The Young and the Restless actress Colleen Zenk celebrated a triumphant return to daytime when she gave a chilling turn as evil Aunt Jordan, which reintroduced Cole and Victoria’s daughter, Claire, to the canvas. Now, Zenk is celebrating something else, her birthday!
The Young and the Restless, happy birthday, Colleen Zenk
Zenk, born January 20 in Barrington, Illinois, made her mark on the gone-but-never-forgotten CBS serial As the World Turns. She played the part of Barbara Ryan from 1978 until the show’s finale in 2010.
Originally, Barbara Ryan was a traditional soap opera heroine. She called off her wedding to Tom Hughes (Tom Tammi) after James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera), the father of their son, Paul (Danny Pintauro), came back into her life. James turned out to be a bad guy, though. He infamously lured Barbara into a bull ring with some flowers and unleashed a bull upon her!
In the mid-1980s, the show’s head writer, Douglas Marland, transformed Barbara from a victim into a conniving winner. The character developed a fashion line (“Simply Barbara”), and she let Tom Hughes (Gregg Marx) think they’d had an affair when they hadn’t in an effort to get even with him for wanting to drop her as a client.
Barbara ruined the wedding of Brian (Mark Pinter) and Shannon O’Hara (Maggie Reed) by inviting the bride’s presumed dead husband, Duncan (Michael Swan), to the ceremony!
The character rediscovered her humanity through the love of a good man, police detective Hal Munson (Benjamin Hendrickson). Barbara was humbled after being wrongly imprisoned for James’s death (spoiler alert: he wasn’t dead!). She and Hal married. Barbara’s story came to an end when the character was paired with Henry Coleman (Trent Dawson), James’s son!
A new day in Genoa City
The Young and the Restless reached out to Zenk in 2023, inviting her to take on the role of Aunt Jordan, the sister of the late Eve Howard (Margaret Mason). It turned out that Jordan had whisked Cole (J. Eddie Peck) and Victoria’s (Amelia Heinle) daughter, Eve, from the hospital where she was believed to have died.
Jordan raised Eve, renaming her Claire, poisoning her mind against the Newman clan in the process. After ambushing Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and hooking her up to a vodka-laced IV to the alcoholic, the rest of the Newmans were lured to a remote home where they almost lost their lives!
In 2024, Jordan teamed up with Ian Ward (Ray Wise), a baddie from Nikki’s past. However, their plans failed, and Jordan (presumably) died after taking some poisoned tea. Jordan, of course, wouldn’t be the first Y&R character to make a comeback from that great soap in the sky. Will it happen? Stay tuned!
Soap Central wishes Zenk a happy birthday!
Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.
