Longtime soap opera star Colleen Zenk, who made a career out of playing scheming villains in hit daytime dramas, has been arrested in Florida on what is her third drunk driving charge in the past 16 years.
She was arrested last month in Naples on a pair of misdemeanor DUI charges, various news outlets are just reporting this week.
The accomplished actress, 73, has played some of soap’s most memorable, conniving antagonists, including most recently 80 episodes on The Young and the Restless and an extraordinary 1,836 episodes from 1978 and continuing for 32 years in As the World Turns.
She earned three Emmy nominations on the World Turns soap, the role ending when the show went off the air in 2010.
Among her other accomplishments, in 2003 she was voted “Best Villain” by Soap Opera Digest in 2003.
Her most recent villainous character was killed off in 2025.
In real life over the years, during promotional appearances at least, she appears nothing like her diabolical characters.
Zenk also sports a pleasant smile in her police booking photo:
Naples police took Zenk into custody in May, charging her with damage to property or another person and having a DUI blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher, according to records from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office reviewed by the tabloid.
She bonded out of custody on May 16, according to authorities.
According to the arrest report, obtained by People, a witness told deputies they saw the actress back out from a handicapped parking space and collide with a parked car near a Tommy Bahama store in the 9100 block of Strada Place.
She continued driving, but stopped “a short distance away,” apparently when the witness flagged her down.
After deputies arrived, the actress appeared unsteady and smelled of alcohol, a responding sergeant noted, according to several news reports.
Zenk reportedly told officers she had been at a bistro called Bar Tulia, where she said she drank “two wine cups.”
After she agreed to perform field sobriety exercises, police noted she showed signs of impairment and later provided breath samples measuring 0.216 and 0.192 blood alcohol content (BAC), well above the drunk driving threshold.
According to People:
Zenk has faced prior DUI-related charges. Court records show she was charged in Collier County in May 2017 in what was listed as a first offense. She was also previously arrested in Connecticut in 2010 after police alleged she was driving erratically and crossed into an oncoming lane, resulting in DUI-related charges and an improper lane usage charge.
A representative for Zenk told People in a statement on June 30, “The charges are being defended. Ms. Zenk has not been convicted of anything. The truth will be played out in court.”
Her next court appearance is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on July 29.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line, which is set in the underbelly of film and TV industry, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.