Legendary daytime alumnae Susan Flannery, who played Laura Spencer Horton on Days of Our Lives from 1966-75 and Stephanie Douglas Forrester on Bold and Beautiful from 1987-2012, is making a momentous life change — she is moving away from her longtime home in California and putting down roots Down Under!
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The news came first via Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, B&B), Flannery’s longtime co-star, who shared in an Instagram story posted last month she and castmate Ashley Jones (Bridget) had attended a good-bye party for Flannery in celebration of her upcoming move to Australia.
Then, on August 6, Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie, DAYS), who worked with Flannery during her years in Salem, posted a photo of herself with Flannery and fellow DAYS cohort Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) on Instagram, writing, “3 Susies have breakfast at Art’s Deli. The occasion: Susan Flannery, one of the great ladies of daytime or anywhere she turns up- is moving to Australia. Flannery was a beloved mentor and pal to Suzanne and me in our early Salem Days together.” She added, “Laughs, love, tears, hugs… just like Salem. We will miss her ❤️⏳.”
Flannery is one of the most acclaimed actresses in soap history. Over the course of her daytime career, she earned 10 nominations in the Outstanding Lead Actress category at the Daytime Emmys, winning on her first try, in 1975, for her work on DAYS. Three more trophies followed for her portrayal of B&B’s Stephanie — in 2000, 2002, and 2003 — and she became the first actress ever to win the Lead Actress award for two different roles on two different soaps. Since that time, two other actresses have accomplished that feat: Maura West, who won as Carly Tenney on As the World Turns and Ava Jerome on General Hospital, and Eileen Davidson, who was honored as DAYS’s Kristen DiMera, then as Ashley Abbott on Young and Restless.
After 25 years on B&B, where she was an original cast member, Flannery opted to retire from the show — and from acting — in 2012. Speaking to Soap Opera Digest in 2017, one of Flannery’s most memorable on-screen foes, Kimberlin Brown (Sheila), noted, “Susan was an incredible force on the show, but I understand that people want to move on, and the fact that she’s happy now and doing everything that she wants to be doing, I couldn’t be happier for her.”
Notoriously private, Flannery revealed in 2002 that she was the mother to an adopted daughter, Blaise, who ended up moving to Australia and still resides there with her own children. With Flannery now planning to call Australia home, there’s likely to be lots of quality family time in her future!
The actress has been close with Seaforth Hayes and Rogers for years, and they have spoken glowingly of working alongside Flannery in the early days of their DAYS careers. In fact, Rogers credits Flannery with getting her hired by the show in the first place! In 2015, she shared with Digest that when she first tested for the role of Maggie, “Susan Flannery was a big influence. She was walking through the booth at the time the two of us were testing and she said some very nice things about me, so I understand, and that’s how I got the part.” And as she found her footing in Salem, Rogers recalled to Digest in 2013 that Flannery “was very encouraging. I’ve always had a warm place in my heart for Susan.”
Seaforth Hayes has described Flannery as central to the strong sense of camaraderie she felt in the cast at the outset of her own time on DAYS. She told Digest in 2018, “When [Seaforth Hayes’s latest husband] Bill Hayes joined the show [as Doug] and was looking for a house, I remember Susan Flannery laying out a map of the areas she thought he ought to be shopping for a house in. We were all kind of wrapped up in each other’s lives in those days. For the first time, I was joining a company that was going to stay together for years. The dynamic was very affectionate.”
Not only that, but Seaforth Hayes revealed that Flannery was among the first to realize that she and her leading man, Bill Hayes, were falling in love. She winked to Digest in 2018. “Susan Flannery and Denise Alexander [ex-Susan] certainly caught on immediately. Immediately! You can’t get anything past Susan Flannery, for sure.”
