Soap fans knew Kimberlin Brown as the evil Sheila on "The Young and the Restless," but in real life, the actress is a hero.

Brown helped save the life of a dying baby. In a relatively painless procedure, she donated her matching bone marrow to a 14-month-old girl she doesn't know who was born with leukemia.

"It's just something that needed to be done," she said simply.

Kimberlin was already on the bone marrow registry after donating blood for a neighbor, but she wasn't a match. This time, however, she was a perfect match.

Kimberlin confided to "Extra" that the baby reminded her of her own two children. "This is why I did what I did," she admitted. "Without little faces like this to look at every day, I can't imagine a family having to lose that."

The veteran daytime star said she'll never forget the magical moment she learned the baby was going to survive. "That's when it hit me," Brown said. "Is there anything more important that you can do in your life before you leave this world than to save someone else?"

Kimberlin said she sent the baby a blanket, along with a letter from a mother's heart. "I told her every time you wrap this blanket around you, those are my arms giving you a big hug, hoping you get well," Brown wrote.

Today, Kimberlin's friends and former co-stars are hailing her as a life-saver and are praising her act as a "very selfless wonderful gift."