Having gained the title of the most-watched US-produced daytime drama series in the world since 2008, “The Bold and the Beautiful” has clearly defined what a successful soap opera should be. From the moment it premiered on CBS in 1987, viewers were sucked into the world of illicit love affairs, revenge, evil twin siblings, and birth secrets. It had all the possible plot twists imaginable for a soap opera, all centered on the Forrester family who owned the Los Angeles-based fashion empire, Forrester Creations. CBS announced its renewal for the 35th season – out of the original main cast members, only two actors remained in the series portraying their roles. Other actors had moved on to explore other career possibilities; sadly a few had passed away.
Background of “The Bold and the Beautiful”
“The Bold and the Beautiful” was initially introduced as a sister series to one of the longest daytime drama series in American television, “The Young and The Restless.” They shared the same creators and producers, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.
Just like most soap operas, it focused on the scandals, tribulations, betrayals and complicated family relationships of wealthy and working-class families living in Los Angeles. Viewers got to see how the lives of the affluent Forrester Family intertwined with the once upper-middle-class Logan family. Since the fashion haute couture industry was incorporated into the story, most people in the series were presented glamorously, hence the title.
The Forresters
The premise of the drama series was that Eric and Stephanie Douglas Forrester established a business empire through their fashion house, Forrester Creations. They had four children – Ridge, Thorne, Kristen and Felicia, and belonged to the upper crust of society, as Stephanie was the daughter of a rich Chicago magnate. She met Eric while attending college at Northwestern University, they became lovers, and married immediately because she became pregnant. In those circumstances, Eric had no choice but to break it off with Beth Henderson, his college sweetheart.
In the next two decades after their wedding, Eric with his immense creative talent, along with Stephanie’s business acumen, built a successful fashion brand. Everything seemed to have been working great for the family, until Stephanie hired a catering company for a party in their mansion, not knowing that one of the associates of the company was Eric’s former college sweetheart.
The Logans
A heartbroken Beth had married college classmate Stephen Logan on the rebound, and settled in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. They had four children including Stephen Jr. also known as Storm, Brooke, Donna and Katie. Stephen struggled with his business endeavors, and soon left his family, so Beth became a single working mother with no one to help her raise her children. Complications arose when Brooke met Ridge and there was an obvious attraction between the two. Stephanie disapproved of it, as she didn’t want her eldest son to end up with just a girl from the valley.
The mind-blowing plot twists and turns in the TV series
The initial conflict in the story might have started from the Eric-Beth-Stephanie relationship, which can be considered a very light and common complication in daytime drama series. However, the narrative became weird and surreal as they moved on from one season to another. Ridge was supposed to marry Caroline Spencer, daughter of a media tycoon, but the engagement was off as soon as Ridge’s affairs with other women went public. He then turned to Brooke, and had an on-and-off relationship with her. Caroline eventually went on to marry Ridge’s brother Thorne. Their parent’s marriage was already bound for divorce, as it wasn’t working anymore. Eric wanted to marry Beth, but due to Stephanie’s machinations, Stephen returned and caused trouble for the couple. Brooke found out about it and vowed revenge on Stephanie. Later on, Brooke ended up being Mrs Eric Forrester and had children with him, although the eldest was suspected of being Ridge’s child. She created havoc in Stephanie’s world, but in return was also hurt badly by Stephanie.
These complications were just the tip of the iceberg, and for the past 33 seasons, “The Bold and The Beautiful” has continuously shocked even the most liberal and open-minded viewer.
What happened to the original Bold and the Beautiful main cast?
With 34 seasons under its belt, “The Bold and the Beautiful,” has provided viewers with plenty of excitement, due to the fast-paced storylines and shocking plot twists. Loyal fans have rooted for certain characters, but abhorred some of them as well. Even the protagonists would sometimes be the antagonists, depending on the kind of narrative the writers of the show wanted for their favorite characters. With so many characters in the show, a few were considered the main cast; some of them became iconic soap opera stars, and chose were retained to play the same character for two to three decades. Here are some of the original main cast with their unforgettable roles, and what they have been up to these days.
John McCook as Eric Forrester (Season 1 – present)
Before John McCook was picked for the role of Eric, he was first seen in the series “The Young and The Restless” in a recurring character for five years, but left the 30-minute per episode daytime drama series when it transitioned to an hour-long drama. In his years with “The Bold and The Beautiful,” he was nominated three times for this role at the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2001, 2012, and 2018 but wasn’t fortunate enough to win one. He is one of the two original actors of the main cast who have remained in the show since it premiered. One interesting note about him was that he was only seven years older than the actor who played the role of his eldest son, Ridge, in the series.
In real life, John has married thrice and divorced twice. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, former actress Laurette Spang with whom he has three children, Jake, Rebecca, and Molly who became an actor as well. He has another son, Seth, from a previous marriage.
Katherine Kelly Lang as Brooke Logan
Katherine Kelly Lang may have debuted as a movie actress back in 1979, in “Skatetown, USA”, with popular actors Scott Baio and Patrick Swayze, and made guest appearances in several TV series, but she only became a household name when she took on the role of Brooke Logan. Viewers either loved her or hated her guts for the decisions she made in the series. Like John McCook, she has been in all 34 seasons of “The Bold and The Beautiful”, although temporarily replaced by actress Sandra Ferguson when she went on maternity leave in 1997. So as not to confuse the audience when another actress appeared in the show, it was flashed on the screen that the character was portrayed by someone else at that time.
Her father was the Olympic ski jumper, Keith R. Wegeman. She has married and divorced twice, and has become a grandmother from her daughter Zoe, and is expecting more grandchildren from her two sons, Jeremy and Julian, along with adopted daughter Danyelle.
Susan Flannery as Stephanie Forrester
Before Susan Flannery became popular with her portrayal of the scheming and manipulative Stephanie Forrester in “The Bold and the Beautiful,” she temporarily quit acting and was working behind the scenes as a producer. At that time, she felt that she’d had enough of acting, as she was known in America as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton for having played that role for almost a decade in one of NBC’s longest-running daytime series, “Days of Our Lives.”
When she was contacted by William Bell to join the cast of B&B, she repeatedly rejected the offer, but the producer/creator eventually convinced Susan to return to acting. Her decision proved to be the right one, as she won Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role twice at the Daytime Emmy Awards. She also enjoyed directing some episodes in the series. However, after playing Stephanie for 25 years she’d had enough, and gave the writers enough time to write her out of the story by giving her lung cancer.
Outside of acting, Susan was hell-bent on helping co-actors obtain foreign residuals when their TV series were shown internationally. As a producer, she knew about the ins and outs of production and the profit made, or not. She advocated the actors’ rights to earn more, and during a union meeting, she declared that if they weren’t paid the residuals, they would go on strike. Everyone in the room was shocked, but in the end more actors agreed to it and so they now receive what’s due them. Once in a while, she would grace the screen for a guest appearance, but has been enjoying her retirement with her adopted child and rumored partner.
Ronn Moss as Ridge Forrester (the first one)
Just like Susan Flannery, Ronn Moss left the show after appearing in it for 25 years since its premiere. He gained international fame through his portrayal of a successful dashing, debonair fashion brand CEO, Ridge Forrester. While it wasn’t his ticket to stardom, as he was a member of a band called Player which had a No.1 hit entitled “Baby Come Back” in 1978, his market expanded when he joined the main cast of “The Bold and The Beautiful” in 1987.
Millions of viewers around the world couldn’t help but root for the dysfunctional relationship that he had with Brooke Logan in the soap opera. Before he left the show, his character married and divorced Brooke five to six times, but their loyal fans still couldn’t get enough of them.
When he finally left the daytime series in 2012, fans thought that the salary negotiations went sour, but it was later revealed that the actor had memory issues due to an accident, and could no longer perform his job efficiently. Ronn went back to his first love, which was singing, and went on a concert tour with his band. However, when he and Peter Beckett, another members of the band had a falling out, involved in a trademark dispute, he returned to acting in 2015 in a Flemish daytime soap opera series called “Familie.” It was followed by another drama series entitled “The Bay”, and this time he was credited as one of its producers. All the risks that he took were worth it, as he won four awards for Outstanding Daytime Digital Drama Series at the Daytime Emmys.
The trademark lawsuit was settled in December 2018; both Ronn and Pete could only use the band name in a limited capacity, for instance only by including their names to it such as Ronn Moss’ Player or Peter Beckett’s Player. Ironically, by 2019, Ronn became a solo artist and has performed in several countries including Australia and Italy, where he has a huge fan base; he released an album entitled “I’m Your Man” in 2020. When he’s not working, he’s with his wife, Devin DeVasquez, a former commercial model and Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in 1985.
Joanna Johnson as Caroline Spencer Forrester and her twin sister Karen Spencer
Almost all the characters in “The Bold and The Beautiful” were either involved in continuously betraying people in the series, except for Caroline Spencer Forrester. She was first introduced as an innocent, sweet daughter of a wealthy businessman. Unfortunately, she was betrayed too many times by people close to her, and so became stronger and sometimes would make self-serving decisions.
Later on, her character died from a terminal illness, and fans thought that it would be the last time they saw Joanna, but were shocked to find her in the series again, but portraying another character, her twin sister, Karen Spencer. After her stint with the daytime series ended, she became a singer, and released an album in 1993. Later on, she went on to become a screenplay writer for the movie, “The Shrink Is In,” and was credited as one of the producers of the movie, “Very Bad Things.”
Thorne Forrester played by four actors
The role of Thorne Forrester was Clayton Norcross’ breakout role. However, he only portrayed the character for two years, and then he moved on to other TV and stage projects. Jeff Trachta played the role from 1987 up to 1996, but just as with Clayton, there was no official reason given for the change of actors.
For the next two decades, from 1996 until 2016, the role was portrayed remarkably by Winson Harmon, who debuted in the daytime soap opera, “All My Children.”
The actor was pretty close to John McCook, and would fondly remember the time they were hanging out and a group of international fans asked for autographs from John. He asked the older actor why the fuss from global fans, and John told him that B&B was a huge hit not only domestically but internationally as well. The Guinness World of Records declared it the “Most Popular Daytime TV Soap” (current) and Winson said that he wished to be part of the series someday. His wish was granted, and he was quite ecstatic that he played John McCook’s son in the series. Critics and fans lauded his portrayal of the character, but his success was marred by reports of multiple arrests for public intoxication. In 2017, he was informed that the role was re-cast and while he was shocked by the producer’s decision, he wasn’t angry since he said that he was blessed to have been part of the top daytime drama series for 21 years. He would be part of indie movie projects from time to time, but wasn’t seen again on major TV shows and movies. Most TV viewers would likely remember him as Thorne Forrester.
One secret could destroy #Bridge’s marriage 💥 Can Brooke and Deacon keep it? #BoldandBeautiful is new this week on @CBS! Watch the latest episodes on @paramountplus. pic.twitter.com/HgYfhC8GoU
— Bold & The Beautiful (@BandB_CBS) January 16, 2022
The fourth actor who inherited the role was the German-born, Australian TV actor Inigo Rademacher. He played it from 2017 until 2019, then informed the B&B’s creative team that he was going back to his previous drama series, “General Hospital.” In the B&B universe, Thorne was sent back to Europe to get his head together, after all the mistakes he made in Los Angeles.
Beth Logan nee Henderson played by five actors
The role of Beth Logan was initially a series regular, but it became a recurring character due to the narrative of the story. During its TV debut, the role was portrayed by Judith Baldwin, but it didn’t take long before Nancy Burnett took over the role in the same year, until 1989. Another actress – Marla Adams from the TV series, “The Young and The Restless” – played it quite briefly in 1991. The character was seen again in 1994. when Nancy came back to depict the role and it devolved into a recurring role up to 2001. Beth wasn’t seen in the daytime series until she made a comeback in 2008, and Robin Riker gave the character a new spin, and people liked her performance. In 2010, the character was written off, but not without an epic battle with her ultimate nemesis, Stephanie Forrester, that resulted in her death.
