All The Soap Characters Played By The Young And The Restless' Judith Chapman
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Not only has "The Young and the Restless" actor Judith Chapman been in over 50 television shows and movies (via IMDb) but she's also been a soap opera staple and fan favorite since starting on "As the World Turns" in 1975 (per Soap Opera Digest). Born in Greenville, South Carolina, she grew up traveling around the world and began acting at age 14 in Spain doing commercials and what was known as spaghetti westerns, according to Soaps She Knows.
Soaps She Knows notes that Chapman went to Stephens College where she got her theater degree, and moved to New York to act in theater and commercials. Over the years she appeared in such classic TV shows as "B.J. and the Bear," "The Incredible Hulk," and "Knight Rider" to name a few (per IMDb). On stage, she has directed many plays including "Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical," and "The Belle of Amherst," as Soap Opera Digest reports. She's the younger sister of horror actor Patty Shepard, and is a member of The Actors Studio. Chapman is also a yoga instructor and world traveler.
Soap operas have launched the careers of many celebrities, who you probably forgot appeared on some, and while Chapman has not attained superstar status, she's continued to work and enjoy a hugely successful career. Let's take a look at the amazing soap work that she has done.
Judith Chapman began as Natalie Bannon on As the World Turns in 1975
In an interview on the Soap Opera Digest podcast, "Dishing with Digest," Judith recalled how her soap career started with her role as the first incarnation of Natalie Bannon on the series "As the World Turns." She explained that after traveling the world with her family and getting the acting bug working in Spain, she'd been doing commercials in New York and got a call back from one of her auditions. She got the job as Natalie because "she took direction so well." As IMDb illustrates, two of the writers for "As The World Turns," William J. Bell and his wife Lee Phillip Bell, would go on to create "The Bold and the Beautiful."
After a while of playing Natalie, writer and co-actor David Colson advised her to "have an attitude" by picking an emotion and going with it. Her choice was "something that came very easily to me . . . being bitchy. So Natalie became 'Nasty Natalie'!" This gave fodder to the writers and producers. She continues to share this advice with her acting students, she shared with Dishing with Digest.
Natalie went from love triangles with Tom Hughes (Scott Holmes) and Jay Stallings (Dennis Cooney) to blackmail and beyond, per Soap Central. Natalie was the perfect soap opera character for Chapman to cut her teeth on. She then moved to Los Angeles to further her career (via Dishing with Digest).
Judith's Charlotte Greer joins a Ryan's Hope revenge plot in 1983
According to Ryan's Bar Online, Judith Chapman joined "Ryan's Hope" in 1983 as Charlotte Greer Ryan, who participated in one of the best storylines of the show — a revenge plot. Charlotte lied to the press about being the ex-wife of senator Frank Ryan (Daniel Hugh Kelly). This role garnered her a great deal of critical acclaim, per 44 Bars. Chapman played the character for four months.
Delia Reed Ryan (Ilene Kristen) pretended to be a maid in order to get information from Charlotte who eventually saw through this charade. For Frank, a wife coming out of the woodwork was a serious scandal since he was already married to Rae Woodard (Louise Shaffer), even though he denied who Charlotte was. Frank and Bob Reid (Earl Hindman) captured Charlotte to get her to tell them what she was up to. She surprised them with her knowledge about the family and it turned out that she had been given a dossier on all the Ryans. Because of Frank's past actions, a man committed suicide, and Frank's family used Charlotte to get revenge on him. Rae funneled her money to keep the scheme going. Ultimately, the secret got out, Frank was shot by Una MacCurtain (Kathleen Widdoes), and Charlotte left town.
Another character on "Ryan's Hope", Delia (Ilene Kristen), also jumped over to "General Hospital" as Ava Jerome's mother.
Judith Chapman went to Port Charles as Ginny Blake on General Hospital
1984 saw Judith Chapman as Ginny Blake on "General Hospital" (via Soap Central). According to "General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook," Ginny claimed to be the mother of Mike Webber (David Mendenhall) — the adopted son of Rick Webber (Chris Robinson), and his wife Lesley (Denise Alexander). Ginny secretly worked with D.L. Brock (David Groh), blackmailing Rick with photos of him taking a bribe. Commissioner Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) figured things out and got Ginny to admit she was an actress.
She turned out to be Mike's real mother, suffered a heart attack, then recovered and sued for custody. Because Lesley was killed in a car accident, Rick's solution was to enter into a marriage of convenience for Mike's sake. Eventually, Ginny and Rick fell in love. Brock started to lose his mind and became an abusive maniac. Ginny confronted D.L., they struggled over his gun, and he was killed. His wife Bobbie (Jacklyn Zeman) was blamed for the killing until Scorpio figured out it was Ginny.
Rick wanted to divorce Ginny, but Bobbie exonerated her at the trial by telling the truth about what happened. Mike Barrington (Mark Goddard), Mike Webber's real father, came to town, and ultimately, he and little Mike moved to Omaha. Ginny became pregnant by Rick, and they moved to New York (via "General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook," 1995 Chapter – The Complete Stories – pages 91-100).
Judith Chapman agreed to work on One Life To Live for a short time
According to IMDb, Judith Chapman played Sandra Montaigne for a brief stint on "One Life to Live" in 1987.
During her interview on "Dishing with Digest," Chapman explained that she had purchased a house in Thousand Oaks, California, and was enjoying the suburban lifestyle there when "One Life to Live" Executive Producer Paul Rauch contacted her and asked her to come work on "OLTL" for a couple of years. She didn't want to, but he was persistent, so she negotiated it down to six months. "It was fabulous," she said. She expressed worry to "Dishing with Digest," about being able to keep up with Andrea Evans who played Tina Lord, but the two hit it off right away.
In the interview, she referenced one plot line in which Sandra and Tina both ended up in jail together — referring to the storyline as "Sluts in the Slammer." She couldn't remember why, but at one point Sandra had been hung — a scene that was done with a stand-in. When Chapman saw the finished scene at a later point, she noticed "those aren't my ankles."
Judth Chapman next shook things up on two soaps
Judith Chapman next played Gloria Simmons Bardwell on "The Young and the Restless" from 2005-2018 and from 2020 to the present (via IMDb). Her character would eventually crossover to "The Bold and the Beautiful" in 2014 per Soap Opera Network.
Soap Central describes when teenage hippie Gloria met Lowell Baldwin (Michael Gross) in the 1960s. While living in a commune they had a child, Michael Baldwin (Christian Jules LeBlanc). During a Vietnam War protest, a supposed confetti bomb was swapped with a real bomb killing an innocent person. Lowell skipped town to protect his family. Gloria later married Tom Fisher aka "Terrible Tom," and they had a son, Kevin Fisher (Greg Rikaart). Tom physically abused the kids and repeatedly locked Kevin in a closet. Eventually, Michael moved out to escape Tom. Years later Kevin followed (via Soap Central).
Gloria was eventually reunited with her children, apologizing for not protecting them from Tom. According to Soap Hub, once she was back in her kids' lives, she hooked up with John Abbot (Brett Halsey). From there, her life became a whirlwind — Lowell and "Terrible Tom" came back into her world, and she would continually rebuild her fortune, then lose it again. She moved from man to man, attempting to take care of her financial needs.
Judith Chapman played not one, but two characters on Days of Our Lives
According to Soaps She Knows, Judith Chapman played Anjelica Deveraux from 1989 to 1990 on "Days of Our Lives." In her "Dishing with Digest" interview she exclaimed how much she enjoyed working on that show and that she really loved playing the character. She also cited actor Drake Hogestyn, who plays John Black, as a font of "Days of Our Lives" back story information, explaining everything to her. She was surprised by his wealth of knowledge saying, "You remember all this stuff?" Anjelica got involved with the Kiriakis family and engaged in everything from hiding paternities to blowing up a construction company and more. Chapman continued her story saying that Anjelica was eventually killed off and went on to tell "Dishing with Digest" that she was very sad to leave the show because she loved the character so much.
In 2019 Chapman returned to "Days of Our Lives" as a different character — Diana Cooper (via TV Insider) — playing mother to Greg Rikaart's character, Leo Stark. Once it was announced that she would be playing Diana, Soap Dirt speculated about all the juicy trouble their characters could cause. Diana had a romantic past with John Black and set her sights on him, causing all kinds of chaos in Salem (per Soap Central).
While all of Chapman's soap characters are different, each has its own unique fan base and she is continually beloved by audiences.