Here’s Lookin’ at You: Soaps’ Handsomest Leading Men of All Time [PHOTOS]

“Mirror, mirror on the wall… ” Ya know what? When the guy being reflected is the one who plays Days of Our Lives’ EJ, there’s really no point in continuing that sentence. He’s as dashing as his character is sneaky

The L.A. skyline can only dream of competing with the face that turns all of General Hospital mobster Sonny’s mug shots into pin-ups.

Long before Bold & Beautiful cast him as Wyatt, this Emmy winner was a baby-faced up-and-comer as Days of Our Lives’ Max.

9-1-1, what’s your emergency? Uh, nothing. We just got a little overheated staring at this image of the heartthrob who plays firefighter Buck looking for all the world like a bachelorette-party stripper.

With a mug as magnificent as his is, it’s no wonder the Young & Restless leading man — Tucker in Genoa City — has a driver’s-license photo that could be hung in the Louvre.

There are some people whose bad side you don’t want to get on. But Days of Our Lives’ Eric doesn’t have a bad side — we’ve checked all of them.

If we loved him with a mullet as One Life to Live’s Patrick, of course we were also gonna love him as Port Charles’ Ian, All My Children’s Zach and The Bold and the Beautiful dressmaker Ridge.

Part of the reason we adore the actor who plays The Young and the Restless’ Nick is the cheekbones that are as chiseled as his abs. But on top of that… there’s his irresistible sense of humor.

C’mon, look at that picture — when Days of Our Lives’ Brady invites you to a slumber party, you RSVP yes. Eagerly.

It was indeed an Emergency! when the primetime mainstay joined Loving in the late ’80s as Alex. There was no close-up close enough to satisfy viewers hungry for more, more, more.

“You talkin’ to me?” Um, no. More like gawking, enthusiastically, as the Bold & Beautiful Emmy winner reveals that Liam looks dapper during every step of his putting-on-a-jacket process.

Whether he’s been playing Days of Our Lives’ Roman, the Pawn, a priest or just good ol’ John, he’s always been able to catch our eye with no more than the arch of a brow.

Here, The Young and the Restless’ Devon offers up an expression that says, “Yes, by all means, appreciate my sexiness, then move along. You don’t want a line forming.” Agreed, sir.

Decades before he started playing Stephen on Bold & Beautiful, the erstwhile Man From Atlantis made “Goin’ my way?” a rhetorical question as Dallas’ Bobby. Between the open shirt and the sportscar, we couldn’t call shotgun fast enough!

We hate to imagine how many obscene phone calls a fella gets when he’s walking around looking as much like a Men’s Fitness cover as the hottie who plays Dex on General Hospital. And no, not all of those calls are from us.

Sure, he may look coy here — “Who, me? Sexy?” — but let’s be real, Guiding Light bad boy Jonathan knew he was hot stuff if he thought he could get away with that shirt. Which he did, BTW.

Even back when he was Fen on Young & Restless, the scene stealer who plays Days of Our Lives’ Sonny had a hold on our hearts. And also, apparently, this inflatable one.

We won’t say that TV’s original Magnum, P.I., is sitting pretty. More like the Blue Bloods star is sitting ruggedly handsome. With a pineapple full of flowers and what we fear is a beverage that had to have left him with a terrible hangover.

Come to think of it, the modern remake of Magnum, P.I., had something going for it, too. What? See above.

When we heard that The Bold and the Beautiful was recasting Zende, we were like, “Good luck finding an actor as stunning as Rome Flynn.” Turned out they didn’t need luck at all. #nailedit

Surprisingly, this shot of As the World Turns’ Holden is not the cover of the novel Catcher in the Rye. Still nice, though, eh?

No shirt? No problem. Thankfully, the heartthrob who keeps fans pumped about Days of Our Lives’ Xander is fine with a less-is-more approach to wardrobe.

Whether he was playing All My Children’s Jesse, The City’s Jacob or The Young and the Restless’ Sarge, one thing the Emmy winner always was… was easy on the eyes.

We still can’t fathom why Stitch isn’t on The Young and the Restless — he was a heat-seeking missile who wasn’t related to anybody. In other words, #priceless.

This was him before This Is Us, but a tasty slice of eye candy stirring precisely the emotions that gave Passions its title as the aptly-named Fox.

Though it’s been decades since The Young and the Restless’ Lauren entered hubby Paul in a centerfold contest — which he won, natch — he’s still a “staple” of fans’ fantasies.

Honestly, we don’t recall what put One Life to Live’s Ford in the hospital. But an even bigger mystery is how on earth he isn’t surrounded by nurses offering to kiss it and make it better.

This may actually have been the only way the late Emmy winner’s characters — Nikolas on General Hospital and Stefan on Days of Our Lives — could prove they had nothing up their sleeves: by eschewing sleeves altogether!

Whether the Young & Restless star is sporting angel’s wings or devil’s horns as Adam, he never fails to leave us in dire need of making confession. “Forgive us, Father, for we have dreamt!”

We only thought we understood the meaning of the word caliente before this One Life to Live heartthrob took over the role of Cristian.

The Emmy winner who in 2024 reprised his role of General Hospital hitman Jason has never been a slouch in the looks department. But a slouch in the getting-comfy-on-the-couch department? As you can see, that’s a different story.

He looks like he’s thinking hard here. But we didn’t have to think at all to include Guiding Light’s Josh in this photo gallery.

Decades later, when the soap vet passed through Young & Restless as Ashland, he looked… Shades of Dorian Grey! As handsome as ever!

Isn’t it ironic that the Chicago Fire leading man has managed to start more blazes than put them out as Severide? At least in the hearts of viewers!

Long before he was saving the world with paper clips on MacGyver, he was giving General Hospital fans palpitations as Jeff.

Now and forever, this is how we’ll remember The Young and the Restless’ Neil: as being so handsome, he could only have been heaven-sent.

Miles may have been Jeff’s also-ran in the Dynasty spinoff The Colbys, but his portrayer will always be a cool rider in our book. (Get it, Grease 2 fans? No one?)

A question for the ages: If this Emmy winner’s Young & Restless character hadn’t been nicknamed Smilin’ Jack, would he have withheld his disarming grin from us all these years?

Why the actor who played Brandon on Days of Our Lives is on this list, we can’t imagine. Nope. No idea. Oh, wait — there is that photo…

Even after he stopped playing Patrick on General Hospital and started playing Billy on The Young and the Restless, blushing faces and rapid heartbeats were common reactions to his performances.

No matter how villainous his characters — lookin’ at you, Todd on One Life to Live and early Franco on General Hospital — the Emmy winner makes us, however recuctantly, love them.

We wish him well on his new life. And we hope he doesn’t mind how tightly we cling to our memories of his stint as Days of Our Lives’ EJ.

Why, lookee there — it’s Yellowstone’s top dog out standing in his field and lookin’ mighty fine while he does it.

As if. “Baby, come back” had to be something he never had to say when he was fixing a woman with this gaze that he patented as Ridge on The Bold and the Beautiful.

What restraint. The Emmy winner had to know he’d make the first-round draft picks even without altogether unleashing the dimples that have made him catnip to fans of General Hospital mobster Sonny.

How many times do we have to tell The Young and the Restless’ Kyle that if his clothes are constraining him — in any way! — it’s fine by us if he just… loses them.

If ever there was a look that took us back to the intensity of the romance between As the World Turns’ Luke and Noah, it was this one. Although hey, we’re open to other suggestions…

Had Days of Our Lives realized when it cast this future soap-hopper as Tanner that he’d only become more striking with age, the General Hospital star (as Finn) would still be a Salem resident today.

Now and always, it will bum us out to know that old photos are the only way we’ll ever again see that smile on the face of the Emmy winner who plays Young & Restless’ Billy.

Given that laser focus, we can only assume that what The Bold and the Beautiful Emmy winner was looking at as Rick was… a mirror?

Turns out it is not clothes that make the man but the man that makes the clothes. And yes, as you can see, we checked — using Station 19’s Robert Sullivan as our test subject.

With cheekbones that could cut glass and a gaze that could shatter diamonds, Ted King — whom we first met as Danny on Loving — was always destined to make the camera love him. As well as anyone who got a gander at him on camera.

All My Children fans are keenly aware that one doesn’t get a nickname like Tad the Cad if he’s a Quasimodo.

Now Martin on General Hospital, the Emmy winner has matured into the slyest of silver foxes.

Legend has it that the former model who played One Life to Live’s Dylan has one of the most flawless faces to ever be photographed. Legend has it right, as far as we can see.

Call him Brad on The Young and the Restless. Call him Bill on The Bold and the Beautiful. But if you have a say in the matter, you’re gonna call him.

You don’t have to admit it. We know. In the 1990s, posters of Beverly Hills, 90210’s Dylan and Brandon were tacked up on all of our walls.

Another World was exactly where Jake’s portrayer never failed to send us.

Even without the neckties, Days of Our Lives’ Ben was always a lady killer in our estimation. And don’t even get us started on clothing-averse Alex…

Once the soap-hopper caught our attention as All My Children’s Michael — and tightened his grip as Storm on The Bold and the Beautiful and Julian on General Hospital — he never let go.

He played Malcolm on The Young and the Restless. Also, he looked like this. Pretty much still does. Any questions?

Forget Ol’ Blue Eyes. Days of Our Lives’ Chad is the New Blue Eyes — and the only one we need.

When he was playing Greg on All My Children, he was the boy next door… that we all wished we lived next door to!

The ill-fated Young & Restless detective was precisely the reason that lines are uttered like — and we give all due credit here to Dick Tracy’s Breathless Mahoney — “Aren’t you gonna frisk me?”

We hope he won’t hold it against us that, even all these years later, the hero for whom we’re holding out remains Days of Our Lives’ Bo. Cool? Cool.

Yeah, looking at that picture, we’re as bewildered as you are about how Carter’s portrayer ever wound up on the wrong side of a love triangle on The Bold and the Beautiful.

It made sense that Guiding Light cast this alum of Loving (as Casey) as junior mafioso Danny — with a mug as stunning as his, he was always destined to attract a… ahem… mob.

We know him now as The Young and the Restless’ Jack. But he was lighting up rooms — and TV screens — even before that, as All My Children’s Dr. Feel-Good, Cliff.

OK, we get it. Even the “What, this old face?” look chosen by the original Zende on The Bold and the Beautiful to express his surprise at making this list is hot. That’s just the way his looks go: hot, hotter, hottest.

Days of Our Lives may have killed and recast Roman, but the one thing that the show has never managed to do is dull the intensity of our crush on his original portrayer.

With a face that’s as expressive as it is handsome, Abbott Elementary’s Gregory makes everybody want to be the teacher’s pet.

Make no mistake. The Young and the Restless‘ Victor is not the sort to take anything lying down. Unless it’s a picture.

No matter what mischief the actor’s made over the years as General Hospital pot-stirrer Scotty, he’s remained the kind of trouble that we’re most into.

Before his name became synonymous with “cheesy,” the Young & Restless alum brought to life Snapper, a doctor as likely to give us palpitations as cure what ails us.

We’ve intently followed the trail of the silver fox who plays Eric on The Bold and the Beautiful since before he’d even begun to go silver, back when he was lady killer Lance on The Young and the Restless.

The doctor is in… sanely attractive. How else to explain why Grey’s Anatomy’s ill-fated “McDreamy” was still being named People’s Sexiest Man Alive nearly a decade after the character’s death.

OK, OK, we get it: There’s nothing more all-American than a fella as smokin’-hot as the Hallmark mainstay who used to play Nathan on General Hospital. And yes, we’ll happily testify to that effect.

How irresistible is — and always has been — Days of Our Lives’ Abe? So irresistible that when an old photo of him was posted online, castmate Paul Telfer (Xander) marveled at his “extreme handsomeness and divine masculinity.”

Yes, Days of Our Lives’ Stefan is sitting in a wheelbarrow and looking damn sexy while doing so. That’s just one of the perks that comes with being drop-dead gorgeous: arbitrary, sexy wheelbarrow-sitting.

Yeah, looking at that handsome face, we’re as confused as you are as to why The Bold and the Beautiful ever decided that Jake should be a photographer, not a model.

Arithmetic and accounting were never our strong suits, but even as mathematically impaired as we are, we can tell that Days of Our Lives’ Eli is rocking a smile that’s of the $1M variety.

Katy Perry probably didn’t write “Teenage Dream” about the ’80s heartthrob who played Blackie on General Hospital, but she might as well have. If the song fits…

“The doctor is in… credibly cute” became the way that the saying had to go once The Bold and the Beautiful invited the Liberty Mutual guy to start scrubbing in as Finn.

Having gotten a gander or two at the washboard abs on General Hospital investigator Curtis, we’ve had to altogether rethink our concept of laundry day.

Did we mention that when one is supremely sexy, sometimes they need a lie-down? Whether we did or we didn’t, kindly allow The Young and the Restless’ Michael to remind you. And also demonstrate proper form.