Soap Opera Stars You May Not Know Are Dead

This article includes mention of suicide.

One of the defining features of soap operas is just how many characters there are on each and every show. On every soap, people have multiple marriages, multiple children, lots of affairs, and tons of feuds. These convoluted plots require an extensive stable of actors to handle that many parts, and sometimes, when an actor leaves the show, a different star takes over to play the same part. It can be confusing, in other words, to keep track of the off-screen lives of soap stars while you're also following their on-screen exploits. 

Just because a soap character dies onscreen doesn't mean the character (or actor!) won't be back. People often reappear as ghosts or other supernatural beings; Peter Reckell, who played Bo Brady on "Days of Our Lives" for decades before leaving so he could move to New Zealand, for example, returned to Salem as an angel. Sometimes, though, characters do leave their soaps because their stars have indeed passed away. Read on for a look at some soap opera stars you might not realize are dead.

When "Passions" premiered in 1999, audiences were introduced to a classic soap-opera plot device: a generations-old feud, in this case between the Cranes and the Lopez-Fitzgeralds (per TV Guide). However, the show included elements not often seen on daytime television; the show's fictional town of Harmony was populated by witches, ghosts, and even an evil martini-drinking doll named Timmy, easily the show's most iconic character. Timmy was played by Josh Ryan Evans, an actor with achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that leads to dwarfism. His stature made him the perfect size to play the living doll. Though Timmy was his most famous role, Evans was also known for playing the child version of the Grinch in the Jim Carrey adaptation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Timmy, the character, died on "Passions" on August 5, 2002. According to Soaps, the show planned to have Evans continue to appear on the show as an angelic version of the doll, but they were unable to proceed with that storyline, because Evans coincidentally passed away on the same day that his character's death aired on TV. The soap star had a congenital heart problem, and he unfortunately died while undergoing surgery to correct the condition.

While "Passions" received poor critical reviews at first, it went on to become a cult classic. One BuzzFeed article about the show, for example, describes it as "the worst-slash-best soap opera you ever watched," still memorable thanks in large part to Evans' work.

"Knots Landing" premiered in 1979 as a primetime spin-off to ultra-successful soap "Dallas." The show followed the suburban California exploits of Gary Ewing, brother of J.R. Ewing, the iconic "Dallas" villain. Kevin Dobson, then best known for playing Bobby Crocker on "Kojak," joined the "Knots Landing" cast in 1983 as a new character named "Mack" MacKenzie. The character was a prosecutor (via TVLine), and he became part of a couple with Karen Fairgate, one of the soap's original characters.

Years later, Dobson joined the cast of another soap, "Days of Our Lives," playing a recast Mickey Horton for the character's final arc after the originating actor John Clarke (and subsequent replacements) left the series.

Dobson passed away in 2020. The United Veterans Council of San Joaquin County announced his death on Facebook, noting that he died from "medical complications" that were revealed by his obituary in The Hollywood Reporter to have been the result of an autoimmune deficiency. "Cagney & Lacey" star Sharon Gless, who appeared on an episode of "Kojak" with Dobson, tweeted, "I am very sad. Kevin Dobson passed away yesterday. We worked together years ago and he was an amazing man. I wish I had been given time to say goodbye. Godspeed Kevin."

"EastEnders" is a British soap that follows the exploits of a group of working-class residents of Albert Square, in (where else?) the East End of London. One of the earliest characters on the show was Dot Cotton, the mother of notorious criminal Nick Cotton; Dot quickly became a fan-favorite as viewers fell in love with her no-nonsense chain-smoking ways. Though June Brown played Dot for decades starting with the character's inception in 1985, the character was written out of the show in 2020; as Heart noted, Dot left for an extended trip to Ireland, Brown's final lines on the show delivered via voicemail.

Brown, who picked up a prestigious BAFTA nomination in 2009 for her work on "EastEnders," passed away two years after her character left the soap. Though no cause of death was made public, Variety reported that her family announced she died at home, "very peacefully." Nadine Dorries, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, tweeted in recognition of the soap star. "There was nobody quite like June Brown," she wrote. "She captured the zeitgeist of British culture like no other in her many years on our screens. Today we've lost a true national treasure but my goodness what a life she has led."

After she passed, a mural of the soap icon was put up in East London, near where her fictional character would have lived for decades. 

Jossara Jinaro joined the cast of "Passions" as Rae; her character soon fell in love with Simone Russell, played by Cathy Jeneen Doe (via Soaps). The relationship sparked a significant coming-out storyline on the show at a time when lesbian representation on television was sorely lacking. According to The Bay Area Reporter, the characters' sexuality was revealed in a sequence that saw not just two women in bed together, but two women kissing, which was a step further than most daytime soaps were willing to go at the time. Unfortunately, the relationship was not to last; after a subplot involving Rae potentially having been paid to seduce Simone, Rae was killed by a mysterious murderer known on the show as The Blackmailer.

Jinaro went on to act in "Doctor Who" and Hulu's teen soap "East Los High." She passed away in 2022; a post shared by her husband on Facebook revealed that she died from cancer. "Jossara was an amazing wife, mother, artist, and friend. She had the most beautiful, kind soul and wouldn't take no for an answer," he said. "... She is now resting in peace and will be remembered forever."

Upon learning of her passing, director Rob Zombie shared on Instagram, "So sad to hear about the death of Jossara Jinaro. As you will remember she played the maid of the Kahiki Palms motel in 'The Devil's Rejects.' It was a small role but she was terrific."

While some soap stars come and go, their characters cast and recast, occasionally an actor sticks with their creation for a lifetime, crafting a career out of portraying the same person on television day in and day out for decades. Such was the case with Jeanne Cooper, the woman behind the legendary soap character Katherine Chancellor on "The Young and the Restless." 

Katherine was a matriarch known for her decades-long feud with a character named Jill, which CBS proudly called the longest-running feud in daytime television history. She even had a facelift done on television in the '80s — character and star going under the knife at the same time — decades before shows like "The Swan" or "Extreme Makeover" would show plastic surgery on TV to millions. "It opened up reconstructive surgery for so many people, youngsters getting things done. ... That was an incredible experience in my life," Cooper told The Washington Post.

Cooper finally left the show in 2013, and as her character disappeared from the world, so too did the actor; she passed away a mere five days after her final appearance. According to her obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the soap star had been experiencing an "undisclosed illness," and she died in her sleep. "These hallowed halls will never be the same," tweeted Joshua Morrow, who plays Nick Newman on "Y&R," as the news of Cooper's passing spread around the internet.

Few villains in all of daytime television are as iconic as Stefano DiMera, the head of the legendary DiMera crime family on "Days of Our Lives." Throughout the reign of terror of the man known as "The Phoenix" (because of how often he came back from the dead), Stefano was involved in more murderous plots, conniving relationships, secret children, kidnappings, and what Soaps called "raising private mercenary armies, and conducting guerrilla warfare in Third World countries" than any fan could hope to keep track of. And unlike a lot of soap characters, which change hands as actors come and go, Stefano was only ever played by Joseph Mascolo, a man whose arched eyebrow could send chills down the spine of any viewer.

Mascolo unfortunately passed away at age 87 in 2016 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's (per CNN), and his "Days" co-stars took to Twitter to memorialize a man who cast a long shadow over Salem. "I always had a sense of awe to work with Joe. He will be greatly missed," wrote Alison Sweeney, best known as Sami Brady on the long-running sudser. "Favorite memory of Joe: being scared for my life when I yelled at him in a scene," recalled Chandler Massey, who played Sami's son Will. Even "Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause, who played Jordan Ridgeway on "Days," tweeted, "So sad to hear of his passing. What a great guy. ... It was an honor."

"As the World Turns" premiered all the way back in 1956, and Kathryn Hays joined the cast as beloved matriarch Kim Hughes years later, originating the role in 1972. "Kim was written as a troublemaker," Hays told We Love Soaps in a wide-ranging interview about her career and character. She noted that the writers of the show often changed characters to fit what actors brought to the role; in her case, that meant softening Kim, who was a homewrecker at first. "She turned into a deeper character, and that was wonderful. I was playing a character who had had a rough patch in her life but she made the choice to be a better person and to not be selfish," she reflected.

Hays stuck with Kim and "As the World Turns" until that world stopped turning, when the show was canceled in 2010. She passed away in April 2022, at the age of 87; Parade reported that the cause of death had not been made public at the time. "There are soap actors and there are soap stars," one fan shared on Twitter as news of her passing broke. "Kathryn Hays was a star in every scene."