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Ron Hale (Roger):I Met My Wife Under A Hood Of A Car (and found a great family too!)

TV Dawn to Dusk – June 1977

It's not easy to become an “instant father.” Parenthood is hard enough when you get to grow into the task as the baby is growing up. But when the family comes ready-made, the job may seem even tougher.

Ron Hale, however, takes it all in stride. He's said wholeheartedly: ”I've always loved kids. I fell in love with someone and I knew she had children. They were part of her – and I liked them immediately.” Ron lives on Staten Island with his wife, Dood, and this three step-children (from Dood's previous marriage) Erin, 15, Dana, 13, and Piper, 11.

The most exciting thing that's happened to Ron, outside Ryan's Hope – on which he plays rotten “Roger Coleridge”, is the family's house-hunting. “I've lived in apartments all my life,” Ron says, “and this will be an exciting major step for me. We've been looking north of th city, and we've found a place that is in the country, about 65 miles north of Manhattan. It's a 187 year old caretakers house, really kind of a dream house for us. It's the kind of thing we've alway wanted. There's well over an acre of land.”

“Whether or not we got it depended on the bank. Being an actor, of course, it's very difficult to get any kind of credit. It's very alarming, but I suppose I can see their point of view. It's like you're a second class citizen if you're an actor. You don't have any secure background. You can't give a bank your resume over the last 12 years and show then how much you've worked, how steady a person you are. They don't want to hear about it. They want to know how long you've been with said corporation and how much money you owe. They love it when you owe money. It shows you are reliable. It's kind of contradictory. But we owe nothing because I've always paid for everything in cash. But when our mortgage goes through, we'll be moving in at the end of June.”

Both husband and wife work (perhaps improving the before-mentioned creditworthiness) although Ron is the only performer in the family. “If we were both actors,” Ron points out, “ you'd have two people needing the same kind of things and we really couldn't give them to each other. Plus separation in this business - the constant serpentine – is bound to cause problems.” This is not to imply the “little woman” waits at home with feather duster in hand. “My lady is a very strong woman,” he says proudly, “ and I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Dood broke her leg last spring and has only been back to work for couple of months. “Right now she's managing an auto parts store. She's done various things, been a buyer for a major department store, run needlepoint shops - lots of everything.”

“She got into this project about 2 years ago. A friend of our owns probably the largest auto supply company and warehouse in Staten Island. He asked her to come design a store that would be more conducive for a woman to come into... not just a great-looking place where mechanics come day in and day out. There are more women buying auto parts for themselves and their husband. So she designed it and we worked together on the building. I did most of the carpentry. It's been a challenge for her, and I think she's done very well.”

As if anticipating a further question, Ron is happy to talk some more about his wife, explaining: “Dood is the

nickname she was given as a young girl and it stuck. It comes from 'doodlebug'. She used to race sports car. It's very strange too. In the beginning of our relationship everything fit in. When I was teenager, somebody asked me about what kind of girl I'd like to have, and I would say 'a gal who'd get under the car with me and change the transmission.' Basically, I was saying I wanted someone, of course , who would be be feminine and attractive. I wanted someone intelligent and with a good sense of humor. But I wanted someone who'd be be a little more interested in doing things and learning things other than what's the latest make-up. Or how to keep her fingernails from splitting and breaking. So at the beginning of our relationship I was amazed. Here was someone who had trophies for sports car racing. She also did a marvelous job in raising three kids alone. She's a super lady!”

Ron's hobbies consists mainly of sports and the whole family often joins in, “I've been active all my life, sports-wise, I played football all the way through high school and college. I fought in the Golden Gloves as a boxer in Chicago. I wrestled. I played soccer and taught my boys how to play. This last year I played in the Broadway softball league. I used to race cars. I raced motorcycles a little bit in high school and college.”

Ron has a basic philosophy in life, which is easy to tell he's passing on to his children. “Do unto others ,” he says, “Be yourself, whatever that may be. Strive to just treat people the way you'd want them to treat you. Just think of what the other person is thinking. This has carried me through a lot of hard times. I think we basically all want the same things out of life – someone to love, to be loved, to do what you want to do professionally, and to reap the benefits of those things. If you put a tremendous amount of yourself into your personal and professional life, you get back twofold what you put into them.”

Professionally, you should put 100% into it. If you fail, it doesn't hurt as much because you know you've put as much as you can into it. But, generally, if you put that much into it, it'll come back to you. The rewards are tremendous.”

Ron was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and went to Furman University in Greensville, South Carolina. His parents enthusiastically supported his decision to go into show business. “ My family's a very good one. They thought if that's what I wanted to try, then terrific. They just wanted me to put everything I have into it, and if I discovered it wasn't what I wanted, then I should go onto to something else. There was never any pressure in my life. I could be anything that I wanted to be.”

Ron extends the same privileges of freedom and responsibility to his step-children. “They take care of themselves, “ he comments. They haven't had babysitters in years. They are very self-sufficient, very mature for their ages. Since I've been doing Ryan's Hope, I've been home about four days a week. If my wife is working, I take care of the house. I do the cooking, which I love. And the kids pretty much take care of themselves. They don't have to be babied.”

We can go way for weekends, and sometimes they'll stay home. But 99% of the time, they go with us. If we're going skiing, the kids go with us because they love to ski, too. But if we want to go away for a three-day weekend, we just say 'OK, Kids!' And they get a kick out of that ,too. They all takes turns cooking and cleaning. They're very proud of themselves because they take care of everything. No problem is too big for them.”

What do the children think of having an actor in the family? “ I think they're like most actors' children. Very early, the bubble starts to burst. When I first got to know the kids, they were fascinated by it. But they spend a lot of chem backstage and reading scripts with me, and they know that it's 95% work. Acting is a profession, a trade. They know that there's really very little glamor involved. They don't go around bragging about me. Of course, all their friends know. But their friends also know me.”

When our daughter was about 12 or 13, a friend or ours said, 'Isn't it hard to live with Ron?' She said, 'When Ron is acting, he acts. When he's home, he's himself.' I was very proud of her. This something I've always believed in. I do what I do. When I'm acting, I'm creating a character. But when the curtain comes down, I don't carry it with me.”

And a good thing, too.

Dr. Roger Coleridge is a home wrecker (not to mention a gambler and a blackmailer, to boot!) but real-life Ron Hale is quite the family man!

Kris Metcalfe

Justin Deas (Bucky): The Center Of Our Lives Is Our Work (1978)

Matthew and Sylvia greeted me enthusiastically as soon as I had climb three flights of stairs to their cozy Westside apartment. Never had I been so lavished with attention by two strangers, but their owner Justin Deas, says these two curly haired dogs crave attention.

Justin too, is warm, friendly, and hospitable and before long I was given coffee and bagels, and that adorable smile well-known by “Ryan's Hope” fans.

Justin said, “My wife, Jody, is out interviewing right now, and my daughter, Yvie, is at school – she's in the fourth grade. And while I'm making you coffee, I'd better make some for my friend Leonard, who's coming by any minute to bring over some fish he caught. It's whiting, ever had it?”

Then in came Leonard who laughed and told me, “ I can describe Justin's life in two words: deadly dull!”

After the fish exchange was made, Justin and I settled down to talk about his life in earnest. “ I was born on a cold wintry day in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, “ he says. “I lived all over the place because my father was a businessman and my parents like to travel. We lived in Mexico City ;Tehran, Iran; all over the United States. I went to college at William and Mary, then came to Juilliard, but it was unfeasible to stay. I was already married and it was expensive. I taught a couple acting classes at Florida State University, then I got my first professional job with the Aslo Repertory company down in Florida. It's a pretty good company.”

“I did that for a year, then I came to New York. I'm primarily a stage actor so that's primarily what I did ; dinner theater, stock, road tours, etc. Then I got this job.”

I wanted to hear more about Justin and Jody, especially after he casually said, “My wife was on the show, by the way, playing Delia's lawyer Ann Burney.”

“Jody and I met at William and Mary, “ he goes on to say, “ She was junior and I was a freshman. We did plays together. We just did a play together, in fact. Back then we did the 'Taming of the Shrew. She was Kate and I was Petrucchio. That's when we fell in love. We eloped when I was 18 and she was 20. We married in a barber shop! The justice of the peace was a barber. Then we had a fancy wedding a few months later.”

Since he was so young when he married, and had eloped on top of everything, I wondered if he met with any parental disapproval.”

Justin says, “ I told my father when I was on my way to the the hospital to get my tonsils out. It was pretty hard for him to overreact. No one said much. I'm sure they were shocked, but I was always doing things like that. Everyone hoped for the best.”

It seems there has to be a secret to their 10 years together in these times when divorce is so prevalent. It appears to be even harder for actors to stay happily married.

Justin claims it's because “ The center of out lives is out work. So that takes the pressure off of it. We don't have to fulfill everything, be everything each other. But I haven't been privy to too many marriages falling apart.”

And of course their eight-year-old daughter is a great delight. Yvette was born when Justin was only 20 and he says, “ We left it to chance. I don't want to talk about this much when Jody's not here. “ he laughs. “She might read it and say, 'Oh, no, is that what he thought?' If my mother read something she doesn't like, at least she's hundred miles away!”

Yvie was baptized in the same font that Pocahontas was baptized in, in Williamsburg. It's a great place to fall love and have a baby. Yvette's been on the show playing Mary as a child.”

This means the whole family has appeared on “Ryan's Hope!” But Justin continues, “I don't really want Yvie to be an actress. It's a very difficult profession, But she looks a lot like Kate Mulgrew which is why she's been on.”

“Ryan's Hope” is Justin's first soap, but not for lack of trying. He says. “ I had screen-tested for many soaps before. I had gotten right to the end, then didn't get them. With “Ryan's Hope” it was a better experience. Most of us are stage actors.”

At this point Jody bursts into the apartment. She was flushed with cold and looked beautiful and animated and – although a very different person from the tough divorce lawyer she had portrayed on” Ryan's Hope.” She sat down and explained how she did research for that roles. “I met several criminal lawyers. I went to the courts and soaked up the atmosphere. I stopped one of the women and asked for help and she got all excited and said, 'You even look like me.'

“ I went down there just hoping to become familiar with the legal terminology, but I left there all impressed by their dedication. They believe in what they're doing. I met some judges. They gave me the name of a woman divorce lawyer and she was a help. These lawyers are not beyond using any form of persuasion on the jury and the judge. The women lawyers will use their sex appeal, I'm told. They'll use anything they've got.”

Jody loves doing plays most of all, and appeared on one with Justin and another “Ryan's' Hope”cast member awhile ago. “We did 'Fantasies' at the Frick with Ilene Kristen (Delia) in Soho. It was a wonderful play. Before that I played a neurotic nymphomaniac in 'Porno Stars at Home' by the same playwright (who happens to be friend Leonard who brought the fish). There wasn't any nudity. It was about 5 porno stars at a birhtday party and they were stripped emotionally. “

It must be pretty hard for a young couple both trying to grow as actors and trying to do a good job raising a daughter at he same time. Jody says,” Actually, there are lots of advantages to having us both in this career. There's a lot of give and take.” Justin does a lot of laundry and does the dishes. We're both supportive of each other's careers.”

“But we take turns caring for Yvie, the other day I was walking her home from school and she said, ' Mommy, I think you really ought to spend more time with me.' I said 'Yvie, my career is what makes me very happy. If I were unhappy, I wouldn't be any fun to be with.”

“I have to hope she understand. We really have special times together, But it's tough for a kid in New York, It's so hard to arrange for the kids to play together. It's not like in the suburbs where I grew up,”

But Jody and Justin are both warm and loving, it's obvious they are terrific parents.

As we spent time taking pictures, they both clowned around a lot. They seem to bring fun into everything they do. As Jody kept saying throughout the session, "I've got to stop smiling in some of these pictures. It's a habit I have, I can't stop smiling."

It's contagious.

Story by Merrill Cherlin

Soap Opera Digest – December 15, 1987

Having Portrayed RYAN'S HOPE'S Jillian Ryan For Over a Decade, Nancy Addison Says Good-Bye By Ellen Byron

As long as there's been RYANS HOPE, there's been Jillian Coleridge Beaulac Ryan. Brainy, bright, beleaguered, she's the archetypal soap heroine. Only one actress has ever played her – Nancy Addison. But after 12 years of enduring every tragedy known to daytime drama, Addison has made the difficult decision to move on and try her luck in prime time and films.

In Nancy's view, the writers have done all they can with Jllian at this point. “I'm definitely frustrated with the role,” she admits as she brews a pot of tea and sets out a plate of muffins on the antique coffee table in her cozy Manhattan apartment. “I really haven't had anything to do for a good year and a half and I swore if that ever happened again, I might as well take a shot at something else.” Nancy is, of course, referring to the long stretch of idleness she had to endure prior to the amnesia storyline (in which Jill became a waitress named Sarah Jane, who fell in love with Dakotah Smith, her husband's half-brother). Unfortunately, Addison and John Sanderford, have been in limbo ever since Jill regained her memory. “ I understand that characters have to be on the backburner, everyone knowss that about a soap. But a year and a half is a long time without a story.” Nancy doesn't blame the writers or the producers for the lack of activity. “There's very little they can do, “ she says matter-of-factly. “When Jillian regained her memory and she decided she didn't want to go back to Frank, the audience went crazy. They want Frank and Jill.” More than frustration with her character is promptingNancys departure, however. It's easy for an actor to become accustomed to the security that working on a soap provides, and although Nancy has taken breaks to do a film, a Broadway play, and a TV mini-series, she hasn't done anything besides RYAN'S HOPE for three years. “I've spent a lot of that time pondering what my next move was going to be,” she says. Married six years ago to 20/20 segment producers Daniel Goldfarb, she was reluctant to do plays because weekend performances would cut into what little free time the couple had. But she finally realized that if she was ever going to try something else, the time was now.

Nancy really admits she'll miss the RYAN'S HOPE family, which has grown extremely over the years. “There are only six or seven original actors left on the show, and we've been together for twelve years,” she reminisces. “ I love Helen (Gallagher, Maeve). I'm very close with Bernie (Barrow, Johnny) outside the studio. Ron Hale (Roger) who plays my brother, is like a brother to me. Malcolm (Pat) and Ilene (Delia) and I have known each other for fifteen or sixteen years. It's nice to wake up in the morning and know you'll have a place to go that's work and social and pleasant. I think I'll miss that the most. I have an emotional coonnection to the show and to the people, but my emotional connection to Jillian has really be severed in the last year.”

As to the show, Nancy is happy to see the emphasis has shifted back to the Coleridges and the Ryans – the two families that are the roots of RYAN'S HOPE. For a long time, both families had been relegated to the backburner while new, unrelated characters took center stage. The rating plummeted - causing pain to the entire cast, but particularly for the vets like Nancy. “You have to remember that we came from an Emmy Award winning show, so it really hit us.” she declares. “It's not fun to be on a show where your ratings are low, you have a lousy time slot, and you're losing affiliates all over the country. It's hurt everybody a lot. But if the show is making money and has an audience, I don't think they'd cancel it.”

Her favorite moments on the soap have been Jill's bout with amnesia and the story line in which she became addicted to morphine while trying to cope with the death of her young son. It was Nancy's work during this period which led to her two Emmy nominations. Ironically, Nancy's least favorite moments on the show have been Jill's (a lawyer) trial scenes. “I never liked them that much,” she admits. I think the audience gets bored with trials on soap. And if they're bored, I'm bored. “

Nancy will take up temporary residence in Los Angeles while her husband stays in New York. Luckily, RYAN'S HOPE has left the door open for her possible return to the show.”They'll always need Jill,” says Nancy. “She and Frank are like the next Maeve and Johnny. Who knows? I may comes back and play her again. Part of me is a little scared because I've been so settled for the last twelve years and another part looks on it like an adventure. It's time to go.”Nancy Addison says quietly, “ I need to open up my path – no matter what it brings.”

These interviews and articles were posted over at the Soapnet forum by a long time poster who was nice enough to type them up. I was hoping to find a place to move them so they won't be lost when Soapnet goes off the air in 2012.

Soap Opera Digest - September 13, 1983

Nancy Addison's Controversial Decision by Andrea Payne

“I've alway said to whomever I've been with, 'the career is the career, '” Nancy Addison says firmly as she pounds her fist into her hand. “I've spent time, my heart and my guts – money - all of that. I've put into my work and my being, That's my life's work, my acting. Just because I fall in love I'm not going to give that up. It's the thing that makes me - I can't explain it to you - it's the thing that makes me feel alive.”

Nancy Addison sits like a giant red lollipop in her pink and pretty living room in the apartment she shares with her husband Daniel Goldfarb, a producer for the news magazine “20/20”. She's dressed in blazing jumpsuit, which she calls her “grubbies” and is seated in a room that is decisively feminine. The walls are pink, the chairs are pink, the couch is pink, the curtains have pink in them. Huge stuffed dolls propped up in chairs look as though they are waiting for the tea party to begin. Says Nancy,” I still go shopping but I'm very careful about what I buy now, because as you can see, there's no place to put anything.” That's an understatement. Almost every inch of the place seems to be taken up there's the piano, the antique table and a dining set. A Tiffany-style lamp radiates a soft, soothing yellow glow. It's a warm room, with a confortable lived-in feel.

Nancy's talking about what would happen if she got a part that took her away from her husband of one year. “He'll die and I'll die, but I don't think I'd have much choice... that would be brutal, really brutal....I think it would be a real test, but I think it would also create excitement. We have our whole lives together, so I think that working on any project that comes along , is something we've got to do because we've got all the time together and if it's (the marriage) what it is, then time away is not going to change the dynamics of that. If it's not what it is and I go away for a while and something happens, then we don't have much to begin with.”

Because Nancy's career is so important to her, the actress admits that she's “too selfish” to have children. “I've sort of made the decision not to have them” she says in a firm voice. “I've always said that I never wanted any but all my friends now are having children. They're either having them or adopting them and every once in a while I'll think, 'Oh, no am I going to turn around when I'm 40 and say I should have had them? But I don't know if there is any room for me to have children right now. I really don't. I'm not sure if I could handle career and children, I don't think I could. Or else the child would have to be extreme flexible and how do you tell a kid to be flexible.”

Daniel Gladfarb is a tall, dark-complexioned man with piercing blue eyes and an extremely relaxed manner. Walking into the room, he sits down next to Nancy and instictivley puts his arm around her shoudler. The warmth between them is apparent as Nancy makes point to include her husband in the conversation. They are confortable together, close but not clinging. Asked if he goes along with Nancy's decision to not have children, Daniel smiles mischievously and with a straight face says only, “ We'll live forever in Soap Opera Digest rather than reproduce ourselves.” If Nancy went away he wouldn't like it but simply “I'd buy a ticket”. Nancy interjects rather proudly. “That's what I said. He would come and visit." If Nancy decided she wanted children, Daniel would go along with that also. But that's not likely to happen. As Nancy remarks, “I've got my dogs, and I've got my career, and I've got Daniel. We have nice life, a really nice life and the world is crazy place today.”

Nancy and Daniel met at a party a friend was giving and had encouraged her to attend because there was someone he wanted her to meet. Right away, Nancy knew that Daniel was the man her friend was talking about and she was right. The romance progressed. ”One night we were walking down the street and I got really down because I thought that the relationship was going nowhere...I made up my mind that I was going to marry this guy, but one night, I was walking down the street with him and I thought, 'What's going on in his mind.' And it was very bizarre because we went to get a drink and he said to me,' You know I love you' and I said, 'Yeah, I know'. He said, 'No, I love you enough to marry you.'” Laughing Addison remembers that she broke out in cold sweat. “I just couldn't believe it. I was shocked because I didn't think it would come that soon, that he would be asking that soon.”

Still not believing it was happening, Addison and Goldfarb made plans to marry on Valentine's Day, and exclaims Nancy, sounding a bit surprised “That's what happened, we did it.” Since then life has been “really good” and Nancy attributes part of that to the fact that both are happy doing what they do. “Dan has a very interesting career background,” says Nancy, who then proeceeds to recount it. He's been a policeman, a lawyer, an investigative reporter's, and now he's producer. This sounds vaguely familiar, Frank Ryan (Geoffrey Pierson) Nancy's on air love interest for the part eight year was a cop turned lawyer, but instead of going the way of the fourth estate Frank chose to be a politician.

“Politicians,” Nancy says disdainfully, “personally, I despise them. While Jill stumps the campaign trail in her bid for a senatorial seat in Washington, Nancy Addison sits in her living room and tells why she dislikes politician, Nancy not only has an aversion for politicians, they leave a bad taste in her mouth. “ I think that most of them are corrupt and power-hungry, greedy, so it is a very bizarre position for me to be in because what I abhor I have to play now.” Nancy claims that she's “honest to a fault” which sometimes gets her in trouble. And so, to avoid problems, and the set the record straight Addison is quick to add, with a laugh, “Now I'm not saying that they are all like that, you know,. You write this article and they'll come after me with guns. There were the Kennedy's , and Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X so there have been great historians and great politicians. I haven't seen any of them recently, I really haven't,” she says candidly. But despite Nancy's strong feelings, she admits that when Jillian Coleridge got on the table to make the acceptance speech for her candidacy. “I really got into it. Afterwards, I said ' Now all I have to do is come up with my Bella Abzug hats and put on 50 pounds.”

For over eight years, Nancy has played one-half of star-crossed couple on “Ryan's Hope” Frank Ryan being the other half, and now she thinks it's time for SOMETHING to happen. “They've got to get these people married or the audience isn't going to take it any more. They're either going to have to get them together and have a big bang-up wedding or separate them. I believe that very strongly.” Through thick and thin, and there's been a lot of both, Frank and Jill have somehow found their way back to each other. “They're intellectual soul mates and their spirits are so linked that no matter what happens, they are together,” Nancy says by the way of explaining Frank and Jill's unshakable bond.

Jillian Coleridge is a woman Nancy used to love, but in the last few years she feels her character hasn't been given anything to do and she's become less than ecstatic about playing the part. With the new storyline, however, Addison is cautiously excited by the possibility. “It could be so good if they write it well,” says Addison, who envisions Tracy and Hepburn scenes between Frank and Jill if she wins the election.

In the eight years while Jill has married, divorced, given birth,watched her child die, been in and out of love, Addison, as native New Yorker, has worked to keep her interest in the show, she says, by doing other things. She appeared in a six-hour televison misnseries for televison, “The Dain Curse,” with James Corbun, was on Broadway in ”Talent for Murder” with Claudette Colbert, and recently fisinhed a starring role in the cable movie titled ”Somewhere Tomorow.” But despite all of her success, in both personal and professional lives, Addison confesses that she doesn't always appreciate them. “My basic personality is depressed. I am very moody. I'm trying to get to a point where I know that that's the way life is... Who says it's gonna be pie in the sky and roses and stars and all that? It's not. It's life. It's all part of it. It's a journey, some of it is dark ad some of it is light and it's unforutanate because I'd like to feel terrific all the time, but I don't. I mean I'm very moody and there are lots of clouds running around in my head and it takes an awful lot to make me feel terrific.”

As I am taking this in, I think this must be one of Nancy's good days. This a woman with one of those laughs that starts way down deep and then explodes the air. She is in constant motion and has a crystalline, forceful voice that reinforces Nancy's strong opinions. The fresh flowers sitting it the bright pots in the room, the oversized dolls, a dog that persists in barking into the tape recorder until he gets the cookies he's after, speaks of an energetic woman, not someone who is constantly depressed. But for someone who is dedicated to her career as Nancy is, it's not difficult to discern just what it is that makes those clouds park inside her head. She wants to be star, yet she feels that stardom has passed her by. “And if it hasn't passed me by, I don't think my talent is of that caliber. Nor that I might not have had that caliber, but I don't think that I have nurtured it properly. I believe that you get as much as you put in and then I think that God has blessed certain people with greatness, with uniqueness. I don't think that's me.”

However, in the face of those doubts and yearnings for what might have been, Nancy Addison plays on. After all, acting, Nancy says is serious magic.

Ryan's Hope

Pauline Flanagan was an early Maeve candidate when first casting the show

Bernard Barrow originally auditioned for Seneca

Tom McGreevy auditioned to be a Frank recast. They liked him and created the role of Tom Desmond just for him.

Kathleen Tolan auditioned for Siobhan and was cast as a Mary replacement instead. KT was brought in by Helen Gallagher. They had done a play together and Helen thought she'd make a good Siobhan.

John Sanderford originally auditioned for Dakota.