John McCook Opens up About Retiring

When Eric fell ill and was given a terminal diagnosis, fans feared that this would be John McCook’s final storyline on THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL and that the veteran actor was retiring. It was an understandable conclusion to jump to, given his decades in show business.

McCook started his career back in the ‘60s, appearing in various primetime television series before making his daytime debut as Lance Prentiss on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS in 1975. He remained with the soap until 1980, then worked more in primetime before returning to daytime as patriarch Eric Forrester on B&B beginning with the show’s very first episode in March 1987.

While it would be perfectly understandable for McCook to want to retire, fans were thrilled when an unexpected twist to the emotional storyline gave Eric a new lease on life. “From my point of view, I’ll be working right up until they drag me out of here,” the actor declared to Soaps.com. “I celebrate, privately, every day that I have this job. It’s fun, it’s creative, I like the people that I work with. After my lovely wife and lovely children, it’s the next thing that I’m grateful for — this job and the work that I’m fortunate enough to get to do.”

McCook was thrilled at the fan response to the storyline and admitted it was difficult to keep the secret that Eric would eventually pull through. But now that the risky surgery has proven a success and Eric is on the mend, it’s only a matter of time before McCook has yet another dramatic new tale to tell on screen.

Stay tuned to see what it might be!