Did anyone else grow up watching soap operas with your grandma in the late ’90s and early 2000s? There’s at least some part of me that believes this was a gay rite of passage. The guilted lovers, the hidden twin, the murder victim who really went into hiding – soap operas were the best cheese on prime time. Although I haven’t watched one in a very long time, I can imagine that a portion of campy goodness still remains. And then… there was the studly male characters waiting in the shadows to save the damsel in distress from a murder plot from an evil step sibling.
At one point, there were a dozen soap operas on air. Now, in 2023, there are only four sole survivors – The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and General Hospital. Growing up, though, I watched Passions with my grandma. The virginal girl sucked into Hell through her closet door, the long-lost brother, the murderous barren who ruled the town. I can still hear McKenzie Westmore screaming “LOUIS!” to this very day. Passions is also responsible for kicking my love of Latin men into overdrive. Half the cast of Passions was certainly bang-able.
Whenever I fall into a rabbit hole on YouTube, this video is always in my suggested video feed.
This got me thinking of a fun listicle for Instinct Magazine where I highlight the most attractive men who act in soap operas. Depending on clicks, this will probably become a multi-list series, so if you do not see your favorite hunk on this incarnation – do not panic. Also, shout out your favorite soap opera actors on our social media so I can check them out. The sky is the limit here, folks.
In alphabetical order…
Chandler Massey – Days of Our Lives
Christopher Sean – Days of Our Lives
Delon de Metz – The Bold and The Beautiful
Eric Martsolf – Days of Our Lives
Evan Hofer – General Hospital
Freddie Smith – Days of Our Lives (played an openly gay character)
Galen Gering – Days of Our Lives
Jesse Metcalf – Passions
Jordi Vilasuso – The Young and The Restless
Joshua Morrow – The Young and The Restless
Lawrence Saint Victor – The Bold and The Beautiful
Lamon Archey – Days of Our Lives
Sean Carrigan – The Young and The Restless
Freddie Smith did NOT play the first openly gay character on a soap opera. Ryan Phillippe played out gay teen Billy Douglas in the early ’90s (on One Life to Live)—and in the early ’80s, Donna Pescow played the first lesbian on a soap opera (All My Children). Smith was part of the first-ever gay male wedding, though.
And even on Day Chandler wasn’t the first Will, it was the Chandler and Freddie match up that was amazing and beautiful love affair …until they fired Chandler hired an elf looking twink who couldn’t act and the storyline was destroyed