Daytime Soap Hunks

Best Daytime Soap Hunks

The best daytime soap hunks are embodied by some of daytime’s best male actors. They stand out from the crowd of model perfect faces and bodybuilder physiques. They offer romance, tenderness and strength of character. Daytime TV's best hunks are onions, whose depth of character is revealed with each layer that is peeled away.

Storylines that showcase eye candy often fall flat because viewers need to be able to empathize with the characters. Hunks are not just eye candy, however, because Anthony Geary, arguably one of the most well known daytime soap hunks in the role of Luke Spencer is not the typical pretty face. Charisma, charm and character are the primary ingredients for daytime soap hunks past, present and future.

Richard Dean Anderson

Richard Dean Anderson played Dr. Jeff Webber on General Hospital. He arrived at General Hospital in the spring of 1976 with his wife Dr. Monica Webber (later Quartermaine). During his tenure, he fathered a child with soap vixen Heather, faced the betrayal of his wife with his brother and that Doctor Steve Hardy was his real father. Anderson’s rugged charm and heart-filled portrayal earned him fans that followed him on to MacGyver and later Stargate SG-1. The role of Dr. Jeff Webber was never recast although Jeff Webber’s daughter Elizabeth is a leading character on the modern show and is involved with former wife Monica’s son Jason.

Peter Bergman

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When Peter Bergman assumed the role of Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless from Terry Lester in the 1980s, fans were worried. After all, Bergman was very well known for his role as perennial good guy Dr. Cliff Warner on All My Children. Yet within a year, Bergman became the quintessential Jack Abbot. His nuanced performances hit all the right notes whether he was feuding with Victor Newman, mourning the loss of his unborn child with Nikki or he was trying to live up to his father’s hopes and dreams. Jack Abbott has done some fairly awful things during his tenure in Genoa City, but his good looks, charm and soulful eyes have caused more than a few hearts to swoon.

Steve Burton

Steve Burton began his tenure on General Hospital as Jason Quartermaine, the illegitimate child of Dr. Alan Quartermaine and his mistress Susan Moore. When Moore died, Jason was raised by Alan’s wife Monica as her own. He was the golden boy of the Quartermaine family, he was the perfect good boy with all the hopes and dreams of the family’s future in medicine and business pinned on him. That all changed in 1995 when drunken brother A.J. rammed their car into a tree and Jason Quartermaine perished to a brain injury that destroyed his personality. When he woke up, he abandoned his family, took up with Sonny Corinthos and became a hit man for the mob. The bland turned bad boy overnight was an instant fan sensation. Although Jason maintains a very strained relationship with his mother, most of the Quartermaine portion of his family has passed away. The transformation would never have been believable if not for Burton’s on the nose performances first as the happy, cheerful teenager and later as the quiet, brooding and often angry man he became.

Josh Duhamel

Josh Duhamel arrived on the soap scene in 1999 when he debuted as the irrepressible charmer Leo du Pres on All My Children. Leo was a scalawag who was at home in romancing Greenlee as he was at blackmailing others to get his way. It was Leo’s good heart and his romance with the aforementioned Greenlee Smythe that catapulted Duhamel to soap hunkdom. His mischievous grin and poster boy good looks didn’t hurt either. In 2002, Duhamel elected to leave AMC to pursue other opportunities and fan hearts broke alongside Greenlee’s as Leo ‘died’ from a fall off a cliff trying to protect her from his mother. Duhamel went on to star in ‘Las Vegas’ with former GH beauty Vanessa Marcil and earned big screen kudos for his portrayal of Captain William Lennox in the Transformers movie, a role he will reprise in Transformers 2.

Stephen Nichols

Stephen Nichols first appeared on Days of Our Lives in 1985. His rugged good looks were marred by a patch on his face from losing his eye during a brawl in the merchant marines. His harder edges were softened over time by his love for Kayla Brady and their romance that played out on screen until his ‘death’ in 1990. Nichols would later portray a more suave and debonair hunk Stefan Cassidine on General Hospital. As Stefan, Nichols portrayed the wooing of very married Laura Spencer with gothic romance and charm. Nichols later returned to Days of Our Lives in 2006 much to his fans delight and reunited with Mary Beth Evan’s Kayla on screen.

Hunks of the Future

What does the future hold for daytime soap hunks? Will it be young Jacob Martin Spencer (Morgan) from General Hospital? It could be Noah Newman on Y&R or Spike Lavery and Ian Slater over on All My Children. Only time, writing and casting will tell.