Back in January, We Love Soaps unveiled the 50 Greatest Soap Actresses of All Time. Now, it’s time for the men.

As with the women, Roger and Damon asked a wide range of panelists to each submit our top 25. I was pretty pleased to see 18 of the 25 actresses on my list make the final cut; with the men, it was even higher: 22 out of 25.

It’s been interesting to watch the fan reaction. Of course, there’s lots of discussion and disagreement about where various people land in the countdown. That’s the whole point. What I find somewhat dismaying are the fans who believe that because this or that actor or actress isn’t high enough on the list, or not on the list at all, that the process lacks credibility. Here’s what one person say when Tristan Rogers came in at #50: “Looks like this poll is starting off wrong.” Another fan complained, “Really? 50? I call for a recount!…Should be re-scored to #1.”

What I said about which actresses I choose is equally true for the actors: “I think, though, more than anything else, my list reveals more about which shows I watch – and watched over the years” And Tristan Rogers wasn’t on my list because I wasn’t watching General Hospital when he was on the show.

Here are the three actors on my list who didn’t make the final cut.

Gregory Beecroft: I remember him fondly from his years as Tony Reardon on Guiding Light in the early 1980s, but it was his layered performance as the conflicted Brock Lombard, as he tried to extricate himself from his mobster father that was left me absolutely riveted. And then there was that tango with Melanie Smith’s Emily Stewart. And yet, save for a handful of roles, including a brief turn as Duke Lavery on GH, Beecroft’s been out of the business for the past 15 years, which is such a shame.

Gerald Gordon: Back in 1984, when the husband of Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, was refusing to release his financial records, Ferraro quipped to the media, “You people who are married to Italian men, you know what it's like.” Now, I grew up in an Italian-American family, so I knew exactly what she meant. And so did anyone who watched Gerald Gordon’s ten-year stint playing Dr. Nick Belllini on The Doctors. He was the fiery yang to the cool yin of Elizabeth Hubbard’s Dr. Althea Davis – a couple who embodied what I always thought was the ideal relationship, both professionally and personally.

Jon Hensley: In 2008, I wrote, “he doesn't emote; he listens, in fact, some of his strongest acting is when he's not speaking, but listening and reacting silently. For those of us who appreciate subtlety and subtext, that's a good thing. But it does make Hensley something of an anomaly among soap actors. In a recent Soap Opera Digest piece on the Daytime Emmys, critic, Michael Logan, pointed to Hensley as the kind of quality actor whose subtle style eludes those judging Emmy reels, on the rare occasions they actually get nominated.” As true now as it was then. Now, if only the writers would remember.

 © 2010 Lynn Liccardo Limited Licensing: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the Creative Commons Attribution license, granting distribution of my copyrighted work without making changes, with mandatory attribution to Lynn Liccardo and for non-commercial purposes only. Lynn Liccardo