She was the third actress to play that role, but she made the character her own by playing her as a beautiful, sparkly bad girl. But her big break came in 1980 when she was cast as Jill Foster Abbott on The Young and the Restless (1973).

She found an agent who helped her land small parts in several TV series. But a flair for dramatic reading in high school led to voice-over work on commercials, then local stage productions. She waited tables and worked as a stewardess for a short time. Her four-year marriage to Gary Baker, a budding politician, ended in 1978, prompting her to move to Hollywood.

She earned a degree in advertising and marketing at University of Washington, working afterward as a copywriter, commercial producer and assistant promotion manager for radio stations in Seattle, Washington. Her major influences were her mother and grandmother who always taught her to have confidence and self-assurance by telling her that she can have any job she wanted. She grew up with her brother Ashley and sister Ann.

Deborah Adair was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on to a father who was a Navy officer and a mother who was a Spanish teacher.

Soap opera actress deborah