The chances of “When Calls the Heart” being your introduction to Jack Wagner — who plays Bill Avery — are slim. Although Wagner has appeared on the Hallmark series since 2014, he’s been entertaining fans for decades, and you’ve probably seen his work.
A soap opera veteran, Wagner has enjoyed years-long runs on some of the best soap operas of all time such as “General Hospital,” “Santa Barbara,” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” where he starred in more than 1,300 episodes over two decades. While the soap legend last appeared in the long-canceled “Santa Barbara” in 1993 and “General Hospital” in 2013, Wagner made a triumphant return to “The Bold and the Beautiful” in 2025, after taking several years off.
Wagner played Nick Marone, whose storyline was closely tied to his complicated romantic history with Brooke, played by Katherine Kelly Lang. “The reason I thought it would work, and the reason I really wanted to do it, is because [series creator Bradley Bell] and I agreed that this has to be focused on Brooke,” Wagner explained to EW about his motivations for returning to “Bold.” He continued, “I don’t want to dilute the character anywhere. His primary motivation is he has found out that her heart is broken” given that “she’s devastated again by Ridge.”
Jack Wagner also starred in Melrose Place
Jack Wagner was also a staple of the nighttime soap opera, “Melrose Place.” From 1994 to 1999, he played Dr. Peter Burns. And though the iconic soap has been off the air for more than two decades, it remains one of his most popular projects. It was also big for Wagner, professionally. “It was my first nighttime series,” he told TV Insider in 2021. “That was a big jump for me, given that I had been on General Hospital, so my whole goal on that show was to make an impact … I look at it as a big career move for me in terms of being able to move from daytime to nighttime and create a character that had an impact on the series.”
While Wagner’s fans would probably agree that he’s been exemplary in all his soap opera roles, he admitted to People that soaps can leave actors with bad habits. “I don’t necessarily agree that it’s such a great training ground,” he said in 2025. Although soap actors “want to create moments,” it can impede their ability to “just be in the moment.” He also cited soap actors’ habit of leaning on inflections or “words or phrases that really aren’t in the dialogue because there’s so much to do in such a short period of time. “If soap operas aren’t your thing, then you may have also seen Wagner in a number of his other popular roles, including “Hot in Cleveland,” “See Dad Run,” “Sunset Beach,” “Touched by an Angel,” and “Monk.”
