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NUMBER ONE
Passions Star Josh Ryan Evans Dead at Age 20
By far the most-reaching story of the year was the tragic death of Josh Ryan Evans and his Passions character (Timmy.
The Emmy-nominated Evans passed away on Monday, August 5th at a San Diego hospital due to complications from a preexisting heart condition. On the very same day in the most eerie of coincidences, Evans' character on Passions also died.
In March 2000, Evans made history by becoming the first performer from Passions to receive a Daytime Emmy nomination. Evans' nomination as Outstanding Younger Actor remains the show's only acting nomination to date.
Outside of the soap world, Evans is known to millions of movie viewers as the young Grinch in the smash motion picture hit "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas." Evans also appeared on the David E. Kelley series, Ally McBeal.
Following Evan's death, NBC initially issued a statement that no more scenes with Evans would be broadcast by the network. NBC quickly reconsidered and offered scenes in which Evans' Timmy was given a heartfelt and proper goodbye. While time may make the pain lessen, soap fans from around the globe still miss an actor that many had come to be considered part of their family.
The story of Evans' death quickly became the most read article in Soap Opera Central's eight-year history. The article still holds that record today.
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Over the course of the month of December, Soap Opera Central posted special polls in each of our soap section's to allow visitors to pick what they felt were the most important soap stories of the year. Here are the results for each soap.
AMC: Eva LaRue to return -- but is she Maria?
ATWT: AW's Eplin to make ATWT exit
B&B: Hunter Tylo written off, Taylor killed
DAYS: Austin Peck out as DAYS' Austin
GH: Genie Francis exits role as Laura Spencer
GL: Guiding Light marks 65th and 50th anniversaries
OLTL: Erin Torpey ends 13-year run as Jessica
PC: Michael Easton back in "Naked Eyes"
PS: Josh Ryan Evans dead at the age of 20
Y&R: Shemar Moore exits role as Malcolm Winters
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