Colleen Zenk
Colleen Zenk was born in Barrington, Illinois, United States on January 20th, 1953 and is the Soap Opera Actress. At the age of 71, Colleen Zenk biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, TV shows, and networth are available.
At 71 years old, Colleen Zenk has this physical status:
Colleen Zenk (born January 20, 1953) is an American actress best known for her role as Barbara Ryan in the daytime TV drama As the World Turns, a role she occupied from September 1978 to September 2010, which was not broadcast in September 2010.
Personal life
In 1983, Zenk married musician and comedian Michael Crouch. In 1986, the couple married in 1986.
Mark Pinter, an actor who appeared on the set of ATWT in 1987, married her. They raised six children together (four from previous marriages and two from their union). They lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Zenk requested divorce in May 2010, citing abandonment and irreconcilable differences as reasons for the dissolution. In August 2010, the divorce was announced.
Zenk was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2007. Zenk's stage II cancer was treated by a series of four surgeries, including brachytherapy radiation. Zenk appeared on CBS' The Early Show in October 2007 to highlight oral cancer risk factors and early screening.
She worked with the Oral Cancer Foundation to conduct additional interviews in print and television media, as well as produce public service television news on the importance of early detection. CBS invested approximately $500,000 in airtime minutes on their national affiliates for the PSA in 2008.
Her cancer resurfaced in November 2008. She had neck dissection surgery to cut 22 lymph nodes and then underwent five weeks of daily IMRT radiation therapy, which came in late February 2009. In 2009, Hollywood, Health and Society acknowledged her and As The World Turns. She underwent further surgery in December 2010 and January 2013, but she is now in remission.
In March, 2009, her life was chronicled in Woman's Day magazine. Zenk said in the essay that her cancer was most likely caused by HPV-16, a form of a common sexually transmitted virus that can also cause cervical cancer.
Zenk revealed that she contracted COVID-19 in 2020, despite a lengthy recovery period.
Career
In 1980, Zenk co-starred on Broadway with musical theatre legends Chita Rivera and Donald O'Connor in the sequel to Bye Bye Birdie titled Bring Back Birdie. She also appeared with Albert Finney and Carol Burnett, in the 1982 movie musical Annie directed by John Huston.
In 1982, Zenk was also the focus of a commercial for L'eggs pantyhose.
In 1991, she was one of three actors - along with fellow daytime performers Deidre Hall and Leslie Charleson - to appear in the leading roles of the NBC made-for-television movie "Women on the Ledge."
Zenk's most notable role was as Barbara Ryan on As the World Turns. After auditioning for several soap operas, including The Edge of Night, Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow, Zenk was signed to a contract at As the World Turns and assumed the role of Barbara in 1978. She played the role for 32 years, until the show ended in 2010.
In the early years of Zenk's run on As the World Turns, her character, Barbara, was tormented by her criminal ex-husband, James Stenbeck (played by Anthony Herrera). For a brief period in the mid-1980s, the character of Barbara, as written by award-winning head writer Douglas Marland, became a complex romantic vixen.
In 2001, then head-writer Hogan Sheffer took the character in a drastically different direction after the character suffered burns in a fire which destroyed her face (and more deception by then-husband Craig Montgomery). Sheffer was quoted in a 2006 interview in a cover-feature article in The New Yorker that he wanted to give Zenk, who he felt was an "under-utilized gem of an actress", more to do than just pour coffee with children underfoot. She was nominated for a Lead Actress Daytime Emmy Award in 2001, 2002. and 2011, and also voted Best Villain by Soap Opera Digest in 2003. Sheffer won the Emmy Outstanding Writing in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005, in part with stories featuring Zenk's work.
Zenk was prominently featured in the show's special 50th anniversary episode "Seven Divas on a Bus" in April 2006, and also in several special comedy episodes over the years.
In 2014, she appeared as "Joan" in the 5th-season episode "Loose Lips" of the CBS show Blue Bloods.
On "Thurston," a Western web series, she portrayed town madam, "Agnes Snead" garnering two Lead Actress nominations from the Indie Series Awards.
Zenk also appeared in supporting roles on the web series "Tainted Dreams" and "Milgram and the Fastwalkers".
In April 2018 the series "After Forever" debuted on Amazon; Zenk played Dr. Robbins.