DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ

Debra Cole, a 46-year-old native of Buffalo, spent years on and off Broadway as an actor, but an illness she kept secret for years has brought her back to the Niagara Frontier where she gives acting classes for These Working Actors.

She has worked with James Earl Jones and Mario Van Peebles on Arts and Entertainment Network and with Kevin Bacon on a soap opera. Her soap opera appearances include “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns” and “Ryan’s Hope.”

Entire story, here.

Debra Cole played a drifter named Patsy on GL in 1986. Simon and Jessie were arrested for a robbery at Company that Patsy and her boyfriend, Jack, actually committed. The episode aired in 1986. Ms. Cole returned to the show in 1989 and again briefly in 1994 to play Connie Lemay, Susan/Daisy's adoptive mother. In the first scene, she and husband Jim were taking custody of Susan/Daisy from a tearful Harley. In the final one, she and Jim came to ask Dylan to donate a part of his pancreas to Susan in order to cure her rare form of diabetes (the procedure obviously worked, as Susan can now guzzle sugary soda with the best of them). Dylan agreed and underwent the procedure. But when he asked to see Susan, the Lemays refused.

Kevin Bacon appeared on GL as Tim from 1980 to 1981. (Let's give the above story the benefit of the doubt and presume that prior to her speaking roles as Patsy and Connie, Ms. Cole may have worked as an extra on GL in a scene that did feature Mr. Bacon.)