Carly Manning

Carly Manning is a fictional character on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives. Crystal Chappell portrayed the character from June 12, 1990, to October 18, 1993. After a sixteen-year absence, she reprised the role on October 2, 2009, to September 22, 2011. Chappell's most memorable storyline was in 1993 when her longtime rival Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel) buried her alive, which has become one of the show's most notorious plots. Along with Vivian, most of Carly's stories revolve around her ex-husband Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and late husband Lawrence Alamain (Michael Sabatino). Casting Following the departure of Kristian Alfonso as heroine Hope Williams Brady in 1990, DAYS sought an actress for the newly created role of Carly Manning. Crystal Chappell joined the cast after her short-term role as drug dealer Jane Kingsley on another NBC soap opera, Santa Barbara when she was approached by the show's casting director Doris Sabbagh. Chappell studied acting at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and with legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner before she pursued the art professionally in 1989 after being cast as a day player on the ABC soap opera All My Children. By the time she began to appear as a regular on DAYS, she felt accomplished to have booked such a prominent role on a major show. After spending three years on the soap, Chappell left and eventually took roles on One Life to Live as Maggie Carpenter from 1995-1997 and Guiding Light as Olivia Spencer from 1999-2009, where she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002. After 16 years away, Chappell returned to the show in October 2009 following the cancellation of GL, which ended its run less than a month earlier. While meeting with executives of another show, Gary Tomlin, the co-executive of DAYS at the time called Chappell and asked her to return. After nearly two years back, Chappell's contract was not renewed and she exited the show in September 2011. Following her exit, Chappell joined the cast of CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful as Danielle in the show's first lesbian storyline. Storylines