 2006-11
In A Previous Life: Jana loved and lost Kevin and murdered Carmen before succumbing to a brain aneurysm.
Memory Lane: In 2017, O’Brien said to Digest of her exit, “I was only 20 when I started on that show and I was on for five years. Going away allowed me to become who I am today, so I have no regrets.”
Thaao Penghlis (Tony)
First Position: Victor Cassadine, GH, 1981
In A Previous Life: Victor conspired with his power-hungry kin to control the world via a weather machine.
Memory Lane: When he reprised the role in 2014, Penghlis recalled to Digest that his first stint, at the height of Luke/Laura mania, “was a lot of fun because no matter where you went in America, everybody was screaming.”