Young & Restless’ Michelle Stafford Shares a Poignant Memory of a Beloved Castmate: ‘I Miss Him Every Day’
Monday, October 3rd, 2022
“If we could turn back time… right?
Over the weekend, The Young and the Restless’ Michelle Stafford shared with her Instagram followers the picture that her cell shared with her — a picture that contained countless memories of Kristoff St. John, who passed away in 2019. “This just came up on my phone from 2016,” Phyllis’ portrayer began. “If we could turn back time…right?
“I miss him every day at work,” she added. “This was when I was not on Young & Restless, I was on General Hospital [playing Nina], and I had lost touch with some folks at Young & Restless during that time. Not in a bad way, it’s just what happens when you don’t see each other every day. You can lose touch.”
More: Alum finds Young & Restless ‘hard to talk about’
You don’t have to, of course. It’s just that “you really need to make the effort to stay connected,” Stafford observed. “Kristoff always did. He made it a point to stay in touch with me. And I with him.”
When Stafford made her Young & Restless debut as Phyllis in 1994, St. John was already well-established as Neil. They then worked together for years, along the way becoming dear friends. “I loved him so much. I love him so much. That will never ever change,” Stafford said. “Always and forever. I just wanted to share it with you all.”
Reflect upon St. John’s incredible run as Neil in the below photo gallery full of memories of his star turn in Genoa City.
Most Popular
Advertisement
Image: Paramount/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/18
<p>A highly successful child actor, Kristoff St. John had already appeared on series like <em>Wonder Woman</em>, <em>Happy Days</em>, <em>The Coby Show</em> and <em>The Bad News Bears</em> when he showed up on daytime TV’s radar. But his first stop <em>wasn’t</em> Genoa City.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
2/18
<p>In 1989, the future Emmy winner helped launch NBC’s <em>Generations</em> as that soap’s equivalent of Nick Newman, putting the “stud” in “studious” opposite appealing bookworms Nancy Sorel and Kelly Rutherford. When the show was cancelled after two years, <em>The Young and the Restless</em> recruited the up-and-comer to originate the role of Neil Winters.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
3/18
<p>In an attempt to steal away sister Olivia Barber’s fiancé, Drucilla pretended that she already had a boyfriend — then roped junior Jabot Cosmetics executive Neil into playing the part (and, for good measure, making a play for her sibling rival). Little did either of them realize at the time that they’d inadvertently started <em>fake</em>-dating their <em>real</em> love.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
4/18
<p>After Neil and Dru tied the knot in 1993, he reconnected with his estranged half brother, Malcolm — a mixed bag if ever there was one. On the plus side, Neil enjoyed family ties that he never had. On the minus, Malcolm shtupped Dru while she was too high on cold medicine to know what — or who! — she was doing. Not cool, bro. Not even remotely cool.</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
5/18
<p>Following the birth of Malcolm’s daughter, Lily, Neil and Dru stuck a fork in their marriage. Not because of the baby’s paternity, mind you; Neil had no idea he shouldn’t be passing out cigars. Dru was just more interested in being a model than a wife and mom. Ironically, Neil next threw himself so wholeheartedly into a romance with Victoria Newman (then Heather Tom) that he was perfectly happy to raise her ex-husband’s child (who, sadly, left this world as quickly as she entered it).</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/18
<p>Once Neil and Victoria ended their engagement, he got involved with the first woman in whom he’d been interested in Genoa City — now-<em>ex</em>-sister-in-law Olivia. He also came <em>thisclose</em> to having a fling with Malcolm’s fiancée, Alex Perez… which honestly, would have served him right.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/18
<p>When Dru brought Lily back to Genoa City in 2002, she hoped that Neil could help… you know, turn down the volume on her teenage angst. Instead, he wound up doing his best to intervene when Internet predator Kevin Fisher — who conveniently had a lawyer brother in Michael Baldwin — gave his little girl chlamydia!</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
8/18
<p>When Neil and Dru remarried a year later, in attendance was daughter Lily… and the specter of the secret that she wasn’t actually the groom’s biological child. Thankfully, the vows only insisted that Dru love, honor and cherish Neil, not love, honor, cherish <em>and</em> be honest with him.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
9/18
<p>Reluctant as Neil might have been at first, he eventually warmed to Dru’s idea to add to the Winters family lost boy Devon Hamilton, first as a foster child, then as an adopted one. Mind you, he probably sorta regretted it later, when his son started boinking his subsequent wife, but that’s another story for… well, a few photos down.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
10/18
<p>In 2006, Neil at last learned that Malcolm, not he, was Lily’s father. It… uh… How do we put this? It didn’t go well. Neil and Dru split up, and he got involved with conniving Carmen Mesta, who soon wound up rocking a highly fashionable toe tag (thanks to Jana Hawkes, it bears mentioning, not the likeliest suspect — a jealous Dru).</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
11/18
<p>Following <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/593730/young-restless-drucilla-winters-death-anniversary-victoria-rowell-returning/" target="_blank">Dru’s (cough) “death,”</a> Neil dove into serious relationships with both alcohol and Karen Taylor. Neither one was going to work out great for him. One left him with horrendous headaches, and the other made him a jerk for cheating with Devon’s “aunt,” Tyra Hamilton — with whom Devon also wound up sleeping! (Foreshadowing, anyone? Everyone? That’s what we thought.)</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
12/18
<p>No sooner had Neil realized that no one whose surname wasn’t Newman was ever going to sit in the big chair at Newman Enterprises — <em>and</em> taken the CEO gig at Chancellor Industries — than that company was “acquired” by boss Katherine Chancellor’s surprise son and Devon’s biodad, Tucker McCall. D’oh!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/18
<p>We’re sure that they’re was no, “Ha! Gotcha!” about it. But in 2011, Neil got it on with Malcolm’s latest fiancée, Sofia Dupre. (Welcome, Moses!) Eventually, Neil put a ring on it, but it must have been awfully loose, because it came back off within a matter of months.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
14/18
<p>Despite the fact that Hilary Curtis had made it her mission in life to destroy Neil and his family, he still found himself drawn to her — and c’mon, she <em>was</em> gorgeous. But even as she vowed to be true to him, she was having eye sex with her true love, Devon. And after Neil went blind… aw crap, they just started having <em>sex</em>-sex!</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
15/18
<p>When the fit hit the shan, Neil once again hit the bottle — hard. One fateful evening, his friend Nikki Newman, a recovering alcoholic herself, attempted to drive him to an AA meeting. Unwilling to take even one of the 12 steps, he grabbed the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve directly into Christine Williams and put an end to the life that had only begun growing inside her.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
16/18
<p>When Lily’s twins constructed a family tree as a school project, one thing led to another — don’t they always? — and Neil wound up being reunited with his estranged mother, Lucinda (yes, that’s <em>Star Trek</em>’s Uhura, Nichelle Nichols). At last shaking off the antagonism that he’d harbored for decades, he forgave her for abandoning him after she confessed that they had something in common besides enviable bone structure and complicated pasts: She, too, was an alcoholic.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
17/18
<p>His life back in order, Neil reheated a romance with old flame Ashley Abbott. But his days, sadly, were numbered. At the opening of Devon’s new restaurant, Neil was a no-show — for the saddest possible reason. When his son went to check on him, he discovered that Neil had RSVP’d not to the gala but to the hereafter.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
18/18
