John McCook
A note from Marlena: As you know the soap world lost its most important alumnus Monday morning when Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer, “General Hospital”) passed away at 78, two days after an operation in Amsterdam, where he lived with his husband, Claudio Gama.
Mon readers, a major piece on Tony’s life and achievements is more than merited and to make it worthy of his enormous stature in the community, I’m taking a few days to put it together. I hope to post it this weekend.
In the meantime, please enjoy another immediately relevant column — a salute to John McCook of “The Bold and the Beautiful” now that his character, the head of the Forrester Creations, may (or maybe not) be stepping down from his position at this point. It’s a very well written story of father/son love as enacted by the great Thorsten Kaye and the venerable John McCook. Please enjoy this look at McCook’s long and glorious soap career.
Marlena has recently been downright nasty to her old favorite soap, CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful.” The problem was its prolonged obsession with psychopathic murderer Luna Nozawa (played by Emmy winner Lisa Yamada). But now that Luna is dead (yeah, right!), it’s almost as if “B&B” headwriter Bradley Bell read my mind and correctly remembered that the show’s theme has always been fashion — and that the show has always centered on the family of internationally renowned designer Eric Forrester (played John McCook), his late wife Stephanie (played by the much missed Susan Flannery), and their company, Forrester Creations.
Then, suddenly, Eric’s designer son Ridge (played by Thorsten Kaye) decided to force retirement on his father. (Huh? Since when has Ridge not been a good guy?) A creepy retirement party for an unwilling Eric kicked off this storyline. Marlena wasn’t any happier than Eric about this turn of events. But the struggle that followed proved interesting. Ridge wants to take over, but Eric doesn’t want to retire, and we feel for him. The father-son conflict has provided a nice showcase for the work of the show’s best actors, veterans Kaye and McCook. The latter has played Eric since the soap’s launch in 1987.
Marlena has been a fan of McCook going back to the very earliest days of his previous soap, “The Young and the Restless,” which was created and written by Bradley’s father, the great William J. Bell. When the show debuted in 1973, it gave me a good excuse to cut college classes. Everyone on the show was just plain beautiful. McCook’s Lance Prentiss was delightfully both young and restless, as were his love interest Lorie Brooks (played by Jaime Lyn Bauer) and her sister Leslie (played by Janice Lynde). And let’s not forget such other perfect faces as Snapper (first played by William Gray Espry and then by David Hasselhoff) and Jed Andrews (played by, yes, the Tom Selleck). Every episode was filled with music, much of it piano. Leslie played the instrument, as did the handsome Lance, usually clad in a tux as he stroked the ivorys and serenaded Lorie. If the musical numbers seemed second nature to McCook, it’s because they were: he learned to play piano as a boy. I’m sorry my younger readers didn’t get to experience the early days of “Y&R.” They were truly magical.
McCook was and is a marvelous leading man. And he has vast acting experience. He made his Broadway debut in 1964, playing Tiger in “West Side Story.” That’s where he was discovered by the movie magnate Jack Warner. McCook did a stint in the Army and was signed to Universal Studios.
What a long and fascinating career he has had, and he’s still going strong at 81. On the CBS podcast “Soapy” last week, he spoke matter-of-factly about his many roles in film, on television, on Broadway and on the road in musical theater — and about the stars, directors, and writers he worked with. His long list of prime-time credits includes everything from Bracken’s World” to “The Love Boat,” “Three’s Company,” and “Hill Street Blues.” He is a consummate actor, and his story was clearly relished by the show’s hosts, soap regulars Greg Rikaart and Rebecca Budig.
When he joined “Y&R” in 1973, the elder Bell wrote him some very interesting stories. They showed off his musical talents (he sang at a Genoa City nightclub in addition to being a business mogul) as well as his acting chops. Lance was the son of Vanessa Prentiss (played by K.T. Stevens), whose face had been burned in a fire. She infamously wore a veil to hide her scarred face. Lance pursued concert pianist Leslie Brooks but wound up falling for and later marrying her sister Lorie. Like everything else and everyone else on the fledgling “Y&R,” they were one beautiful couple!
When McCook left “Y&R” in 1980, Dennis Cole took over the role of Lance. Seven years later, McCook was reunited with Bill Bell, who created the central role of Eric Forrester on “B&B” just for him.
When “B&B” premiered, McCook and Susan Flannery became the center of the show, along with their children Ridge (first played by Ronn Moss), Kristin, Felicia, Thorne, Angela, and Rick. Enter the girl from the valley, Brooke Logan (played by Katherine Kelly Lang), who married both Ridge and Eric. After Stephanie died, Eric was married to Quinn Fuller (played by Rena Sofer), and he is now married to Brooke’s sister, Donna Logan (played by Jennifer Gareis). Ridge is now remarried (again!) to Brooke. Oy! Marlena over the years has always reveled in how great the show is. In fact, she was the proud writer of the first story about it when it premiered in 1987. It appeared in Soap Opera Weekly and was headlined “‘Bold and Beautiful’ Is a Camp Classic.”
I confess to an additional reason for loving John McCook. About a year after “B&B” premiered, Mr. McCook wrote Marlena a love letter. Marlena’s then boyfriend, the jealous Phillipe L’ Ouef (who hated soaps) intercepted the note, ripped it up, and made Marlena (clad in a teddy!) cry hysterically in a most memorable cartoon by our illustrator, the late Alan Bardin.
After all these years of “B&B” watching, I continue to love and appreciate the spectacularly talented Mr. McCook. I know all “B&B” fans do!
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