JACK WAGNER - GETTING WISER & LETTING GO

Every time Jack Wagner steps onto the set of the Hallmark Channel drama When Calls the Heart, he's reminded of a simpler time before technology was so deeply ingrained in everyday life.

- JP MANGALINDAN

The popular series, set in a small Canadian town in the early 1900s, captures the period to the smallest detail. "We introduced the bicycle, the railroad and sawmills onto the show, so I certainly take on that feeling of another era when I work," Wagner, 64, says.

The actor and singer first landed on TV viewers' radar in 1984 with his performance as Frisco Jones on General Hospital, a spy luckier at work than in love. His success continued in the years that followed, with major roles on the primetime TV series Melrose Place and the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. He also became a pop star, with six albums and a Top 10 1985 single, "All I Need" (which he sang in character on GH before it became a hit).