Michelle Stafford is on her third stint as a series regular on The Young and the Restless. Her character, Phyllis Summers, has now appeared in four different decades of the show. During her absences, Y&R never feels quite complete.
That’s exactly why it’s hard to believe that the character was conceived as a temporary addition to the long-running daytime soap. Each of Stafford’s runs was written as though the show might move on permanently from Phyllis. So how did the character end up becoming such a crucial part of Y&R?
In a recent interview with actor Michael Fairman on his YouTube channel, Stafford revealed a bombshell fact about the Phyllis character. Stafford was initially hired for a six-week stint on Y&R in 1994. She was meant to be a recurring catalyst for drama that would eventually be dealt with by the main cast.
“It was supposed to be six weeks. [Phyllis] was just going to run over and hurt Paul. And then a love triangle would start,” the soap opera veteran told Fairman. Her character, then a rock ‘n roll groupie, was really there to stir the pot by claiming she was pregnant with Danny Romalotti’s child.
That plot line was supposed to come to an abrupt end. Instead, Stafford’s villainous performance made such an impression on set and among viewers that she was offered a regular spot on the show. Little did she know at the time that six-week job in 1994 would be the defining role of her acting career.
Stafford’s first acting role, according to IMDb, was on a short-lived 1990 soap opera called Tribes. While it only lasted 30 episodes, landing a role as a regular as her first acting job was a big vote of confidence in her talent. But it took four years of guest spots before she found her next big role on Y&R in 1994.
In between her three runs as Phyllis, she has never been short on work. Stafford appeared in movies like the Ashley Judd thriller Double Jeopardy during one break. During another period of absence from her daytime career, she appeared in the Jason Statham crime drama Parker. She even had a major run on General Hospital, with 424 episodes under her belt.
But even with years-long breaks from Phyllis, she has racked up an unbelievable body of work as the character. Across 28 years, Stafford has appeared in 2107 episodes of Y&R — and counting.
Stafford wasn’t the only actor to handle the mercurial Phyllis over the years, Soaps In Depth reports. Wolf of Wall Street actor Sandra Nelson had a solid run as the character starting in 1997 until Stafford returned in 2000.
Soap veteran Gina Tognoni held down the character from 2014 through 2019. Since 2019, Stafford has shown no signs of slowing down in the role. She continues to relish in her character’s habit of shocking blackmail schemes and harassment campaigns against her romantic foes. Hopefully, this daytime TV legend won’t be heading into retirement anytime soon.
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