I was planning on writing about someone else today, but, in light of news, there’s been a change of plans in my life. As a Y&R viewer since birth, this loss hurts a lot.

Born July 15, 1966 in New York City, Kristoff St. John was an American actor best known for his role as Neil Winters for the last 28 years Daytime Soap Opera, “The Young and the Restless.”

The son of actor Christopher St. John, Kristoff started his career at the age of just 7 in “That’s My Mama;” he portrayed Akex Haley in “Roots: The Next Generation;” he was Booker Brown in “Happy Days;” and he appeared in an episode “The Cosby Show” as Denise’s boyfriend (looking like a snack), David James.

His first major role came as Charlie Richmond, Jr. in Charlie & Company, a CBS sitcom with Flip Wilson, Gladys Knight, and Della Reese. His first major soap role came as Adam Marshall in NBC’s “Generations.” It was after “Generations” was canceled in 1991 that he was first introduced on “The Young and the Restless” as Neil Winters. Before Kristoff, no African American had appeared as much on the show.

Just one year later, in 1992, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Neil Winters.

He also made appearances on “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper,” “Diagnosis Murder” (Loved that show), “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “Martin,” and “Living Single,” and “A Different World” during his career.

In 2014, Kristoff’s son, Julian, who struggled with mental illness, passed away while a patients at a psychiatric health facility. In the years that followed the loss of his son, Kristoff struggled with depression while grieving and, subsequently, took a leave of absence from Y&R to try and work through his grief and anger.

On February 4, 2019, news broke that Kristoff St. John was found deceased on February 3. At the time of his death, he was engaged to model Kseniya Mikhaleva. He was just 52 years old.