Say the name Alison Sweeney, and nine times out of 10, people will think Days of Our Lives and Sami Brady. Though the actress has gone on to become a highly successful Hallmark star, she is now and forever will be closely associated with the Salem schemer she’s played off and on from 1993 until… well, now. (We still anticipate the fan favorite returning for arcs now and then.)

But three years before Sweeney was cast as Roman and Marlena’s daughter — on May 4 as a matter of fact — she appeared in another pivotal part on the soap: that of Adrienne Johnson. She didn’t replace the ill-fated sweetheart’s usual portrayer, Judi Evans, though. At just 11 years old, Sweeney played a younger version of the character in flashbacks.

Time, as it tends to, passed. Sweeney starred in the short-lived sitcom Family Man (above left) and eventually winged her way back to Salem to show the world what a scamp Sami had been turned into by SORAS (soap-opera rapid-aging syndrome). “I was just this dopy kid” back then, Sweeney told Kelly Clarkson in 2023. But she was a dopy kid with talent to spare. She stuck with the show, and the show stuck with her. So “the crew watched me grow up.” (See her and more stars who grew up before our eyes here.)

Evans, of course, is also a Days of Our Lives longtimer. She started playing Adrienne back in 1986 and now plays her lookalike, Bonnie Lockhart.