She is the daughter of the late mob boss, Julian Jerome and his ex-wife, attorney, Alexis Davis via one night stand; and the illegal adoptive daughter of the late, Cody McCall and his late ex-wife, Evelyn McCall. She has been portrayed by actress Kelly Monaco since the character's debut on October 1, In August of , the role of Sam was temporarily played by Passions vet Lindsay Hartley , while Monaco was out on temporary leave.
Monaco, who had previously portrayed Livvie Locke on the ABC Daytime soap opera Port Charles GH 's spinoff from , was one of several performers from the cancelled soap to join the cast of a main daytime show. She was also Livvie's double Tess Ramsey from In , Monaco joined the first season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars and was the first champion, along with her partner, Alec Mazo , of what turned into a multi-season competition.
In , Monaco returned for Season 15 of the show known as the All Stars season and placed third with her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy. In August , a casting call was sent out to recast the role of Sam, leaving fans shocked by her possible departure.
Monaco herself dispelled the rumors, stating there was "really no doubt" she would renew her contract; it was merely standard procedure for ABC to release the casting call since she and the network had not signed off on a new contract by a set deadline.
On July 30, , Daytime Confidential revealed that Passions vet Lindsay Hartley would step in as a temporary recast of Sam when new episodes return in August. Hartley is only supposed to fill in for Monaco for a couple weeks. On August 14, , Hartley announced she was done taping as Sam. On February 2, , it was revealed that Hartley will once again step in as a temporary recast of Sam and fill in for Monaco.
