Rodney Van Johnson Is Close Friends With Former ‘Passions’ Co-Star: ‘Our Kids Grew Up Together’
From 1999 – 2007, daytime soap fans enjoyed a daily escape to the fictional New England town of Harmony, where things were often anything but harmonious. From love triangles to tragedies to witches and a real-life doll named Timmy, Passions was quite a thrilling soap.
Many of the actors from the show kept in touch after things wrapped up, remaining friends for years to come. One of the longest-running friendships is that of Rodney Van Johnson and James Hyde, who played T.C. Russell and Sam Bennett, respectively. Not only are these two still close friends, but they’ve both recently re-entered the world of soap opera work.
Rodney Van Johnson and James Hyde are both soap opera veterans
Van Johnson and Hyde both played essential characters on Passions, but it wasn’t the first soap stint for either actor. Van Johnson got his start playing Trey Stark on The Young and the Restless, also appealing in a few dozen episodes of Port Charles before his time on Passions.
Hyde is best known for his role as Sam Bennett, but before that, he played Liam on As The World Turns in 1999.
It takes a certain type of actor to enjoy soap opera work. The hours are often long, the lines must be memorized daily, and both actors have admitted how challenging it is. Still, they both seem thrilled to be back at work. Van Johnson just completed a stint (for now) on The Bold and the Beautiful as Sheila’s attorney, and Hyde is enjoying an ongoing role on The Young and the Restless.
The actors’ enduring friendship
Van Johnson and Hyde may not be current co-stars, but they’re still very good friends. In fact, when Van Johnson was on set, he texted Hyde to see how he was doing. Hyde responded, “I’m working. I’m too busy to talk. I’m at Y&R.”
“And I asked him what room he was in,” Van Johnson said. “And when I went up and saw him, we had such a great moment. It was great to be working on the same day.”
“James is my best bud,” Van Johnson said in a recent interview with Soap Opera Digest. “Our kids grew up together, adding “We see each other all the time. We fight all the time. We compete all the time.”
Rodney Van Johnson and James Hyde have kids who are close in age
Hyde has been married to Sue-Ling Garcia since 1994. Their son, James Moses, was born in 2004. Van Johnson is a single father to three sons, Quincy, Alexis Antonio, and Josh. Quincy was born in 2000 and Alexis was born in 2005, so it makes sense that they would be close with James Moses Hyde.
While the friendship anecdotes between these two are touching, it would be fantastic to see them on screen together again. It seems as if Hyde will be keeping his role on The Young and the Restless for a while, so perhaps Van Johnson could return to the place where his soap career began. There are no plans in the works for such a thing, but Passions fans can dream.
