The Young and the Restless star Roscoe Born, remembering Terrible Tom on the late actor's birthday

The Young and the Restless viewers never looked at Kevin or Gloria the same way after "Terrible Tom," Kevin's dad, and Gloria's ex, showed up in Genoa City in the form of Roscoe Born. The actor, who died in 2020, would have turned 75 today, and soap fans will never forget the numerous characters he played on various soap operas.

The Young and the Restless, remembering Roscoe Born

Roscoe Born was born on November 24, 1950, in Topeka, Kansas. By the time the actor arrived on Y&R in 2005 as Tom "Terrible Tom" Fisher, his reputation for playing dynamic antagonists on soaps was already proven. He's perhaps best known, depending on what soaps you watched back in the day, as Joe Novak on Ryan's Hope.

His turn as Mitch Laurence on One Life to Live was epic. First joining the show in 1985, Mitch became the villain who would not die and seemed capable of doing anything in the way James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera) on As the World Turns could, and in the way Stefano DiMera (Joe Mascolo) on Days of our Lives does.

Born was never out of work for very long after his soap roles came to an end. After leaving Llanview the first time in the mid-1980s, he moved to the West Coast and joined the cast of Santa Barbara as twins Quinn Armitage and Robert Barr. He popped up on another New York-based ABC soap opera, The City, in 1997 as Nick Rivers. Then came a turn on All My Children as Jim Thomasen.

Soap hopper extraordinaire

It might be easier to make a list of soaps that Born did not appear on, as he would go on to take on parts on ATWT, Guiding Light, Passions, and DAYS. Despite excelling at playing bad guys, the role of Ryan's Hope's Joe Novak, a "good guy gangster," remained perhaps closest to his heart. The actor was a great admirer of the writing of late Ryan's Hope creator, Claire Labine.

While a familiar face to daytime soap fans, the actor also had a turn on a short-lived prime time soap, Paper Dolls, in 1984 as journalist Mark Bailey. Morgan Fairchild, who headlined The City as Sydney Chase, starred on Paper Dolls as Racine. Born received his lone Daytime Emmy nomination in 1990 for his work on Santa Barbara.

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Soap Central and all of the actor's fans are remembering him today, his 75th birthday.

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless on CBS and Paramount Plus

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