Friday was the final episode of ABC’s
One Life to Live, one of the last remaining daytime dramas. We’ve had our dalliances with soaps—we were addicted to
All My Children in college—but
Ellen, The Real Housewives, Internet porn and other distractions sapped the genre of the once-awesome sway it had over the g
ays.
OLTL was notable among soaps, though, for its shameless use of male skin (yay!), but also for the introduction of daytime’s first gay teen in 1992 (Ryan Phillippe, double yay!) and the inclusion of an in-depth storyline featuring gay couple
Kyle Lewis and Oliver Fish (quadruple yay!).
In addition to Phillippe, the show launched the careers of gay faves like Nathan Fillion, Marcia Cross,
Jonathan Groff, Brandon Routh and Elaine Stritch. (Well, maybe it didn’t launch her career—but she was on it!)
Today, as fans come to grips with their first
OLTL-free day, Queerty takes a stroll down memory lane and look at some of the hunks who bared their bods on the show
—including David Gregory, Mark Lawson, David Fumero and, of course, “Kish”!
Click through for photos of One Life to Live’s devastatingly handsome male cast
Photos: ABC 
In 1992, well before Cruel Intentions or Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe was on One Life to Live, playing “Billy Douglas,” a gay teen who comes out to his school and his parents. At first his homophobic father 
Yes, that is Nathan Fillion of Firefly, Castle and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog—he did a stint on Live from 1994 to ’97 as Joey Buchanan, the young son of Viki Buchanan and former lover of Viki’s rival, wicked Dorian Lord. Whew, this stuff is juicy!
iDavid
#7 …. YOW…OW…OW…ZERS! !!!
QJ201
OMG memories of Tuc Watkins running around shirtless.
shle896
Thank God The Young & The Restless is still going strong. It’s full of beefcake!
darrell66
From what I understand OLTL’s longtime headwriter Ron Carlivati is gay and while I’m not 100% sure I also think executive producer Frank Valentini is gay as well. This just an opinion – and I could be wrong – but I think the connection of them being gay and the fact that OLTL has had such a huge parade of muscle-bound actors walking around nearly shirtless on a regular basis for the last several years can’t be completely ignored.
I mean look at what Alan Ball does with True Blood and what Marc Cherry does with Desperate Housewives in regards to their male actors. I think Carlivati and Valentini did the same with OLTL. And as a gay I am very grateful!
Every soap opera loves showing off their beefcake. There’s nothing new about that! But OMG One Life to Live takes it to the extreme. Any excuse at having at those muscled studs out of their clothing, OLTL will take that excuse and run wild with it. I do think both Carlivati and Valentini love living out their fantasies – whether it’s conscious or not – with those actors and love parading their half naked bodies not just the pleasure of the audience but also for themselves. Add to that I’m sure they knew they had a large viewership of gay men and they conducted themselves accordingly at attracting them even if it was purely superficial in this regard. LOL!
I remember clearly the delicious Mark Lawson (Brody) walking around shirtless for four consecutive days just wearing a pair of skin-tight jeans and nothing else. I enjoyed the shit out of it – not to mention a hot shower scene Lawson had in which the camera roamed forever over his wet muscles in a scene that went on FOREVER. He must have had the longest shower scene I’ve ever seen on a soap opera – and it was obvious – Mark Lawson was naked in that scene. Camera was going down REAL LOW over his body. I mean Lawson has one incredibly ripped body and the show was definitely showing it off – brilliantly.
But to have Lawson shirtless for four days when he could have easily been wearing a T-shirt or sweatshirt? There was absolutely no reason for him to be shirtless in those scenes outside the fact the show wanted to give the audience the hot thrill at looking at Lawson’s gorgeous body.
It was just blatant gratuitous and that was the wonderful thing about OLTL. When it comes to their shirtless hunks OLTL loved going out of their way at giving the audience as many frivolous scenes of half naked men as humanly possible. And it was done on a weekly – if not – daily basis. You could bet your bottom dollar that at once every week one of male actors will have a totally meaningless day in which their completely shirtless. a
And if Carlivati and Valentini can add a small element of homoeriticism in those shirtless scenes, you can best believe, their gonna take that chance.
Every single one of their shirtless hunks has shared a scene with an equally ripped hunk in the now infamous steamroom at the local Llanview gym. Their chiseled muscles overly glisten in sweat – wrapped in nothing but white towels which looked as if they were on the verge of falling off at any second with the steam in the room enveloping them. And there they are sitting around talking with each other as they rub their hands suggestively over their hot hard bodies with their legs spread apart giving the audience a tantalizing hint of the crotch just underneath as the camera seductively lingered over their bodies in long tight close-ups. It had all the elements of gay porn without the sex. It was fabulous!! LMAO.
But all the while I was thinking to myself, “those guys could have easily had those scenes in the park somewhere fully clothed.” But of course it would not have been nearly as hot. LOL.
God I’m gonna miss One Life to Live!