Born Richard Charles Herbst.

Credited as Rick Herbst, Rick Hearst and Richard C. Hearst.

Rick Hearst, an only child, was born on January 4, 1965, in Howard Beach, New York. His parents got divorced when he was very young, resulting in Rick seeing his father infrequently. His mother remarried when Rick was a child, and they moved to New Jersey, and eventually to Texas. 

Rick participated in many school plays. His acting career started when Rick was very young, and the star of the school play got stage fright. Rick, hamming it up, took over the lead role. He graduated from highschool in Plano, Texas and attended the University of Texas on an acting scholarship, where he met his future wife, Donna.

Donna and Rick married in 1990, and have two sons-- Nicholas, born in 1991, and Cameron, born in 1995.

Rick appeared in the horror movie Brain Damage in 1988, as well as the dramatic film Crossing The Line in 1989. Before joining the cast of Guiding Light as the second Alan-Michael Spaulding in June of 1990, Rick played Scotty Banning on Days of Our Lives from 1989 to 1990.

Rick turned the role of Alan-Michael into a multi-dimensional character, and gave depth to the Dark Prince like the actors to come before and after him could not. He won a Best Younger Actor Emmy Award for his portrayal of Alan-Michael in 1991, just one day after his first son was born. He has also been nominated for several Emmy and Soap Opera Digest awards, including nominations for Best Supporting and Best Lead Actor, and was also named SOD's performer of the week at least once. Rick's Alan-Michael had so many diverse sides to him. He was never simply a vilian, but never what one could call a real classic "soap opera hero," either. Alan-Michael could act like the biggest jerk on the planet, but with Rick in the role, you still had to love him. I doubt anyone out there hated the character of Alan-Michael with Hearst in the role.

Rick had chemistry with so many of his co-stars, and he made Alan-Michael real to viewers. He made you see the vulnerabilty in Alan-Michael and why he always put his defenses up and acted the way he did: the love starved and very insecure child within him. But after six years with the show, Rick left and moved to L.A with his family. When Rick left GL, he left a huge, unfillable void, and took the REAL character of Alan-Michael, as well as many GL fans with him. [While they made us sit through six months of PodA-M and his zero chemistry with Sonia Satra's Lucy until she had finally had it with GL herself]

Since his departure from Guiding Light, Rick has had guest roles on two episodes of "Beverly Hills, 90210" an episode of the deceased NBC sitcom "Jenny" and the latest, a recently aired episode of USA Network's "Pacific Blue."

Acting isn't Rick's only talent. He's also a gifted singer/ songwriter/ guitarist. Rick had a band called Twist of Fate with a GL production assistant a few years ago, and played at the NYC club The Mad Hatter during summers. He also had a band with GL's former Dylan Lewis, Morgan Englund, called 2C. Rick also has a black belt in karate.


Not seeing Rick on a daily basis has been killing me the last two years, but it's good to see Rick off the mockery they're calling GL lately and into more juicy roles. He wears his dark, sexy curls long these days, and has had a goatee in his last two t.v. appearances. I'll miss Rick and HIS Alan-Michael dearly and look foward to the day when my beloved Rick makes it big, which I know he will. Until then, I'm just going to keep my eyes open and my fingers crossed, and console myself with my GL tapes.

We miss ya, Rick!!