`Loving,” a soap that has struggled mightily to balance solid veteran performers with the youngbloods who come and go at a dizzying pace, loses a round at the end of March when actress Noelle Beck leaves after eight years as the voluptuous Trisha. Beck joined the cast when she was just 17 and has become one of the show’s most popular romantic leads.
“Loving” producers have decided to write off Trisha in true soap fashion: There will be a body burned beyond recognition, a funeral at which Roberta Flack sings, and a case of amnesia.
Richard Steinmetz, who played Trish’s ex-husband Jeff before leaving “Loving” two years ago, will return to the show for several days beginning April 2 to bring her story line to its conclusion. Actor Robert Tyler (Trish’s current husband, Trucker) will be making a personal appearance at a K mart opening at noon and 2:30 p.m. Saturday at 2550 W. Schaumburg Rd., Schaumburg.
– “The Young and the Restless,” a soap known for making long-term commitments to new characters, has announced that it will cast J. Eddie Peck as Victor Newman’s long-lost son Cole. Peck had a wishy-washy recurring role on “Dallas” in its last season, then two years ago joined the cast of “Days of Our Lives” with a memorable stint as Hawk, a dashing but sleazy con man axed from the show during a writers’ war. Peck joins “Y&R” at the end of March.
Meanwhile, “Y&R’s” Tracey Bregman Recht, who plays Lauren, will soon cross over to “The Bold and the Beautiful,” where she will find her nemesis Sheila during “B&B’s” fashion show.
– Bill Bell Jr. is pitching a new soap to NBC, tentatively titled “Coming of Age.” Bell’s credentials include being head writer for “The Bold and the Beautiful,” which has significantly moved up in the ratings during the last two years. And he is the son of Bill and Lee Phillip Bell, creators of “The Young and the Restless” and “B&B.” Last spring NBC scrapped plans to spin off a soap from “Days of Our Lives,” deciding instead to fill “Santa Barbara’s” vacated time slot with game or talk shows. But with rumors that NBC is being sliced for sale, division by division, anything can happen.
– Kankakee native Bryan Datillo, 21, has joined the cast of “Days of Our Lives” as all-American teen Lucas Roberts, back from military school to live with Mom (Kate) and soon to be friend of Carrie and Sammi. Datillo makes it to the set of “Days” just in time for the show’s 7,000th episode. The actor’s first appearance will be April 15.
– In turmoil after the deaths of actor Michael David Morrison and head writer Douglas Marland, “As the World Turns” continues to spin its yarns, as Marland had developed story lines lasting well into the future. “ATWT” has announced that young actor Graham Winton, who replaced Morrison, will continue as Caleb. Also, Martha Byrne, who played Lily on the soap from 1985 to ’89 and won an Emmy for her work in 1987, will return to the role, replacing Heather Rattray, who has not been seen as Lily since December. Byrne/Lily will be seen in the next few days-back of the head only. The first full frontal view of Lily is expected the week of April 12.
– Joining the “All My Children” cast on Monday are Oak Park native Felicity LaFortune (formerly from “Ryan’s Hope”), who takes over the Laurel Banning role from Kristen Jensen, and “Santa Barbara” alum Eva LaRue as Dr. Maria Santos-a neurologist who will go mano a mano with Trevor.
– Three men and a holy roller make “One Life to Live” ever more eccentric in the near future. Cord, crazed to find a chink in Cain’s armor, flies to Texas and finds Cain’s former partner in crime, Angela the evangelist. Actress Susan Diol makes her “OLTL” entrance in a revival tent Monday.
– Chicagoan Anne Heche, who won an Emmy for her angst-ridden portrayal of the Vicki/Marly twins on “Another World,” can be seen in three upcoming feature films: “Ambush of Ghosts,” an award winner this winter at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute Film Festival, due on the festival circuit this spring; director James (“Terms of Endearment”) Brooks’ new film, “I’ll Do Anything,” starring Nick Nolte; and “Huck Finn,” a Disney release that opens nationwide April 2.
– Trivial pursuits for 20-year veterans of “The Young and the Restless”: At what strip joint did Victor first lay eyes on Nikki? One feature film shows a New York misfit smashing in his TV while watching Brock romance Jill, another has an out-of-work man addicted to “Y&R”-name the films. Which “Y&R” actor co-wrote the movie “The Deer Hunter”? Who played in the White House before playing on the soap? How many people are buried in Katherine Chancellor’s back yard, and who are they?
(Answers: the Bayou; “Taxi Driver” and “Mr. Mom”; Quinn Redeker, who plays Rex and first appeared as Nick Reed in 1979; Steven Ford, son of Gerald Ford, who played Andy Richards; four: husbands Phillip and Gary, lover Cash and grandson Phillip Jr.)
– Two veteran daytime actresses recently died within weeks of each other. Joy Garrett died of liver failure at the end of February in California. Garrett appeared on “Days of Our Lives” as Jo Johnson, a hard-luck mother of three who gave up two of her boys to protect them from an abusive father.
Garrett was a former Texas beauty queen who won a scholarship to New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She appeared on Broadway in several musicals, including “Grease.” From 1984 to ’87, she played Boobsie Caswell on “The Young and the Restless.”
On “Days,” Garrett went from domestic tragedy to light comedy (in a running gag over the years, actor Matthew Ashford as Jo’s son Jack mercilessly mocked her about her casseroles) and was nominated for an Emmy.
Constance Ford, an actor’s actor who played Ada Davis on “Another World” since 1967, died Feb. 26 in New York after a long illness. In her capable hands, Ford made daytime melodrama look like Tennessee Williams plays. She was a veteran of the Broadway stage and starred in TV’s golden-age hits including “Kraft Theatre,” “Alfred Hitchcock” and “East Side, West Side.”
Ford played Sandra Dee’s wicked mother in the film “A Summer Place” and appeared in the films “All Fall Down” with Warren Beatty and “The Caretakers” with Joan Crawford.
Ford starred in “Woman With a Past,” a 1954 soap created for her, and later was a regular in “The Edge of Night” and “Search for Tomorrow.” She played Ada uninterrupted for more than 25 years on “Another World.”
No matter how convoluted the plot, Ford gave story lines a subtext of a deeply felt performance capped off by her beautifully nuanced speech patterns and unsentimental characterizations. Producers for “Another World” plan for the character Ada to die offscreen this spring.
