Started working professionally in this business back in 1968 but my real success didn’t come till 1981 when I appeared in the ABC soap opera, General Hospital. This show was on the cusp of becoming a phenomenon and I was swept up along with it. During the 12 years I was there this show opened many doors. Guest appearances and movies came thick and fast but it was my introduction to a fledgling organization called The American Cinema Award Foundation that really gave me an enormous feeling of satisfaction. And something more; that unique feeling of giving something back.
The ACAF was an organization solely given to awarding a contribution to the industry. Since the industry itself has little time for sentimentality, except when it needs something, this group bridged what has become an enormous gap, by bringing as many of the “legends” together as possible. While they were still alive. From 84’ through till the organizations demise in 98 we raised $1.3 million dollars that all went to the Motion Picture Retirement Hospital. But the memories of talking with the likes of Joseph Cotton, June Allyson, Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly and a host of others will live forever. Returning to General Hospital in 06’ I found things to be “the same but different”. The character of Robert Scorpio had lost little of his popularity. I was making strides to bring some programming into the Web and believe most sincerely that this is “the future”. My new charity these days is an organization called Project Cuddle. This is a group that rescues abandoned babies and puts them with loving parents. It also guides pregnant teens through the difficult time of childbirth by setting them up in advance with parents who want to adopt their child. All in all good stuff.
