Photo: IMDB





If a cat has nine lives, how many does a soap actor have? We can ask Michael Easton. He's the expert. Bartender, vampire, rock star, priest, FBI agent, police officer, detective, doctor, drug addict. Did we leave anything out? His many faces; sexy, sultry, stoic, hammy, quirky, hard-nosed, dangerous, defiant and always a leading man. For almost 20 years now, Easton's career in soaps has spanned multiple roles, soaps and networks. Let's take a look.





The first face was at Days of our Lives as rebellious (at odds with his brother and father regarding his mother's suicide. His mother committed suicide after being raped) Tanner Scofield. The bartender turned detective, was the younger brother of Brian and the son of Vern Scofield. Tanner's main storylines were to help his love, Molly, reunite with her mother, Ginger and her fortune. And finding his mom's, Nancy Scofield, rapist, Professor Gavin and bringing him to justice. Tanner, Molly, Ginger, and Brain Scofield (Ginger's new boyfriend) left Salem for Chicago.





Easton began his long-running stint on ABC daytime on Port Charles as Caleb Morley/Michael Morley/Stephen Clay. Caleb was an evil murderous vampire with an alter, Michael, a priest. Or was the alter the vampire? Anyway, Michael met and fell in love with Eve, a doctor from General Hospital (hey no judgment here it wasn't like he was a real priest or anything.) And Caleb fell in love/became obsessed with Livvie Locke (who looked a lot like his previous love Olivia that Caleb killed when she refused to join him in vampirehood). My goodness, what some people won't do for love lol.





Michael tried his best to suppress Caleb's deadly appetite's (via the priest persona). It was a constant battle between good versus evil. Michael convinced Eve that Caleb was his evil twin when Caleb took Eve hostage. It took some time but eventually Eve, Ian (Eve's husband) and Kevin Collins (Eve's ex-husband) teamed up when it became clear that something was off and then they figured out the twins were really a "onesie".





During the same time, Caleb hypnotized Livvie and was methodically controlling her to leave her boyfriend, Jack, family, and friends and to be with him. For months Livvie was under Caleb's spell. Caleb also planned to kidnap Eve and Ian's son when he was born.





Things reached its peak in a confrontation with all the involved characters where Michael's personality emerged and struck Caleb with a lightning bolt and Caleb was thought to have turned to ash.





But Caleb was still at work. He still controlled Livvie. She manipulated everyone and cast and planted seeds of doubt and discord among all the couples involved. Caleb made Livvie kill Lucy. Or so he thought but actually, Livvie and Lucy were working together. Livvie broke free of Caleb's spell and drove a stake through him and killed him. Months later, Stephen Clay (a rocker) arrived with the explanation that he had been institutionalized after losing his first wife and took on a vampire persona.





Easton's longest face in daytime (to date) was as John McBain on One Life to Live. John was Llanview's crime fighter extraordinaire for 10 years (who wasn't immune to committing crimes himself.) He came to Llanview as a FBI agent posed as a billiard scout. Shortly thereafter, he left the FBI and became a cop with the Llanview Police Department.





During his career John would investigate numerous crimes including murders, suspected murders and kidnapping some including; Spencer Truman's murder, Marty and Cole being kidnapped by Simon Ryerson, the murder of Eli Clarke, and of course the "Tale of Two Todd's."





John, for the most part, swung back and forth between relationships with Natalie Buchanan and Marty Saybrooke with some others mixed in (i.e. Blair Cramer and Kelly Cramer.) John was on with Natalie....and then on with Marty....and then back to Natalie...





There were the usual lies, schemes, and plots that accompany most soap triangles. Once after suffering the emotional trauma of losing her baby (John's baby) Marty held Natalie at gunpoint and attempted to take John and Natalie's baby, Liam. John lied to Natalie about her thought to be dead husband (Cristian Vega) who wasn't dead. John left Natalie at the altar (on Valentine's Day) when her lies were exposed that Liam could have been the result of a one-night stand with Brody Lovett and not John's.





John and Natalie proved to be "end game" (at least in Llanview). Natalie in her wedding gown (was to marry Brody) tracked down John (was on his way to Seattle to visit family) to tell him that Marty had switched Liam's DNA tests and Brody kept the secret. Liam's was John's. Their joy was short-lived because Brody took Liam. Liam was rescued and after some further resistance by Natalie (who was still mad that John had refused to forgive her), the two reunited.





In March 2012 John showed up in Port Charles hunting down Todd Manning who skipped bail (Todd was in jail for the murder of his brother Victor, Jr. who wasn't dead but being held captive). Todd was in Port Charles to avenge his daughter's fiance, Cole, and Todd's granddaughter's, Hope, death (by car accident).





Todd Manning believed Sonny Corinthos had caused the accident and John believed Sonny had also caused the death of his half-sister, Theresa (neither of these proved to be the case). In fact, it turned out that Theresa (who fell into organized crime) died at the hands of Joe Jr. after Joe Jr. saw her talking to an agent (John was that agent).





John turned to the bottle to help him cope with his guilt. While under the influence of his liquid courage, he encountered Sam McCall and they shared a kiss. The picture of the kiss ended up in the hands of Natalie thanks to Todd and Heather Webber.





When John returned to Llanview, Natalie and Liam were gone. John stayed in Port Charles and got a job with the Port Charles Police Department to strengthen his case for parental rights. For the next year or so John would be stabbed by Lucy Coe (who thought he was Caleb), thought to have killed Alison Barrington and fought with and ultimately killed "Stephen Clay" who escaped from a psychiatric facility and kidnapped Sam McCall and her son Danny (in a thrilling climax of the decades' doppelganger, twin, alters overlapping storylines). The litigation between ABC daytime and Prospect Park sent John McBain packing out of Port Charles and back to the FBI in Quantico.





Dr. Silas Clay sauntered into Port Charles and looked exactly like his neurotic killer brother (well obviously), Stephen Clay. Needless to say, his uncanny resemblance shook up some residents of Port Charles, i.e. Sam, Rafe (his nephew Stephen's son, etc). I mean Rafe did witness his father, his doppelganger, kill his mother. That would rattle anybody.





Silas started working at General Hospital and started treating Danny who had been diagnosed with leukemia. Silas also discovered an ex-lover, Ava Jerome also lived in Port Charles (small world). And though Ava tried to lie (say Kiki's father was Franco Baldwin), Silas found out he had a daughter, Kiki Jerome.





Silas bonded with Kiki, tore down the wall between him and Rafe and yep, Easton and Kemo's on-screen personas fell in love again. Life was really good for Silas until Nathan West came to town on a mission to prove that Silas attempted to kill his wife Nina (Nathan's sister). That forced Silas to admit to Sam and everyone else he had forgotten the small minor detail that he was married.





According to Silas, Nina overdosed on pills when she found out about the affair with Ava and she had been in a coma for 20 years. Nathan explanation of what occurred was a lot more sinister. He believed Silas injected Nina (to free himself of her and to get her money) which resulted in coma and then her death.





It turned out that neither Silas or Nathan was exactly right. Nina's mom, Madeline, came to town and confirmed Nina's death and also dropped a little bomb that she had been pregnant. Madeline, of course, left out the fact that she was the one who tried to kill Nina. Yep, tried because Nina wasn't dead!





Nina swooped into town faking paralysis and sanity all the time trying to manipulate Silas to get him back. Nina's scheming resulted in Silas and Sam breaking up because Silas couldn't see what sleuth Sam did. By the time he did, Sam had moved on.





Silas helped Kiki care for Avery (Ava's daughter with Sonny Corinthos) when Ava was in the pen for the murder of Connie Falconeri. Ava escaped (and others) the pen and was shot during the attempted escape and was presumed dead. She wasn't but she was "close". Ava had cancer.





Silas hid Ava and cared for her. Ava wanted him to kill her. Ava didn't want to go through the ordeal and become a burden. Silas told Ava he would adhere to her wishes. But instead, he kidnapped Avery and used her bone marrow to save Ava's life.





Ava lived, became Denise DeMuccio (hmm no comment moving on) and just couldn't (well really didn't) stop herself from sleeping with Morgan. Silas found them after Franco Baldwin dropped a dime on the "sex buddies". Ava begged Silas not to tell Kiki saying it would destroy her. In the interim, Nina found out that Silas was the one who had kidnapped Avery. She felt betrayed that once again Silas chose Avery over her.





Nina went to confront Silas.....Franco went to Silas' apartment, found the door slightly open, opened it and saw Nina kneeling over Silas' body with a large bloody knife. A whodunnit followed with the culprit being Madeline who had axed Silas because....yes she still wanted Nina's money. And Silas refused to sign it over to her.





Mr. Easton's most current face, Dr. Hamilton Finn, and Roxy (his pet lizard) came to Port Charles when Dr. Finn was enlisted to help diagnose and cure Tracy Quartermaine of a mysterious illness. He did. Turned out Tracy wasn't the only person who was ill. Dr. Finn was dying!





Dr. Finn and his wife, Reiko, worked on a cure for a deadly disease. They weren't careful enough with some of the samples and exposed themselves to the deadly disease. The disease already claimed Dr. Finn's wife.





Poor Dr. Finn, he had to get illegal drugs from out the country and even resorted to stealing drugs from the hospital to keep himself alive while he worked on a cure. This didn't go unnoticed especially not by Dr. Obrecht. She suspected Dr. Finn was stealing drugs from the hospital (correct) though she didn't know why at first. And she also incorrectly suspected Dr. Finn as being the hospital's serial killer (was Paul Hornsby). Dr. Finn and Dr. O locked horns often. Dr. O even destroyed Dr. Finn's research and his lab.





Hayden Barnes (legal daughter of Raymond Berlin who swindled people out of millions of dollars) brokenness' connected with Dr. Finn's brokenness and they developed feelings for each other. Dr. Finn tried to keep her at arm's length because he was dying and was still in love with his wife. Hayden would inadvertently inject herself with the disease.





Finn more inspired than ever found a cure and healed himself and Hayden. "Fayden' finally succumbed to their true feelings. Fayden was expecting and were planning their lives together. Then her ex-ruined it all. Years before Hayden killed a young girl when she was driving drunk. Her ex-took the fall and went to jail for Hayden (yeah that's some kind of love). He threatened to expose Hayden. Hayden told Finn the truth and he wanted to marry Hayden anyway, But Hayden left Finn a Dear John letter and lied that she had lost the baby.





Anna enlisted Finn's help with her quest to bring Valentin Cassadine down. Part of their plan included them "faking a relationship". The fake became real and Fanna was on! There was a brief detour called Alexis. But Fanna pushed through and are still kicking it. Dr. Finn's estranged brother, Detective Hamilton Chase and his estranged father, Chevy Chase have both made their way to Port Charles. And their story is unfolding.





We are looking forward to Dr. Finn's continuing story!





What "face" do you like best? Is there a role/soap that you would like to see Easton play?