Hallmark Channel stars and executives frequently hear from fans who say their movies were a lifeline while they battled severe illness or cared for a sick loved one. So imagine the healing power of having a favorite Hallmark star actually show up at your bedside to wish you well!
That’s what happened for some lucky, starstruck patients as a group of beloved Hallmark actors, in Chicago for the October 2026 premiere of “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story,” dropped by a UChicago Medicine AdventHealth hospital. They also stopped by a Chicago firehouse, in mourning after losing one of their own, to spread a bit of early holiday cheer.
Hallmark Channel’s Brooke D’Orsay Says It Was an ‘Honor’ to Visit Hospital Patients
On October 22, UChicago Medicine AdventHealth posted a compilation video of Hallmark stars including Brendan Penny, Ali Liebert, Brooke D’Orsay, Tamera Mowry-Housley, and Kristoffer Polaha surprising patients and staff.
The video started by showing a woman in a neck brace smiling from her hospital bed as a loved one, sitting next to her, exclaimed, “Oh my god, I don’t believe it!” The camera then panned to show Liebert, Penny, and D’Orsay smiling brightly as they entered the room.
“You know how you feel like, ‘This is not really happening?'” the woman said after their visit. “I mean, the people you see on TV, right there before you! And ohhh, they are so nice. I was just over the moon.”
Penny, whose new movie “Mr. and Mrs. Christmas” premiered on October 17, told the person filming, “Just to be here in someone’s time of need, that you can provide some sort of joy or some sort of happiness, it’s an incredible thing.”
“Our movies are light, and they bring joy,” he continued, “and they bring an ease to people, and a lot of people need that.”
D’Orsay, who co-stars with Liebert in November’s “A Season of Promises,” added, “If we could bring any feelings of joy and health and goodness,” D’Orsay added, “it does a lot when you feel better internally. Sometimes there’s some healing powers in just smiling and feeling some joy.”
The actress also said that for patients to “allow us in that space is really an honor.”
Fans who saw the video online had some hilarious and heartwarming reactions, including one who wrote, “If Im ever in the hospital and the Hallmark stars came to visit me, I would miraculously get better no matter what was wrong with me. I would get up and walk. I would rise from the dead.”
Someone else quipped that they’d “need CPR” if Hallmark stars visited them in the hospital, and another commented, “Very very cool thing to do. It meant so much to those sick people. Thank you for bringing so much joy to them ❤️”
A Dozen Hallmark Channel Stars & Filmmakers Visited a Chicago Firehouse in Mourning
A dozen stars, including cast members of “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story,” in which Robert Buckley plays a firefighter, also visited a Chicago firehouse that’s still mourning the loss of one of their own. Firefighter/EMT Michael “Mickey” Altman of Truck 47 died in March at age 27 from injuries he sustained fighting an apartment building fire.
Hallmark worked with the Chicago Bears’ nonprofit, Bears Care, to present a $10,000 check to a memorial fund established for Altman, a fourth-generation Chicago firefighter and soon-to-be father of two.
“Holiday Touchdown” executive producer Andrew Gernhard told EntertainmentNow that seeing how much good Bears Care does in Chicagoland “was really eye-opening,” explaining, “They legitimately go in and work really hard to make a difference in the community and to see it in action was really special.”
Buckley’s co-star, Lyndsy Fonseca, added, “That makes us proud to be able to talk about and support the movie because we’re so proud of the Bears and to be part of that.”
“Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story” is available to stream via Hallmark+, along with every other new movie that’s already premiered as Hallmark Channel’s 2026 Countdown to Christmas gets underway.
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Hallmark Stars Surprise ‘Over the Moon’ Hospital Patients & First Responders With Emotional Visits