1. Barbara Ryan is a fictional character from the American CBS soap opera As the World Turns.
68 Facts About Barbara Ryan
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Barbara Ryan is portrayed as a heroine who experienced many tragedies, mostly at the hands of her controlling ex-husband, the villainous James Stenbeck.
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Over her 32 years on the show, Barbara Ryan has been shot through the heart, nearly gored by a bull in Spain, kidnapped 15 times, married nine times, burned in a chemical explosion and jumped out of a three-story window.
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Barbara Ryan decided to make Barbara a "bitch" of sorts, and had her break up long standing couple Tom Hughes and Margo Montgomery.
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Barbara Ryan then kidnapped three of her female adversaries.
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The character of Barbara Ryan was first seen on the show in 1971, she was played by Judi Rolin.
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Barbara Ryan Stranger took over the role briefly that same year, before being played by Donna Wandrey from 1971 to 1972.
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Barbara Ryan is first introduced to the Hughes family when her mother, Jennifer, marries Bob Hughes.
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Barbara Ryan is very happy for her mother and likes having Bob as a stepfather.
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Barbara Ryan has a fairly uncomplicated teenage life, but suffers from bulimia at age 16.
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Barbara Ryan then began dating her former stepbrother Tom Hughes.
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At about this time, Barbara Ryan began receiving mysterious phone calls.
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Claudia's husband, Raymond, proved to be an abusive man and, with Tom's help, Barbara Ryan was able to secure custody of Paul.
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Barbara Ryan resisted a romantic reunion with the dashing aristocrat and became engaged to Tom, but Stenbeck soon learned that he was Paul's father and confronted her on her wedding day.
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Barbara Ryan tearfully left Tom at the altar and ran off to the Caribbean with James and they made plans to marry.
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Barbara Ryan was shot, but survived and she and James married in her hospital room.
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Finally, Barbara Ryan found out about the affair and the illegal activities.
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Later, Barbara Ryan's flashbacks started to have a mysterious blonde Englishman coming to Paris who, for some reason, was very angry with Jason.
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Not long after, at the funeral of James's brother, Lars, Barbara Ryan was shocked to see a man who looked exactly like Geoffrey: Gunnar St Clair.
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Barbara Ryan produced records from the St Clair orphanage showing that Greta Aldrin, James's ex-nanny, brought him there after his parents died, because James's father didn't want him living in the same house.
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Later, at Fashions, Gunnar saw Barbara Ryan holding a blue dress and suggested that she buy it.
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Barbara Ryan was convinced these visions were premonitions of the end of her marriage, and she was afraid of her attraction to Gunnar.
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Barbara Ryan headed for her cabin in Michigan to get away.
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When Barbara Ryan got into her car at the cabin, a masked man put a gun to her head.
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Barbara Ryan's captors were Charles Ivenstrom, the man who had once ordered her death, and his daughter, Ingrid, the widow of James's younger brother, Lars.
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Alone in a dark cellar, on Halloween Eve, Gunnar and Barbara Ryan declared their love.
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James arrived to find Gunnar and Barbara Ryan sleeping in each other's arms.
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Alone with Barbara Ryan, James accused her of having an affair with Gunnar, which she denied.
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Barbara Ryan begged Barbara to reconsider and warned that she and Gunnar would never get custody of Paul.
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Barbara Ryan ignored him and went to Switzerland with Gunnar, leaving Paul with her Aunt Kim and Kim's husband, Nick.
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Continually argumentative, at one point, Paul hit Brian several times and when Brian raised his hand, instinctively, to hit back, Barbara Ryan walked in and railed into Brian.
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From that moment, Barbara Ryan vowed to no longer be victimized by men.
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Later, Barbara Ryan attempted to seduce Tom Hughes, now married to Margo Montgomery.
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Barbara Ryan's efforts paid off when she learned Shannon had a husband.
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Vindictively wanting to stop Shannon's wedding to Brian, Barbara Ryan located Shannon's husband, Duncan McKechnie, and brought him to Oakdale.
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Around Hal, Barbara Ryan finally started loosening up and enjoying the simple pleasures in life, such as a hockey game and a can of beer.
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Barbara Ryan was convicted of the crime and sent to jail.
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From that point on, Barbara Ryan focused her energies on her sons.
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Barbara Ryan decided the perfect solution was for Gwen to adopt Sophie's baby and arranged a deal with Gwen's mother, Iris, to buy Sophie's baby.
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Barbara Ryan lied that she would look into the matter and then tried to cover her tracks.
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Barbara Ryan went straight to Will and Gwen who confronted Barbara.
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At Lisa's suggestion, Barbara Ryan consulted her doctor and was horrified to learn that she had oral cancer.
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At this point, Will and Gwen were contending with Sofie, who wanted Hallie back, while Paul had just been injured in a car explosion and Barbara Ryan did not want to be a burden on her sons.
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At Sofie's insistence, Barbara Ryan, finally, told her family about her condition.
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Although, Will and Gwen were poised to reconsider their move out of Oakdale, Barbara Ryan refused to let them put their lives on hold for her.
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At this point, Paul invited Barbara Ryan to stay with him at Fairwinds.
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Worried about Sofie's attraction to Paul, Barbara Ryan decided that Meg was the better choice and tried to convince Meg to reunite with Paul, and even hired Meg as her private nurse.
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Barbara Ryan denied murdering Sofie and, on her lawyer's suggestion, enlisted Rick Decker's help in proving Paul's innocence.
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Not long after, Barbara Ryan was visited by Hallie's father, Cole Norbeck, who informed her that he saw her murder Sofie.
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Since she had been taking pain medication, Barbara Ryan couldn't dismiss Cole's claim that she killed Sofie in a drug induced stupor.
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Luckily for Barbara Ryan, she got the upper hand and knocked Cole out with his own drugs.
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James Stenbeck returned to Oakdale in August 2008, and soon enough, Barbara Ryan had confronted him, learning he had stolen her money to get Paul to ask him for help and not her.
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Barbara Ryan then closed all of her accounts, liquifying the money and guaranteeing Paul that he would get the loan he asked for.
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At that time, Barbara Ryan went to New York for a business trip.
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Since Paul was uninterested in fighting for his inheritance, Barbara Ryan took it upon herself to make sure Paul got the inheritance that he deserved.
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Luckily, Henry found out what his mother was up to and stopped Barbara Ryan from drinking the poison.
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Henry and Barbara Ryan fell into bed again and soon began relishing their commitment free affair.
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Barbara Ryan's captor turned out to be Gwen's mother, Iris, who demanded bank codes from Barbara Ryan, and forced her to write a short note to ask her family to give her time alone.
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Barbara Ryan discovered a walkie-talkie and somehow tuned the frequency to Jacob's baby monitor.
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Barbara Ryan suddenly wanted nothing to do with Henry, who'd chosen Vienna over her, but after a poignant talk with Katie, Barbara Ryan accepted Henry's marriage proposal.
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Henry and Barbara Ryan received the cold shoulder when they announced their engagement to her sons, who were opposed to her marrying James Stenbeck's son.
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Henry withdrew his proposal, but Barbara Ryan insisted that genes wouldn't hold them back.
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Later, Barbara Ryan decided to dissolve BRO so that she could concentrate on her new life with Henry.
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Barbara Ryan recalled the secrecy in the return of Barbara's supposedly dead husband, James Stenbeck.
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Barbara Ryan found Hal, fell in love with him, and couldn't figure out how to put that marriage first.
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The one thing I always loved about the character, that they never forgot, is that Barbara Ryan never learned from her mistakes.
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Barbara Ryan completely resurrected Barbara, and I became his muse.
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Barbara Ryan saved us, and he certainly saved Barbara, that's for sure.