Fans Can’t Get Over How Different The Cast Of Melrose Place Is Today

Remember Melrose Place? If it had existed in the era of Twitter, it’d be trending every week. It was that kind of TV show, full of drama and sex and gorgeous actors. And can you believe, it’s been almost 30 years since it first hit our screens? What’s the cast up to now? And how have the last few decades treated them?

Kelly Rutherford

Kelly Rutherford’s Melrose Place character Megan Lewis had a pretty complicated storyline. She was a prostitute who fell in love with the man with whom she’d been hired to sleep, with multiple other dramas springing out of that plotline. And in real life Rutherford found herself facing a pretty dramatic situation as well.

Rutherford made headlines in the 2000s when she fought her ex-husband Daniel Giersch for custody of their children. Eventually she won 50/50 custody in 2012 – but then three years later she lost it. Luckily that wasn’t the end of the story, and she does in fact still see her kids. Rutherford also continued to act, with two of her most famous post-Melrose Place roles being in Gossip Girl and Dynasty.

Brooke Langton

Former model Brooke Langton scored a role on Melrose Place as Samantha Reilly just as her TV career was taking off. She starred on the show from 1995 until 1998 and after that plenty more doors were open to her. She was cast on The Net right after Melrose Place finished simply on the strength of her performances in the 90210 spin-off.

Langton is still a very successful TV actress today. Among the hit shows on her impressive CV there’s Supernatural, Friday Night Lights, The Last Ship, Monk and The Mentalist. And you may also notice that the now middle-aged actress doesn’t appear to have changed much looks-wise since the ’90s.

Jamie Luner

Jamie Luner played the beautiful but villainous Lexi Sterling starting from Season Six of the show. In 2009 she recollected to Advocate magazine, “I always have fond memories of Melrose Place. It was such an incredible show to be on. It’s pop-culture history, and one of those iconic shows.”

After Melrose Place ended showrunner Chuck Pratt cast Luner in his next show, All My Children. Luner appeared on that series until 2011 when it ended, but she continued to get roles after that. Now, she does plenty of movies for the Lifetime TV channel, plus the odd guest appearance on popular shows.

Amy Locane

Amy Locane was in the first 13 episodes of Melrose Place, playing waitress Sandy Harling. But right from the start there were indications her life was about to go wrong. In 2017 years after Locane’s downfall, her co-star Doug Savant remembered to Entertainment Weekly magazine, “She had an immature outlook on how the progression of her career was going to go.”

And unfortunately Locane made a terrible mistake. In 2010 she got into her car while drunk and caused a crash which killed a 60-year-old woman. When she received a new sentence in 2019 she told the judge, “There is not a day that has gone by that I have not thought of the pain that my actions caused. I have done everything I can do to be not the person who did what I did nine years ago.”

Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Williams spent one season in Melrose Place as Rhonda, but wasn’t invited back. She told TV Guide magazine in 2001 that this was “devastating” but went on, “I think they didn't make the effort to equip themselves [to write for a black character], either by hiring a black writer or asking me things.”

Williams has plenty of other shows under her belt now. Her Soul Food was a big success, and it won her a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama. Since then she’s played, among others, Francine West in The Flash, Dr. Valerie Grant in Days of Our Lives, and Anne-Marie in the 2021 Candyman movie.

Josie Bissett

Bissett played the character of Jane Mancini on Melrose Place – and inspired a thousand pixie cut hairstyles – but during the 1996-7 season she was absent. That’s because Bissett herself sadly suffered a miscarriage at that point and had to take time off to recover. But in 1998 she returned to the show.

Melrose Place actually got a sequel series in 2009 and Bissett reprised her role. The Jane of the new show had lost her fashion boutique in a fire; unfortunately art imitated life there, as Bissett’s house burned down in 2015. Looking for silver linings, at least she and her family were unharmed. Bissett’s still acting and she has a side career as a children’s book writer.

Rob Estes

They didn’t meet on the show, but Josie Bissett and her co-star Rob Estes were actually married for a time. Bissett joined Melrose Place the same year she married Estes and four years later Estes joined her as the character Kyle McBride, having appeared in a tiny role as a different character back in Season Two.

In 2006 Estes and Bissett divorced, having spent 14 years together and raised two children. Estes eventually married again and had another child, a son named Makai, in 2011. He’s still on TV screens – he jumped into another part of the Melrose Place universe when he was cast on the show 90210 in 2008.

Marcia Cross

Marcia Cross acted out one of the show’s most infamous and well-remembered scenes. Her character, Dr. Kimberly Shaw, was thought to be dead but she was too good to lose. She returned, and in the process pulled off her wig to reveal a dramatic scar across her head. It was a true water-cooler moment.

Cross went on to appear in another smash-hit show, Desperate Housewives. She continued to act once it finished, but in 2018 she took on a new role: campaigning to raise awareness about anal cancer. She herself survived the disease, and now she wants to break the social taboos surrounding discussion of the affliction.

Lisa Rinna

Lisa Rinna is a reality TV star now, but she used to find drama in a different place as Taylor on Melrose Place. When the sequel series was announced she at first wanted to return, then changed her mind. She told Entertainment Weekly in 2009 that she and her husband had been “going through stuff” when she was on the original show.

Rinna is now best known as one of the stars of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but she considers she’s acting on that show as well. She told the Los Angeles Times newspaper in 2019, “I’m watching Lisa on the Real Housewives – or Rinna, as I like to call her. She’s funny. I get a kick out of her actually.”

Laura Leighton

Laura Leighton played Sydney, the sister of Jane, throughout every season of Melrose Place except the first. And she met her husband on the show! After a few years of working together she fell for her co-star Doug Savant. They married in 1998 and are still together, having had four children along the way.

Leighton absolutely loved Melrose Place. When she joined the sequel show in 2009 she told the TV Addict website, “Who wouldn’t want to come back and play the character again? Sydney was one of my favorite characters ever to play and to get the opportunity to do it again… well, it was sort of a no-brainer.” And once that was done, she did seven seasons of Pretty Little Liars for good measure.

Doug Savant

Doug Savant’s Matt Fielding was one of the first well-developed homosexual characters on American television. The Melrose Place series was the brainchild of Darren Star, and he told the Television Academy in 2016, that despite a certain amount of suspicion and hostility from behind-the-scenes television executives, the Fielding character was written as someone who was always just “leading his life.” Savant himself wasn’t gay though – he was and still is married to co-star Laura Leighton.

Savant is now one of those actors who seems to pop up in every TV show going. He’s been in some massively popular hits, including 24, Criminal Minds, and Desperate Housewives, in that last instance appearing alongside his Melrose Place co-star Marcia Cross. And he remains proud to have played one of TV’s first gay men.

Kristin Davis

Kristin Davis got her big break with Melrose Place, playing Brooke. In 1996 she told the newspaper Deseret News, “Before Melrose, I was doing guest-star stuff and I was doing commercials and, basically, I was really thrilled whenever I got a job.” The interview was headlined “Davis proves there’s life after ‘Melrose Place’” but they didn’t know the half of it then.

In 1998 Davis was cast as Charlotte York in the absolute TV phenomenon that was Sex and the City. It ran until 2004 and spawned a couple of movies after that. It’s still not over, either – Davis will be back as Charlotte for a reboot of the show, titled And Just Like That…

Thomas Calabro

In 2017 Thomas Calabro remembered to The Hollywood Reporter magazine, “I was tossing out almost all of the scripts I was seeing because they were so bad. Then, there was one that actually read well – Melrose Place – so I said I’d go in for it. They told me when I went to audition that I was ten years too old for the part and I should forget about it.” Thankfully, he didn’t.

Calabro played Michael Mancini for the entirety of the show – the one actor to stay on from beginning to end, and he reprised his role for the revival as well. So much for being told to forget about it! Calabro’s been in plenty of other shows since Melrose Place ended, including Glee and The Last Ship.

Grant Show

Without Grant Show Melrose Place might never have happened in the first place. His character Jake Hanson was the one who sparked the spinoff of Beverly Hills, 90210 and introduced audiences to all the other characters they grew to love. Show ended up playing Jason for five seasons of Melrose Place overall.

In 2017 Show told The Hollywood Reporter, “I didn’t want to do more than five years because back then, if you stay too long on something, it’s kind of the end of your career. And it didn’t feel like the show had momentum after the original cast left.” But maybe he shouldn’t have worried about his career too much, because it’s still going strong today.

Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano is pretty much a household name now, and Melrose Place helped considerably with her rise to fame. She made a guest star appearance as Michael’s sister Jennifer on Season Five of Melrose Place, and the audience liked her performance so much that she soon became a series regular.

After leaving Melrose Place Milano was cast as witch Phoebe Halliwell in the series Charmed, which enhanced her profile even further. She’s racked up TV show after TV show since then, including My Name is Earl and Project Runway. She’s also noted for her forthright views on social media as well as her political activism.

Courtney Thorne-Smith

Courtney Thorne-Smith, aka Alison Parker, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 about the success of Melrose Place. She remembered that upon getting the first script from writer Aaron Spelling her agent told her, “This is going to get buzz and you’ll get some name recognition.” And the agent was totally right.

As soon as she left Melrose Place Thorne-Smith auditioned for the lead role on Ally McBeal, but instead she won the supporting role of Georgia Thomas. She’s worked steadily ever since, with stints on popular TV shows including According to Jim, Two and a Half Men and Fresh Off the Boat

Daphne Zuniga

Daphne Zuniga, already noted for her role in the comedy movie Spaceballs, was brought in to replace Amy Locane when she left in Season One. She ended up lasting longer than her predecessor, as she stayed with the show until 1996. And her character Jo Reynolds got a happy ending!

Zuniga’s done lots of stuff since her time on Melrose Place came to an end. She appeared on the shows Beautiful People and One Tree Hill, but she’s done work outside of acting as well. In the 2000s she took on an administrative role with the L.A. River Revitalization Corporation and still takes part in environmental activism.

Andrew Shue

Andrew Shue – the brother of fellow thespian Elisabeth – played Billy Campbell right up until the seventh season of Melrose Place. In the show’s heyday he found himself overwhelmed by the sudden fame: on one occasion he attended a reception with several massive stars and found that he was the one getting all the attention.

Shue faded away a bit from the acting world as he got older, although he did make a film with his sister, 2007’s Gracie. He also just so happens to be the co-founder of the social media site CafeMom along with Michael Sanchez. But right now it seems he’s busy raising his family with wife Amy Robach.

Jack Wagner

Jack Wagner was already famous for General Hospital when he was cast as Peter Burns for Melrose Place’s fourth season. His love interest happened to be Heather Locklear’s Amanda – but the relationship would continue away from the cameras. They spent four years together before getting engaged in 2011, but then the marriage was called off.

Wagner is still amicable with Locklear and supportive of her, but they’ve definitely gone their separate ways. Wagner’s career has carried on much the same way as it did before, though. After Melrose Place he jumped onto another soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, and now does Hallmark Channel shows.

Priscilla Presley

None other than the ex-wife of Elvis appeared on Melrose Place back in 1996. She did a few episodes as Nurse Benson, who becomes the love interest of Jack Wagner’s Peter Burns. “I don’t watch TV, so I didn’t come with any preconceived ideas,” Presley told Entertainment Weekly at the time.

For someone who doesn’t watch much TV, Presley does actually appear on screen quite a bit. You may have seen her on various talk shows and competitions over the years, for instance. Off screen, she’s also a businesswoman with her own line of products. One of the main things she does, though, is work to keep everyone’s memory of Elvis Presley alive.

Heather Locklear

Heather Locklear began her time on Melrose Place as a guest star, but her character of Amanda Woodward was so popular she soon became a series regular. Locklear became the person most associated with the show and she was also nominated for a Golden Globe four times as the series went on.

Unfortunately, Locklear has had a lot of personal troubles since the show came to an end. She struggles with addiction and has been in and out of rehab for a long time, plus she’s had run-ins with the law as well. This culminated in her eventually being detained in a psychiatric facility in 2019 for a period, but her Melrose Place co-stars Wagner and Bissett sent their love and support.