Star of the ultimate soap opera send-up Soap, Katherine Helmond died from Alzheimers Disease complications on February 23. The beloved The Young and the Restless star Kristoff St. John passed away on February 3 of heart disease combined with an accidental alcohol overdose. He was 52. October 11 2012 11:30 AM EST. Soap opera veteran Michael Tylo has died at the age of 72. McCloskey's storyline closed on a poignant note as he battled Alzheimer's disease, which eventually claimed the character's life in 1996. Herrera's cancer, which had been in remission, returned and he died in 2011 at the age of 67. Like Santos Ortega and Don MacLaughlin, Johnstone was a theater and radio performer who was best known for replacing Orson Welles as the voice of the mysterious pulp hero The Shadow in 1938. Douglas died in 2016 at the age of 86 from unknown causes (via Deadline). Rapelye died of cancer on April 5, 2021, at the age of 76. But he also handled more nuanced characters with considerable skill; he was a vicious serial killer and a dogged defense attorney on episodes of "Law & Order," and played the sympathetic, bipolar father of Claire Danes' troubled CIA agent on "Homeland.". William Morgan Sheppard died January 6 at the age of 86. Hendrickson played the firm yet gentle Hal Munson for over 20 years from 1985 until his death in 2006. The soap assignment is one of dozens of character roles he played between the 1950s and the 2010s, though he was perhaps best known to mainstream audiences as Paul Buchman's cranky father on "Mad About You." He bought out his Goldwyn contract to get the freedom to do theater. Wagner uttered the first line of the series and would go on to play Nancy for over 50 years in the longest-running character of history, solidifying her place as a soap opera legend. Anyone who tuned into Guiding Light over the last 35 years knows the name of actress Maureen Garrett. One Life to Live alum Brian Tarantina (Lucky Lippman) died on November 2 at 60-years-old. Whether they were in front of or behind the scenes, a beloved current cast member or a guest star from years ago, they all left their mark on viewers. 3:30. Michael Louden's Duke Kramer was first introduced to the citizens of Oakdale in 1988. She got her start in daytime playing Hazel on Another World, but she is best known to soap opera fans for the long-running role of Addie Cramer on One Life to Live.