‘The Bold and the Beautiful’: Every Actor to Play Taylor Hayes
In the soap opera world, actors move in and out of the shows as contracts and scripts call for it. Fans pick favorites, but no actor or character is truly indispensable on daytime dramas. Over the years, several actors have played the most famous characters, like Dr. Taylor Hayes on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Dr. Hayes’ current run is a bright spot on the long-running drama. Fans have welcomed the latest actor to fill her shoes. But does she compare to the other famous soap performers who handled the character in the past?
Hunter Tylo played the original Dr. Taylor Hayes on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’
Ridge Forrester started seeing a psychiatrist on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1990. Dr. Hayes began treatment on the famously complex antihero, before inevitably falling into the tangled lives of the tortured characters on the show. Hunter Tylo played Dr. Hayes from 1990 through 2019, with some long absences in between.
As Soaps In Depth reports, Dr. Hayes eventually married Ridge. In 1994, the character was written off the show, presumed dead in a plane crash. That was reversed, as she re-emerged with amnesia in one of the most memorably shocking Bold moments.
The character was killed again, this time on-screen, in 2002. She died from a gunshot wound in Forrester’s arms. Tylo continued to play the character in a recurring role, as a vengeful ghost — until it was revealed that she was in a coma the entire time.
The next time she was written off the show, the Bold writing staff wisely chose to keep Dr. Hayes alive. They relocated her to Paris, writing the character in and out of the show whenever Tylo was available. Her final appearance in this capacity was in 2019.
Sherilyn Wolter briefly stepped in as Dr. Hayes
The second actor to play Forrester’s infamous psychiatrist was longtime soap actor Sherilyn Wolter. She is best known for her run on General Hospital, but she did a fill-in stint for Tylo back in 1990.
According to IMDb, Wolter appeared in just six episodes. She kept the character in the storyline while waiting for Tylo to return from a break. After that, the General Hospital veteran had a few recurring roles through 1994, then appears to have retired from acting. In retrospect, she’s best known for both General Hospital and her recurring stint on Baywatch.
Krista Allen is the latest actor to play Dr. Hayes
Bold fans clamored for Dr. Hayes to be freed from her rare guest character status. Entertainment Weekly reports that they got their wish in 2021 — albeit, without Tylo’s involvement. The show made efforts to reach out to the iconic soap actress, but she declined their offers.
Krista Allen picked up the baton. She spent time researching the character, watching hours of Tylo’s performance. She went to her audition with a wig, to better mimic her predecessor’s look. After years of recurring roles in shows like CSI, Baywatch, and 9-1-1, Allen wanted to make sure she started her main cast run on Bold the right way. Fans loved both the tribute to Tylo’s style, alongside Allen’s naturally charismatic edge.
According to Soap Opera Network, they liked the new Dr. Hayes so much that they campaigned to have her added to the show’s opening sequence. It turns out, matching the gauzy aesthetic of the Bold opening is a difficult process. It took three separate attempts to finally match the style and finally insert Allen alongside the rest of the main cast.
