Paul Ryan: VP Pick. and The Son of James Stenbeck and Barbara Ryan on AS THE WORLD TURNS

Republican Mitt Romney announced on Saturday morning that Rep. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin was the choice to be his Vice Presidential running mate. AS THE WORLD TURNS fans started tweeting us immediately, amused by the fact that he shares a name with a very familiar character in the show's history--James (Anthony Herrera) and Barbara's (Colleen Zenk) son, Paul Ryan. The origins of the character, at least the actors portraying him, have not been well documented. So we are here to try to set the record straight.

Canaan Crouch was the very first Paul Ryan in AS THE WORLD TURNS! Canaan was the son of Zenk's then boyfriend Michael Crouch (later her husband).   Paul was being raised by the Colfax family so maybe his name was Paul Colfax then.  It soon changed to Paul Stenbeck but as he grew up Paul decided to use his mother's name, Ryan, instead.

Crouch played the role in early 1980 when the character debuted but was quickly replaced by director Bruce Barry's son, who lasted a couple of weeks. There was a third Paul that we have not been able to identify who played the part until the fourth Paul came on board, Danny Pintauro. Pintauro lasted for a few years on the show before moving on to WHO'S THE BOSS?

The remaining actors are well documented on various websites around the web:

Eldin Ratliss (1984–1985)
C. B. Barnes (1985–1986)
Damon Scheller (1986)
Andrew Kavovit (1986–1991, 1992) FYI: He won an Emmy for the role
John Howard (1996)
Scott Holroyd (2001–2003)
Roger Howarth (2003–2010)

Who was your favorite Paul Ryan?  Share your thoughts in our Comments section below.

VP choice Ryan also has another daytime soap "connection" at least in terms of headlines in the past week.  I have seen more than one media outlet use the term "Ryan's Hope" when speculating he might be chosen.