Flashback/Flash-Forward

 The Playboy Club

John McCook has made a career of playing ladies’ men

 

Maybe it’s the flirtatious twinkle in his eyes. Perhaps it’s his rich bedroom voice. Whatever the reason, John McCook war born to play affluent lady-killers. Thus, back in 1976, more than a decade before he’d make his debut as B&B’s dapper designing man, Eric Forrester, he bowed on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS as Lance Prentiss, a multimillionaire with a thousand-watt smile. Here, Soaps In Depth walks the suave actor down memory lane.

A 1970s Ridge Forrester?

„The similarities between Lance and Eric are pretty cosmetic,“ points out McCook. „They’re both very wealthy, confident men who appreciate women and the arts. They’re both very sophisticated guys.“

In fact, Lance - who zig-zagged between the beautiful Brooks sisters while his mother, Vanessa, ran interference - probably has more in common with Eric’s son, Ridge - who zig-zagged between two beautiful women while his mother, Stephanie, ran interference. „Probably,“ McCook suggests, „what people remember most about Lance are his relationships with Lorie and Leslie - and the fact that he had a private jet and wore a tuxedo at the most inappropriate times.“

 

More Than A Handsome Face

Although McCook had heaps of stage experience when he joined Y&R, he was a relative greenhorn at TV. As such, though he knew that in the theater he could embellish and make his characters larger than life, he soon realized  that if he used that same technique on the small screen, he’d end up looking like a big doofus. „One of the things I learned early on when I stared seeing myself on Y&R is, you can’t play handsome, but if you pose a s a leading man, you make a fool of yourself. I still try to impart that to young leading men [on B&B] as soon as I see them.“

Overall, though on B&B McCook is playing a more mature version of the Y&R heartthrob he embodied, he thinks daytime itself hasn’t evolved a whole lot - and shouldn’t. „The more soaps change, the less successful they are,“ he ventures. „Too much change or too many outrageous stories defeat the very core of what makes soaps successful.“

 

Soaps in Depth 07/20/1999

 

 

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