What Once-Popular Hallmark Stars From The Early 2000s Look Like Today

This article contains references to substance abuse.

In an era when franchise films are failing to rack up box office receipts as they did in the 2010s and major television networks are competing with YouTube, powerhouse streamers, and even social media platforms, the face of entertainment is changing at a whirlwind pace. Just outside Hollywood's mainstream, though, a veritable screen juggernaut has been growing since the early 2000s — the ever-expanding universe of Hallmark films and television series.

Since the Odyssey Network was rebranded on cable and satellite systems as the Hallmark Channel in 2001, the network has set about building its own unique brand on the back of romantic comedies, Christmas and holiday movies, and even mysteries. Along the way, actors like Lacey Chabert, Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar, Tyler Hynes, and others have built dedicated followings through their work on Hallmark productions, in some cases wholly independent of their earlier careers.

As popular as those stars and their films and TV series are, though, their road to success in Hallmark's unique feel-good ecosystem was definitely paved by other performers before them. Namely, the actors who helped Hallmark establish its own network alongside the content produced for other networks via its long-running Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series. Here are some of the once-popular stars during Hallmark's early-2000s breakout and what they look like today.

Although she became a 1990s icon through her work as a teen and beyond playing Donna Martin on the hit primetime drama "Beverly Hills, 90210," Tori Spelling's status as Hallmark royalty may just be her claim to fame in the modern era. And her run on the network kicked off way back in 2003 with "A Carol Christmas," which put a 2000s spin on the Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol." Two years later, she starred in the comedy "Family Plan."

These days, Spelling is acting and appearing on TV less frequently than in her heyday. Outside of Lifetime's "Lost in the Everglades" in 2025, Spelling has only logged a handful of new credits since 2019. She has sparked fan frenzies with her evolving look over the ensuing years, yet still managed to rise above the chatter, pushing back against the narrative. "I'm 52. I'll be 53 in May, and I purposely go the other way because ... every photo I put up, people say, 'Stop with the filler,'" Spelling told plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow on her "MisSpelling" podcast in 2026 (via USA Today). "I'm like, 'I'm not!'"

Spelling has navigated significant life events recently, including divorce from her former longtime husband and the father of her children, Dean McDermott, in 2025 and the death of her "90210" co-star, Shannen Doherty.

Like Tori Spelling, whose father Aaron Spelling was a Hollywood power player, Jordan Bridges comes from an important Hollywood lineage. His father, Beau Bridges (another early Hallmark Channel alum), and uncle, Jeff Bridges, are A-list stars. His grandparents, Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges, were also actors; however, Jordan never felt pressured to follow in their footsteps. 

"I think what was nice about it was that there was a lot of support and a lot of play and a lot of encouragement towards being expressive and being creative. But there was never any pressure to do it," he said during a 2010 "American Masters" interview. "My grandma, for instance, she always begged one of us to become a lawyer or doctor. But, no ... for me it wasn't until really I was in college that I became determined to do it."

Current Hallmark fans may know Jordan Bridges best for his appearances in multiple network productions, beginning back in 2005 when he played the fake husband of Tori's character in the comedy "Family Plan." He went on to appear in two installments of the "Love Comes Softly" series and other network releases. After forging his own path as one of Hallmark's early stars, Jordan played Francesco "Frankie" Rizzoli, Jr. on TNT's "Rizzoli & Isles" for seven seasons from 2010 to 2016. More recently, he had a recurring role on the short-lived Apple TV+ series "Palm Royale."

Meredith Baxter was arguably one of television's bigger stars during the late 1970s and throughout the '80s, thanks to starring roles on a pair of hit series — the ABC drama "Family" and, more notably, the NBC sitcom "Family Ties." In 2002, she starred alongside William Devane in the Hallmark holiday film "A Christmas Visitor," after which she returned to the network in 2004 with "Angel in the Family." She has since appeared in other holiday and Hallmark productions.

Behind the scenes, Baxter has overcome adversity and become a source of inspiration for fans. After navigating alcohol misuse and a difficult marriage to fellow actor David Birney for many years, Baxter left the marriage, achieved sobriety, and later came out publicly during a 2009 appearance on "The Today Show." "After coming out on national television, I felt unburdened and that's the way I feel now," said Baxter (via Oprah's "Where Are They Now?"). "I don't have anything I'm trying to hide."

Now approaching her 80s, the veteran actor has strong feelings on aging in Hollywood. "Women my age — there's more of us around than men my age — we're the predominant part of the populace and we're not represented on television," she told Advocate in 2014. "I don't think they know what to do with us."

One of the most important actors during the Hallmark Channel's formative years, Dale Midkiff starred with Katherine Heigl in the popular "Love Comes Softly" film series. As he tells it, though, the network was less than keen on him when the original film was released in 2003. "The truth is, Hallmark didn't want me. They had someone else in mind — a country singer or something. A nice guy or whatever," he told From the Desk in 2019.

In the end, writer-director Michael Landon, Jr. reportedly fought for him, having admired his performance in another project. "I thank God every day for him wanting me in that role, because he fought hard with Hallmark," Midkiff said. All told, Midkiff played Clark Davis, a widower who offers a marriage of convenience to help a recently widowed woman (Heigl), in six of the "Love Comes Softly" films. Prior to that run, he was best-known for starring in 1989's "Pet Sematary" and the Prime Time Entertainment Network series "Time Trax."

Now in his 60s and several years removed from his Hallmark days, Midkiff has all but vanished from the spotlight; the most recent credit appearing on his IMDb page is from 2021. However, he has been known to appear at fan conventions across the United States.

In 2026, the iconic crime drama "Charlie's Angels" celebrated the 50th anniversary of its debut season on ABC, and there to celebrate with her castmates — including fellow Hallmark alum Jaclyn Smith — was Cheryl Ladd, who played one of the titular crime-fighting private investigators. Ladd's road as an actor in films and especially television productions has been long and winding, eventually leading her to the Hallmark Channel in 2004 with the holiday film "Eve's Christmas." Two years later, she continued what would become a multi-film run with "Though None Go with Me."

Prior to Hallmark — and in addition to her "Charlie's Angels" tenure — Ladd has appeared in films including 1984's "Purple Hearts," 1989's "Millennium," and 1992's "Poison Ivy." Her most recent credit came via the 2023 Great American Family holiday film "A Christmas for the Ages." However, the septuagenarian star made headlines in 2026 with the revelation that she, like her "Charlie's" co-stars Smith and Kate Jackson, was a breast cancer survivor.

"Mine was an aggressive form," Ladd said of her cancer at a PaleyFest panel (via USA Today) with Smith and Jackson, adding, "I had wonderful doctors. But I was bald for quite a while. It was a humbling experience."

Like Cheryl Ladd, Richard Thomas was on one of the biggest television series of the 1970s, having played John-Boy Walton on the long-running CBS historical drama "The Waltons" across several seasons and TV movies. However, his involvement in the series made it difficult for him to branch out after his run as John-Boy ended. "I figured, I'd been in the show for five years," Thomas told Page Six in 2026 of leaving the show. "It was going to take at least five years to sort of do enough work to start to balance the scales."

Despite the initial struggle, he went on to star in projects like the famed 1990 Stephen King-inspired miniseries "It" and the 2000 film "Wonder Boys." He also continued a relationship with Hallmark that began in its Hallmark Hall of Fame and pre-Hallmark Channel days by starring with Betty White in the 2005 film "Annie's Point."

Thomas stayed busy through the early 2020s; he played Nathan Davis on the Netflix crime drama "Ozark," and that remains his most recent screen credit as of this writing. However, he was nominated for a Tony Award in 2026 for his efforts in the play "The Balusters."

Kellie Martin may have been out of the limelight in recent years, but that's about to change. After having only logged one screen credit since 2019, she teased a return to her craft with a 2025 Instagram post declaring, "Mama's working." Despite the lengthy sabbatical, however, her place among the pantheon of all-time Hallmark Channel stars is more than secure.

Back in 2003, Martin made her first appearance as murder-mystery fan turned amateur sleuth Samantha Kinsey in Hallmark's "Mystery Woman" series, a character she would play in nearly a dozen films from 2003 to 2007. More recently, she played the titular character on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' nine-film "Hailey Dean Mysteries" series. Prior to her run on Hallmark's networks, she was best-known as a cast member on both the ABC comedy-drama series "Life Goes On" and the NBC medical drama "ER," the former of which appeared to be on track for a Martin-led sequel series in 2022, but has yet to materialize onscreen. 

Martin also voiced Roxanne in the 1995 Disney classic, "A Goofy Movie," and, in 2025, posted a selfie of herself holding a Funko Pop! of the character to Instagram. "Always fun to have a toy of yourself! #Roxanne #AGoofyMovie," she captioned the post.

While the Hallmark Channel has been building its own stars in recent years, many of the performers headlining its early network originals entered the fray as major film and TV stars in their own right. John Larroquette is yet another example of an established star who was brought in to help the network achieve early success. 

Before his Hallmark years, Larroquette was a fan favorite on NBC's original "Night Court" sitcom, a show that saw him capture several Primetime Emmy Awards as outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series. He was in a handful of classic '80s films, such as 1981's "Stripes" and 1987's "Blind Date," among others, and later starred in his own NBC series, "The John Larroquette Show." His first Hallmark Channel project came in 2004's "Wedding Daze," after which he starred in 10 "McBride" films on the Hallmark Movie Channel/Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, several of which premiered in 2005.

In the 2020s, Larroquette revived his "Night Court" character, Dan Fielding, in a reboot/sequel series. However, NBC cancelled the show in 2025 after three seasons. In the wake of the show's end, Larroquette posted an AI-generated image of his character along with a message that read, in part (per Bleeding Cool), "Thank you to those who tuned in the new iteration [sic] of the old show. If you got a laugh or two not much more an old clown could ask."

Modern audiences might recognize Matt Frewer from his supporting role as Dr. Henry Dulles on the NBC procedural "The Hunting Party," which came to an end in 2026 after just two seasons. However, he has been famous for four decades thanks to his performance as the iconic Max Headroom, an artificial intelligence born on British TV who introduced music videos, provided social commentary, and, on a short-lived, eponymous ABC series, fought against the television networks that ruled a dystopian alternate Earth.

Frewer's performance as Max Headroom played a key role in making the character a 1980s pop culture phenomenon. Fast-forward to the 2000s, though, and he was similarly important in helping a young Hallmark Channel establish itself with original programming. Frewer starred in one of the network's original franchises, playing Sherlock Holmes in four films, the latter two of which — 2001's "The Royal Scandal" and 2002's "The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire" — aired on Hallmark (after the first two films debuted on the network's forerunner, Odyssey).

A return for Frewer to the role that made him famous, Headroom, was reportedly in the works at AMC as of 2022, as reported by Deadline. However, it has yet to make it out of the development stage despite continued fan interest.

Teri Polo is set for a major return to the big screen thanks to the upcoming theatrical release of "Focker-in-Law." This comes after she appeared in all three of the previous entries into the Focker-centric "Meet the Parents" film series. She has also lent her talents as a voice actor on the Hulu animated series "The Bravest Knight," in which she plays the messenger raven, Saylor. While she appears less frequently than she once did, Polo's lengthy association with the Hallmark Channel has helped keep her name fresh in the minds of fans.

Polo's first appearance in one of the network's original film productions came in the 2003 romantic drama "Straight from the Heart," which saw her star alongside Brat-Packer Andrew McCarthy. Four years later, she returned to the Hallmark fray with "Love Is a Four Letter Word," and she continued to be a part of the channel's ecosystem into the 2020s.

Prior to her "Meet the Parents" and Hallmark years, Polo was perhaps best-known for her recurring role as Helen Santos on NBC's "The West Wing" and for portraying Christine Daaé on the 1990 Primetime Emmy-winning NBC miniseries, "The Phantom of the Opera." Outside of her work on the screen, Polo is active on Instagram, where she occasionally shares videos featuring her comical "driving thoughts."

After appearing in Hallmark projects airing on other networks, Andrew McCarthy starred in a handful of early Hallmark Channel productions. In addition to sharing the screen with Teri Polo in 2003's "Straight from the Heart," McCarthy starred in 2004's "Hollywood Mom's Mystery." However, those uninitiated with Hallmark's corner of the television universe are likely to know McCarthy for his work during the 1980s, when he was one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood.

It was during that decade that he appeared in films like 1985's "St. Elmo's Fire," 1986's "Pretty in Pink," 1987's "Mannequin" and "Less Than Zero," and 1989's "Weekend at Bernie's." Along the way, he received significant mainstream and tabloid press coverage as part of the Brat Pack; essentially the top young actors of the time who appeared together in varying combinations across several films. Other supposed Brat Pack members include Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy.

McCarthy, who's now in his 60s, directed a documentary about himself and the other actors branded with that label in 2024 called "Brats." While he has enjoyed a successful career as both an actor and director, he navigated alcohol misuse during his '80s heyday, telling Ted Danson during a 2026 podcast interview (via Fox News), "I was just starting to drink in those movies, but I certainly think it derailed my career entirely ... Because not only the drinking, but then the years it took to recover from the drinking." McCarthy has reportedly been sober since 1992.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).