Barbara Ryan
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| Barbara Ryan | |||||||||||||||||||
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 Colleen Zenk Pinter as Barbara |
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| As the World Turns | |||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Colleen Zenk Pinter (September 1st, 1978-) |
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| First appearance | 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Babs | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Fashion designer and owner of BRO | ||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Oakdale | ||||||||||||||||||
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Barbara Ryan is a fictional character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. In the early 1970s, Barbara was played by a succession of actresses, but the actress most associated with the role is Colleen Zenk Pinter, who has played her since September 1978.
[edit] Character history
Barbara Ryan was introduced to the show when her mother, Jennifer Sullivan, married Bob Hughes. Unlike her brother Rick, Barbara expressed great approval of the marriage. She left for art school soon after, only to return six years later.
For much of the character's run, Barbara was a heroine who experienced many tragedies, mostly at the hands of her controlling ex-husband, James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera). When writer Douglas Marland came on board at ATWT in 1985, he made Barbara a "bitch" of sorts, and had her break up a long standing couple (Tom and Margo). This proved to be unpopular, and Marland quickly reverted the character back to being "good" by pairing Barbara with Oakdale police detective (and later chief) Hal Munson (Benjamin Hendrickson).
Barbara again became a villainess in 2000 under the writing reign of Hogan Sheffer. Leaving Hal Munson for roguish Craig Montgomery, she was ostricized by much of her family, and eventually became the victim of an explosion caused by psychotic Julia Lindsay (Annie Parisse) that permanently scarred her face. As a result, she became resentful, withdrawn, and committed a multitude of sins, including kidnapping three of the main characters Carly Tenney (Maura West), Emily Stewart (Kelley Menighan Hensley) and Rose D'Angelo (Martha Byrne)) and meddling in her children's lives, most notably causing her son Will to snap and poison Rose, the fiancée of her older son Paul (Roger Howarth).
In 2004, when writers felt that they could not make the character any more destructive without her eventually being imprisoned (and thus written out), they made her slightly more sympathetic, attributing many of her transgressions to ex-husband James Stenbeck's influence.
Barbara reached out to her daughter Jennifer the following year when Jen became pregnant by Craig Montgomery. Talking her out of aborting the child, Barbara remained at her daughter's side throughout the pregnancy and lent support when it appeared as though the baby died shortly after birth. This wasn't the case however, and eventually Jennifer and son Johnny were reunited. In a cruel twist, it was Barbara who ultimately lost a child when Jennifer, so newly reconciled with her mother, caught pneumonia and died in 2006.
This tragedy, along with the death of ex-husband Hal, have helped mend the relationship between Barbara and her sons Paul and Will. She has since been diagnosed with Oral Cancer. The tumor became resistant to radiation and soon was operated on. She is currently being looked after by Meg Snyder.
This story was inspired by Pinter's real-life battle with the disease.
