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General Hospital’s Kimberly McCullough Shares the ‘Crazy Story’ of the Condition That Left Her Head Spinning: ‘You Aren’t Dying!’
Thursday, February 2nd, 2023
“I’m fine, you guys.”
From the “The More You Know” files. On February 1, Kimberly McCullough took to Instagram to tell her followers about a distressingly dizzyfying condition that she’d had — and thankfully had recovered from.
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“You guys! I had this and it’s crazy,” began a post accompanied by a photo of a pamphlet describing the symptoms and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. “FYI, if you suddenly feel like you’re on the tilt-a-whirl and can’t get off, you aren’t dying!”
So what the frack is happening? “You just have tiny rocks in your ear that have migrated to the wrong place,” the beloved General Hospital alum explains, “and can be maneuvered back into their original resting place by someone holding your head at a 45-degree angle and then rolling your body over to the same side.
“I’m fine, you guys,” she added. “I’m totally cured. Just wanted to share my crazy story. OK, bye.”
Since checking out of General Hospital as a regular — she’d originated the role of Robin back in 1985 — the Emmy winner has kicked ass as a director, amassing a long list of credits that includes High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, How I Met Your Father, Fantasy Island and Roswell, New Mexico.
Check out photos of more stars who grew up before our eyes in the below photo gallery.
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Image: Jill Johnson/JPI, ABC
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<p>Only 5 years old when she joined <em>General Hospital</em> as Robin Scorpio and Patrick Drake’s daughter Emma, Silzer shocks her former castmates whenever she returns for a guest appearance. “Every time I’m there, everyone just, like, stops and stares at me and they’re like, ‘What?! How are you so big?’” Silzer told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-brookyln-rae-silzer-on-general-hospital-return/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2023. “It’s kind of funny because it happens every time. I mean, there are pretty big gaps in between when I visit, so everyone thinks I get bigger each time.” In real life, the actress has taken inspiration from the show and plans to study to become a nurse.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection, NBC/Getty Images
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<p>The future Emmy winner always had the look. A model since he was 16, Vaughan got his big break in showbiz when he landed on the radar of superproducer Aaron Spelling (who cast him boom, boom, boom on <em>Malibu Shores</em>, <em>Beverly Hills, 90210</em> and <em>Charmed</em>). Daytime beckoned in 2002, when the heartthrob joined <em>Young & Restless</em> as lusty Diego Guittierez. “I’m working out more than I’ve ever had to,” he told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-greg-vaughan5/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> at the time. “I don’t like to run around with my shirt off. I’m very shy in that sense. Josh Morrow (Nick) loves walking around without his clothes on. I’m a little more reserved. I’ll get used to it in time.” Indeed, he did. Vaughan went on to spend six years as lady killer Lucky Spencer on <em>General Hospital</em> before replacing <em>Supernatural</em> star Jensen Ackles as <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ randy sometime priest Eric Brady.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI, Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Born the same year that <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> debuted, the future Emmy winner moved from her native Canada to Los Angeles in the spring of 2008. In fact, the role of legacy character Steffy Forrester “was my first audition,” she shared with <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-bold-and-the-beautiful/news/601253/bold-beautiful-jacqueline-macinnes-wood-tribute-anniversary-debut-steffy-forrester/" target="_blank">We Love Soaps</a> a year later. “I was so nervous. My hands were sweating, and my feet were sweating.” Ironically, in the decades that have followed, playing the part has appeared to be — wait for it — no sweat.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, ABC
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<p>In the decades that followed after <em>General Hospital</em> cast Shriner as baby-faced older man Scotty Baldwin opposite Genie Francis (Laura), a lot, as things tend to, changed. He switched shows (over and over), roles (except when he starred on <em>Port Charles</em>), coasts, co-stars, hairdos. But one thing has remained constant: his need for speed. In a 1979 interview with <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-kin-shriner/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a>, he shared his enthusiasm for riding his motorcycle down the freeway; now, of course, his love of his Vespa is the stuff of legend.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI (2)
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<p>At the tender age of 14, Khalil really <em>was</em> young and restless when <em>The Young and the Restless</em> hired her to play the pivotal role of Lily in 2002. She left three years later, saying, “I don’t have a mortgage to pay, so it’s the right time to be unemployed and really <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/191/davetta-sherwood-lily-yr-is-let-go/">go after my dream</a>, which is to be a movie star.” She returned in 2006, replacing her replacement, Davetta Sherwood, and is now the real-life mother of a 10-year-old.</p>
Image: Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images, ABC
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<p>The fitness buff began muscling in on showbiz back in 1987 when he landed a part on the sitcom <em>Out of This World</em>. But his star didn’t really begin to rise until the following year, when he passed through <em>Days of Our Lives</em> as bad boy Harris Michaels. The part was short-lived — at the time, anyway — but it led to his casting as Jason <span style="text-decoration: line-through">Quartermaine</span> Morgan on <em>General Hospital.</em> Since 1991, he’s come and gone from the soap, during the mid-2010s hanging his hat at <em>The Young and the Restless</em> as Nikki Newman’s surprise son, Dylan McAvoy. “Maybe one day,” he said upon his last exit from Port Charles, “I can return and finish my career as Jason. That would be an honor.”</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
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<p>Just 15 years old when <em>The Young and the Restless</em> cast her as Victoria Newman in 1990, the future Emmy winner — six times over! — couldn’t have guessed what adventures daytime held in store. “It has been a wonderful place to grow up and to develop and make lifelong friends,” the actress told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-heather-tom-interview-1717959/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2022, adding with a laugh, “I spent more time with a lot of these people than I have with my husband!” Since 2007, Tom, who also played Kelly Cramer on<em> One Life to Live</em>, has brought to life Katie Logan on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful.</em></p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>When <em>General Hospital</em> returned Elizabeth Webber’s son Jake to the canvas in the summer of 2023, many a fan wondered whether the role had been recast. It hadn’t, the then-15-year-old who’d played the part since 2016 had just undergone a heckuva growth spurt. Between visits to Port Charles, the up-and-comer continued to grow his resumé with appearances on everything from <em>9-11</em> to <em>NCIS: Los Angeles</em> and from <em>Penny Dreadful: City of Angels</em> to <em>Grace and Frankie.</em></p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Three years after making her debut as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ gap-toothed darling, Cassie Newman, the then-10-year-old became the youngest-ever Daytime Emmy winner. And for a while there, we thought that she was going to manage to avoid having her character SORAS’d. But then the show killed off Cassie in 2007 (!!!) and, seven years later, rehired her by-then-grownup portrayer to tackle the <em>new</em> role of her outta-nowhere twin, Mariah Copeland.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Three years after the future Emmy winner auditioned to play Stone Cates on <em>General Hospital</em>, the ABC soap dropped the former Tyler Baker into the role that would launch his career, that of Nikolas Cassadine. “I often wonder what my life would [have] been like if [casting director] Mark Teschner hadn’t seen beyond the fragile inexperience clearly on display during our first meeting,” Christopher said in a 2017 Facebook post. “Fortunately for me… he did.” The actor later originated the role of Stefan DiMera on <em>Days of Our Lives. </em>(For an unfortunate update on Christopher, <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/general-hospital/news/679398/tyler-christopher-guardianship-sister/" target="_blank">click here</a>.)<em><br /> </em></p>
Image: John Russo/Sygma/Getty Images, Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>The three-time Emmy nominee really put the “young” in <em>The Young and the Restless</em> when she was cast as innocent Megan Dennison in 1997. “I was a teenager when I got a call from [my agents] that [the show’s creator] Bill Bell hired me as a possible recurring guest star,” the actress Instagrammed as the soap neared its 50th anniversary in 2023. “I’ve always said Bill Bell changed my life.” He kept right on changing it, too. A few years after Megan’s story reached the finish line, Jones was picked to play Bridget Forrester on Bell’s other daytime drama, <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>. She’s come and gone as Brooke and Eric’s daughter ever since.</p>
Image: CBS, Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Having already done Broadway’s <em>Annie</em>, Byrne was a very young “old pro” in 1985, when <em>As the World Turns</em> initially <em>passed</em> on the 15-year-old to play Lucinda’s daughter, Lily, in favor of Lucy Deakins — who wound up beating her out for the lead in <em>The Boy Who Could Fly</em>, too. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m done with this business,’” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-martha-byrne-interview/"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2020. “’I want to get braces. I want to have a normal life.’ And I got a phone call… saying, ‘We wanna give you the job of Lily’” — which she held off and on for nearly two decades!</p>
Image: ABC/Getty Images (2)
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<p>Two years out of college in 1982, Knight was tasked with transforming the adopted son of <em>All My Children</em>’s Ruth and Joe Martin from merely mischievous into “Tad the Cad.” Needless to say, he nailed it — and was still rocking the role when ABC cancelled the show. How’d he pull off the feat? By bringing the funny, <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/general-hospital/news/633880/all-my-children-michael-e-knight-tad-martin-memories/" target="_blank">he said in 2022</a>. “They let me do a lot of sitcom takes” to cut the melodrama. Since 2019, the three-time Emmy winner has been hanging from the newest branch of Laura Collins’ family tree as Martin Gray on <em>General Hospital.</em></p>
Image: CBS, Charles Bush/CBS
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<p>The daughter of <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ creators, the late William J. and Lee Phillip Bell, made her first appearance as fresh-faced Jabot model Cricket in 1983 — when she was just 13 years old. It wasn’t until the actress was a bit older that she was put on contract — and “the Bug,” as Phyllis called her, began using her real first name, Christine.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, Emily Assiran/Getty Images/That's 4 Entertainment
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<p>Dropping out of college isn’t a smart move for everyone, but it sure paid off for Metcalfe, who left NYU to play Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald from the beginning of NBC’s <em>Passions</em> in 1999. After five years of madness on the supernatural soap, the actor took primetime by storm, going from ABC’s <em>Desperate Housewives</em> to TNT’s <em>Dallas</em> reboot to Hallmark Channel’s <em>Chesapeake Shores.</em> “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing” in the early days of <em>Passions</em>, Metcalfe admitted to<a href="https://grumpymagazine.com/2019/12/11/jesse-metcalfe/" target="_blank"><em> Grumpy Magazine</em></a> in 2019, “but I had the time of my life.”</p>
Image: ABC (2)
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<p>When at 14 years old, the future daytime icon was picked to replace Stacey Baldwin as <em>General Hospital</em>’s Laura, she had no idea just how much her life had just changed. But despite the parts of her childhood that her blossoming career took from her, “I don’t regret a bit of what I’ve done,” she told <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bBYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=true"><em>Orange Coast</em></a> magazine as far back as 1982. “What I have is a curiosity of what it would be like to be ’normal,’ to be a kid, because I gave that up.”</p>
Image: Barry King/WireImage/Getty Images, Gilles Toucas/CBS
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<p>Just a teenager when he started going up for soaps, the future Emmy winner tried out for the roles of Lucas Jones and Lucky Spencer on <em>General Hospital</em> before he was finally cast as Dillon Quartermaine. But when his four-year contract expired in 2007, rather than re-sign, he left. “I just had this thought, ‘I’m gonna go be a movie star now’ or whatever,” he told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-scott-clifton-interview-2/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2020. “Within four months, I was living downstairs at my parents’ house.” Luckily, daytime was only too happy to have him back, first as Schuyler Joplin on <em>One Life to Live</em> and, ultimately, as Liam Spencer on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful.</em></p>
Image: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, NBC
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<p>Although she was just 16 when <em>Days of our Lives</em> cast her as human hurricane Sami Brady, Sweeney was already an old pro who’d been doing commercials and such for more than a decade. “Discipline and work ethic [were] always instilled in me as a kid,” she told <a href="https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/allison-sweeney-tv-roles-146889/" target="_blank"><em>Closer</em></a> in 2018. “I was really lucky to have rock-solid parents who helped me through the industry and didn’t pressure me to do it. It was my choice.” And, it turned out, a hell of a smart one!</p>
Image: NBC/Getty Images, John Paschal/JPI
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<p>“I was voted Best Newcomer and fired in the same week,” Diamont told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-bbs-don-diamont-reflects-on-35-years-as-a-member-of-the-cbs-daytime-family/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> about his daytime debut as Carlo Forenza on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>. But, undaunted, the actor — now Bill Spencer on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> — went on to land the <em>looong</em>-running role of pool boy-turned-ladies’ man Brad Carlton on <em>The Young and the Restless</em>. “If I wasn’t delivering and they weren’t getting a good fan response,” he chuckled, “I may have drowned in the pool at 22 instead of drowning in the frozen lake 23 years later.”</p>
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<p>Today, her name is synonymous with that of Jennifer, the <em>Days of our Lives</em> heroine she’s played off and on since 1985. But a year earlier, when the actress was just 17, she got her big break in soaps when she was cast as airhead Jade on <em>Santa Barbara</em>. Not that she remembers it as a terrific experience. After the show debuted to depressing ratings, “they started killing everybody,” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-melissa-reeves/"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 1988. “There was so much pressure and so much tension, I hated going to work.” Which, after less than a year, she didn’t have to — Jade was sent on a date from which she simply never returned!</p>
Image: ABC (2)
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<p>Legend has it that it was only after missing out on a chance to appear on the NBC sitcom <em>Webster</em> in 1985 that the future Daytime Emmy winner, at the time just 7 years old, was cast as Anna and Robert’s daughter, Robin, on <em>General Hospital</em>. McCullough has played the part off and on ever since while also, in recent years, making a name for herself as an in-demand TV director.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI, Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>The two-time Daytime Emmy winner was 17 when he joined the cast of <em>The Young and the Restless</em> as Devon. But he’d actually been in showbiz even longer than that, appearing in commercials and magazine ads since he was 2 and starring on the ABC sitcom <em>Family Matters</em> since he was 4. Co-star Darius McCrary, who later joined <em>Y&R</em> as Devon’s uncle, Malcolm, “was like the brother I never had,” he told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-bryton-james-interview/"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2018, “and he really looked out for me on set.” At Y&R, the late Kristoff St. John (Neil) filled that role. He “helped me think that I could be just as good as everybody else,” James recalled. “He really made me feel like an equal.”</p>
Image: NBC (2)
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<p>By the time a 19-year-old Alfonso landed the role of <em>Days of our Lives</em>’ Hope, she was already an accomplished figure skater (she’d earned a gold medal at the Junior Olympics) and model (she’d even appeared on the cover of <em>Vogue</em>). But she was shaking in her boots when she screen-tested. “I was already a huge fan of <em>Days of our Lives</em>, because I would watch it when I would come home from school,” she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/icymi-kristian-alfonso-interview/"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2019, so “being in [the Horton house] set, I was a nervous wreck!”</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, ABC
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<p>This daytime vet may not have had a typical childhood, what with being home-schooled and tutored on the set since third grade. But the Disney Channel grad doesn’t regret a thing, she told <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-darin-brooks-days2/" target="_blank"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> shortly after joining <em>Days of Our Lives</em> as Belle Black in 1999. “I’m working with Deidre Hall (Marlena), I go to award shows, I get to go to parties, I’ve met the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync, I’ve traveled to Canada twice for TV movies. Do I really miss homework on the weekends and being stuck at school six hours a day? Nope, not at all!” Since 2005, the former child star has played Maxie Jones on <em>General Hospital.</em></p>
Image: CBS, Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Twenty-three when he first appeared on <em>The Young and the Restless</em> as Paul, this Emmy-winning fan favorite wasn’t exactly a kid. But when you think of how far he’s come — in terms of decades, in terms of growth, in terms of accolades — we suspect you’ll agree that he grew up before our eyes as much as anyone else on this list. Certainly, his character did! “The transition from this bad guy out for himself,” he recalled for <a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/photos/yrs-doug-davidson-paul-looks-back-on-his-genoa-city-stories/"><em>Soap Opera Digest</em></a> in 2020, “started with April pressuring Paul to take responsibility” for daughter Heather. The rest, as they say, is history.</p>
Image: ABC (2)
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<p>When <em>One Life to Live</em> decided to transform Jessica from a cute moppet into a real character in 1990, Torpey was the 9-year-old assigned to the task. She played the part for the next 12 years, ushering Viki’s daughter into teenage and ultimately adult storylines. Now, Torpey is a married mother of two with an enviable list of video-game voice roles to her credit. (<em>Star Wars: The Old Republic</em>, anyone? Everyone? Thought so, we did.)</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>At 19, the future soap stud was <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/news/577164/young-restless-brytni-sarpy-joshua-morrow-revealing-interview/" target="_blank">“crushed,”</a> he said in 2020, when after a rigorous series of auditions to play stripper Dylan Shaw on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>, he didn’t get the part. But more than a quarter of a century later, he’s come to view the disappointment as “the greatest failure” ever, since it led directly to his being cast in the role for which he’ll always be known — that of Nicholas Newman on <em>The Young and the Restless.</em></p>
Image: Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images, John Paschal/JPI
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<p>By the time the record-breaking soap vet made her daytime debut as Dixie Cooney on <em>All My Children</em> in 1988, she’d already been in showbiz for a decade. (That’s a shot from the 1983 TV movie <em>Who Will Love My Children?</em> on the left.) “When I won my Emmy on <em>All My Children</em>, it was as a kid. I was like 21 at the time,” she told <a href="https://www.soapcentral.com/as-the-world-turns/news/2009/1102-mcclain_iview_01.php" target="_blank">SoapCentral</a> in 2009. “I knew that once I became an adult woman that that wasn’t going to work. That character wasn’t going to achieve enough of an adult sensibility.” So she moved on and won another Emmy for her portrayal of Rosanna Cabot on <em>As the World Turns</em>. And, after a visit to <em>The Young and the Restless</em> as Kelly Andrews, she scored a third statuette for her performance as Jennifer Horton on <em>Days of Our Lives.</em></p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI, Gilles Toucas/CBS
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<p>Straight out of high school, the future Emmy winner made tracks to L.A. and, within two years, had been cast by <em>Days of Our Lives</em> in his breakout role, that of Shawn and Caroline Brady’s adopted son, Max. “I’d like to soak up as much information as I can and move on when the time is right,” he told <em><a href="https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-darin-brooks-days2/" target="_blank">Soap Opera Digest</a></em> at the time. “I am very grateful for this job, and I’m in debt to this cast and crew forever because this is my first job and they’ve given me an opportunity to learn things. Hopefully, it can springboard into bigger things, and I can always say, ‘This is where I started.’” In 2013, Brooks did indeed move on, joining the cast of <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>, where he played unlucky-in-love Wyatt Spencer for the next decade.</p>
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