Canceled Soaps Message Board

Colleen Zenk (Jordan, Y&R) has fond memories of one of the groundbreaking storylines she participated in during her long AS THE WORLD TURNS run as Barbara Ryan: the 1988 introduction of the first openly gay male character in soap history, fashion designer Hank Elliot, played by Brian Starcher, who worked for Barbara. “At that point, we were still in the throes of the AIDS crisis and [Head Writer] Douglas Marland was so brave to introduce that character,” the actress praises. “He made Hank really attractive to women. Iva, played so beautifully by the late, beautiful Lisa Brown, fell in love with him and then having him come out to her was so well-done and so way ahead of its time.” Zenk was pleased that her character was accepting of Hank and supportive of him when his partner, Charles, contracted AIDS, because she had been personally touched by the AIDS epidemic. “I had lost all but one of my high school theater friends [to AIDS],” she says. “We all came to New York City at the same time together, and there’s only one friend of that group left and he’s a musical director. He’s fabulous — a very, very, very prominent New York musical director. I worked with him about 15 years ago on a project and, and we were so happy to work together.”