Kristian Alfonso
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| Kristian Alfonso | |
 Kristian Alfonso in a promo for NBC |
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| Birth name | Kristian-Joy Alfonso |
| Born | September 5, 1964 (age 42) Brockton, Massachusetts  United States |
| Official site | Official Website |
| Notable roles | Hope Brady |
Kristian-Joy Alfonso (born September 5, 1963 in Brockton, Massachusetts) is an American soap opera actress.
She began her career as a figure skater and gold medal champion at the Junior Olympics. At the age of 13, a devastating tobogganing accident ended her skating career and Kristian began modelling. By the time she was 15 she had appeared on the cover of over 30 magazines, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She was first seen on TV, playing opposite Rock Hudson in the TV movie The Starmaker in 1981. Her career took off in April 1983 when she started playing Hope Williams on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. During that time, her character fell in love with, and married, ruggedly handsome Bo Brady (Peter Reckell).
Alfonso left the show in April 1987 for a two-year stint on the night time soap opera Falcon Crest as Pilar Ortega for its last two seasons. She returned to Days briefly from April to July 1990; this return culminated in the entire town of Salem believing that Hope had died.
She returned to the show for a third time in May 1994 as "Gina," an amnesiac who looked a lot like Hope. She ended up being Hope, but not before a drawn-out storyline involving evil Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) brainwashing Hope into believing she was Princess Gina von Amburg.
Alfonso has been married twice and is the mother to two sons, Gino William (born 1990) and Jack (born 2002), in addition to her stepson Spartan.
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[edit] Praise and criticism
Alfonso is a favorite amongst fans; much of this is due to her on screen chemistry with Peter Reckell, with whom she has won a number of Soap Opera Digest Awards, for Favorite Soap Couple.
A vocal fan minority has succeeded in catching the attention of soap columnists, pointing out that Alfonso has lost much weight over the last decade.
Alfonso also did not endear herself to Falcon Crest fans due to the fact that her extremely bland character, Pilar Ortega, was brought in to replace the popular Melissa Agretti, portrayed by Ana Alicia. Falcon Crest fan message boards typically are vehement in their disapproval of Alfonso's presence, as it came in the wake of Ana Alicia's abrupt firing from the series. The ratings plummeted to such an adverse degree due to Alfonso's hiring that Ana Alicia was soon hired back later the same season to play a different character.
[edit] Other credits
Kristian's other film and television credits include Joshua Tree, MacGyver, Whatever Happened to Bobby Earl, Blindfold Acts of Obsession, Day of Redemption, Full House, Burke's Law, Murder, She Wrote, Melrose Place, Baywatch, Amazing Stories (TV series), and Secret Lives.
