ENTERTAINMENT 'Guiding Light': Where are they now? "Guiding Light" sadly shuts down in Fall 2009 after entertaining lovers of drama and deceit for 72 years, first beginning on radio in 1937 before finding its home on CBS in 1952. That's a lot of marriages, evil doppelgangers, love affairs, fake deaths and miraculous recoveries. In that lifetime, the soap played host to a number of actors, some who've gone on to become big names and even Oscar winners. Check out which familiar faces visited the fictional world of Springfield and made it out alive to entertain us elsewhere. -- Brill Bundy, Rick Porter, Hanh Nguyen, Korbi Ghosh, Andy Grieser and Darcel Rockett, Zap2it Related: Fall TV 2009: Familiar faces Fall TV 2009: What to expect on returning shows Zap2it's Fall TV preview SEE MORE GALLERIES Wire Image After a brief stint on "Guiding Light" and a few other TV programs, Bassett showed off killer toned arms long before Michelle Obama did, starring as Tina Turner in the big-screen "What's Love Got to Do With It," for which she earned a best actress Oscar nomination. Since then, she's starred in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Akeelah and the Bee" and made memorable guest runs on "Alias" as CIA Director Hayden Chase and Dr. Cate Banfield on "ER." SEE MORE GALLERIES Some big name stars got their start on the CBS soap opera. Copyright © 2018, Los Angeles Times if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf('OS 1') > -1){addEventListener('touchmove',function(){});trb.data.swipeTouchMoveEmptyHandler=true;}

Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson as Den and Angie Watts in EastEnders 1986

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Guiding Light had over 15,700 episodes between radio and television