Jeanne Cooper stars as 'Katherine Chancellor' in the CBS daytime drama 'The Young and the Restless'.

When you work in the business long enough, you see a lot of actors come and go. Some you eventually forget, and some make such an impact on your life that they become family. The characters themselves begin to feel like family, and play a major part in a soap actor's life.

Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor, The Young and the Restless) has met her fair share of actors. Her fellow actors on Y&R have become her friends, her family, her confidantes.

When actors leave, it can be tough on the ones they leave behind. "When Rex (Sterling, played by Quinn Redeker) died, I didn't want to go onto my set for two months," Jeanne says. "I was depressed for two months after he died."

And now, with the passing of the Abbot family patriarch, John Abbott (Jerry Douglas), this past summer, Jeanne is feeling the sting. She explains: "I miss Jerry. He's a part of your life; he's been on for 20 years. That's a lot of input from him. You begin to realise that the Abbott family has lost their mainstay. And I (Katherine) lost a dear friend."

It's also a shame that the family lost so much time with their father because "this piece of rock fell off a meteor and it hit Genoa City, in the form of Gloria (Judith Chapman). You know, he should have been put in jail just for marrying her. Was it worth dying for? But, (the Gloria situation) humors Katherine in many ways."

the Abbott family

Katherine won't be laughing, though, when she finds out that Jack Abbott has gone behind her back and bought Jabot. "She did NOT want to fire him, but she did what she had to do. Katherine loves Jack like a son. And it really hurt her to do what she had to do. For him to turn around and shove it to her, you just don't do that!" Especially to Katherine Chancellor.

Not all the Abbott children are quite as nefarious as Jack. As Jeanne puts it: "Traci (Beth Maitland) is John Abbott. She has the spirit of John Abbott. She really is John Abbott's daughter." As for Ashley: "She's the conscience of the family. Eileen Davidson is wonderful. She is a gem in the middle of a treasure chest."

All this talk about the Abbotts, but what about Katherine? Where does she fit, and how does she feel? Jeanne explains: "The thing I like best about Katherine is the fact that she is a steel magnolia. She is vulnerable, but only the audience knows. It hearkens back to the old Hitchcockian device: Let the audience know, but not the other actors. And when Katherine is sad, she really hurts."

And that's where Katherine's sense of humor plays a major role. "I have installed Katherine's sense of humor. I can cry only so many times. We've gotta laugh. Esther (Kate Linder) is usually my target, and so is Jill. My sense of humor is very accepted by the audience, which is a good thing. No one wants to be sad all the time."

With Jeanne Cooper in charge, there's little chance of that happening!