LOOK WHAT WE DUG UP!

James Patrick Stuart (Valentin, GH) reflects on photos taken early in his soap career, when he was on ALL MY CHILDREN as Will Cortlandt.

- James Patrick Stuart

With Trent Bushey (ex-David, near r.), Paige Turco (exMelanie) and Walt Willey (ex-Jackson) at a comedy club, 1990

“This was at one of Walt’s comedy shows. I have a bolo tie on that I believe I bought on a short trip I took to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Walt was a real mentor to me. Like Steve [Burton, Jason, GH] and Bradford [Anderson, Spinelli, GH] do today, he was out there on stage telling jokes and occasionally he would ask me to come out and open for him. Paige left the show and almost instantly got the role of April O’Neil in TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, but I honestly don’t know what happened to Trent! Probably did a MELROSE PLACE and then got out of the business. Walt was sort of this seasoned elder to me, and what really trips me out is to realize that he’s probably considerably younger in this picture than I am now! In my mind, he will always be this older, sage gentleman.”

Outside of the AMC studio with Robin Christopher (ex-Skye), 1990

“I’m almost certain that I had been running or working out because they had probably said, ‘You and Robin are going to have a love scene.’ I’d never had a love scene before, so I started working out like an insane person. This was spring or summer in New York, so of course, I’m just dripping all over poor Robin Christopher! I remember doing that love scene; I was so uncomfortable, and I’m sure she was, too, and I remember Henry Kaplan, the director, was like, ‘Can you not breathe so heavy? It’s nauseating!’ In those days, the control room at ALL MY CHILDREN, they had this rule where the camera guys had headsets and the talent was never allowed to go near the headsets because they reserved the right to say the most horrible things behind our backs!”