Whatever happen to Phil (Nick Benedict) All My Children

[dar55]

I'm a big fan of Nick Benedict (Phil, All My Children) and have been searching for any information on him. Whatever happen to him ? I wish they would bring Phil back from the dead eventhough I know it won't happen.I never understood why Agnes Nixon wasn't interested in bringing his character back.

[Skin]

I think Phil should have been Josh's father. They missed the boat with that one. It would have been a much better story for Erica, Phil, Josh, Madden, ect. if that were the case. That would have been an excellent way to reintroduce him and they could have brought Jeff back later on as well...

[MarkH]

Well, I only know what I saw:

He was on Y&R in the early 80s as Michael Scott, the photographer lover of Julia Newman who ended up leaving town with her.

I know he appeared briefly on Santa Barbara, but I don't remember the role.

Wasn't he also Billie and Austin's evil father (the one who raped Billie) on DOOL? If yes, that is the last time I recall seeing him. What year was that? I'd say at least a decade ago, right? Probably more...

I haven't personally seen him since. I seem to recall I couldn't find him in imdb, but haven't checked lately....we're talking about Nicholas Benedict...and before that Richard Hatch (not the guy from Survivor, but the guy from Battlestar Gallactica and Streets of San Francisco).

[SteveFrame]

He has been on IMDb for several years now. He is listed as Nick Benedict.

According to IMDb he has not worked since 2000 when he last appeared on Days of Our Lives.

I met him back in the 1970's in Nashville at Opryland. That was when Opryland first began their spend the day with soap stars public appearances. That year they had Nick Benedict from AMC and Bill & Susan Hayes from Days along with several others that I can't remember right now. My whole family went. Of course they had to get Nick to take his shirt off for the crowd. They were all so personable but esp. those three.

I remember he was one of the soap stars featured in a special layout spread in Playgirl back in 1981 too. I don't think any of them appeared nude. That was when he was on Y&R. The guys were Terry Lester (Y&R); Lee Godart (EON); Philip Clark (Texas); Nicholas Walker (Doctors); Nick (Y&R); & Ted LePlat (GL). It was very sexy. I used to have it and the pics were very good.

In that same issue was a very sexy fashion layout of Leigh McCloskey from Dallas. Playgirl hasn't done a soap layout in a long time. Oh well off the point.

I have often wondered what happened to him too. He was always very nice looking. I am not sure if he had let himself go when he was on Days or they made him to look like that - but he definitely did not look the same as he had on AMC and Y&R.

[DevotedToAMC]

Amen to everything! Josh should have been the child that Erica thought she miscarried with Phil

[EricMontreal22]

When did Phil last die? I know about the 70s story where they thought he died in Vietnam. Was he on when Chuck was last on? Kelsey wasn't his daughter with Tara was she?

[SteveFrame]

He died in 1979. As far as I can remember he went missing and no body was ever found. It was shortly after Phil and Tara remarried. He went away and Tara got notice that he died.

I have always wondered if Nixon planned to bring him back but never felt the time was right.

[EricMontreal22]

It does seem odd... Though that whoel storyline was pretty played out by then and AMC was moving in different directions (the gothic Courtland story, etc)

[Paul Raven]

Around the time Phil was killed off,AMC was ditching a lot of the characters that had driven story up till that time.

Linc & Kelly were married and left town.

Ann Tyler Martin was killed off.

Jeff Martin departed.

Tara quickly married the totally uncharismatic Jim Jefferson and left town.

Cliff & Nina became the focus.

Ratings stayed high but ultimately the core families were devalued.

Also,Amy Tyler was Phil's mother(played in the first 6 months by Rosemary Prinz).Was there any mention of this after Amy left Pine Valley?

[SteveFrame]

No Amy was never mentioned that I remember.

All of what you are saying took place between the years 1979 and 1981.

STrange but Dr. Cliff Warner was never really intended to be Dr. Cliff Warner. Peter Bergman was hired to play Dr. Jeff Martin, and Jeff was supposed to fall for Nina.

I cannot remember why Agnes Nixon stated that she went with the change, but she did and wrote Jeff out.

This may have been about the time that ABC bought AMC outright from Agnes and she lost some control over story. All I know is that things were still pretty good. The Martins stayed the focus through it all as Tad was starting to have some trouble then too.

I think if Judith Barcroft had agreed to come back as Anne, I don't think Anne would have been killed off but we would have seen the fully played out triangle of Paul, Anne and Ellen play out. The recast Anne just never caught on with fans at all.

And I think Agnes wanted to focus on Chuck and Donna more - esp. in the triangle with Palmer. Tara was always looming over that relationship especially now that Tara was a widow. She married Tara off and sent her off. Fans focused more on the Chuck and Donna relationship with Tara out of the picture - esp. as Chuck and Donna moved on to others but still longed to be together.

Also this was becoming the Erica show by this time. It had been more of an ensemble thing and this is the time when Erica moved to New York and became a successful model. AMC was never the same after that. For several years, the show was too disjointed although the writing was still fairly good. Too many things took place in New York away from Pine Valley and then when the Hunters were introduced a few years later - you had things taking place in New York and Canada too. Erica's story existed primarily in Canada for a long time and it was so isolated it was bad.

[Jonathan]

It's so funny you would bring this up. Because I remember watching back then and thinking how Erica's storyline took her away from Pine Valley for a while. The Silver Kane story did seem to bring her back to the fold however.

[EricMontreal22]

Wasn't some of that due to actors agreeing to stay on when the show switched to an hour but not wanting the higher workload for long? I remember reading Agnes got many to agree to stay on for a year or two but that was it and she was aware she needed to refocus the show for the change (I know by 81 the show had been an hour for a while, but...)

Right Kelsey was a JEfferson--I have to admit hger dad's name hardly made an impact on the show when you read the history so it was odd

[JAS0N47]

I try to keep tabs on all of the former Days castmembers for my Where Are They Now updates, but Nick Benedict has seemed to have fallen off the face of the Earth. I haven't been able to find anything about him. He's not been in any newspaper articles or anything on the web in years. He's one of the few Days actors that I've not been able to find anything current on.

[SteveFrame]

He wasn't on that long at all. He was brought in solely to facilitate the departure of Tara. I have always felt that.

Of course that hasn't stopped me from making him into a bigger character in my soap - AMC: New Beginnings (shameless plug).

As to the hour thing, I have never read that myself - not saying it is not so.

AMC went to an hour in 1977. The following are the people that left for the years 1978 to 1981:

1978: Paul Gleason (David Thornton); Lawrence Keith (Nick Davis)

1979: James K. Carroll (Carl Blair Jr.); James O'Sullivan (Jeff Martin); Warren Burton (Eddie Dorrance); David Pendleton (Russ Anderson); Nancy Frangionne (Tara Brent); Gil Rogers (Ray Gardner); Pat Dixon (Caroline Grant); Larry Fleischman (Benny Sago); Daren Kelly (Dan Kennicott); Nick Benedict (Phil Brent) - many of these were replaced; so the characters weren't written out then; some had come on after the hour transfer; 1979 saw a lot of new faces on the show

1980: Jack Magee (Wally McFadden); Brian Lima (Charlie Brent); Dawn Marie Boyle (Dottie Thornton); Susan Plantt-Winston (Claudette); Charles Brown (Russ Anderson); Matthew Cowles (Billy Clyde); Peter White (Lincoln Tyler); Francesca james (Kelly Cole Tyler) - lots of new faces again in 1980

1981: Linda Gibboney (Sybil Thorne); Lisa Wilkinson (Nancy Grant); Patricia Barry (Peg English); Lizbeth McKay (Leora Sanders); William Mooney (Paul Martin); Gwynn Gillis (Anne Martin); Mary Lynn Blanks (Tara Jefferson); Paul Falzone (Jim Jeffrson); John E. Dunn (Tad Gardner Martin); William Ferriter (Kurt Sanders); William Griffis (Harlan Tucker) - not as many new faces in 1981 as previous years

1980 and 1981 saw the introductions of the Cortlandts, Warners, and the Kingsleys. Only the Cortlandts really lasted and they are pretty much gone today. Palmer and J.R. are really the only sole living representatives of the family anymore.

You also have to remember that Agnes had pretty much turned the majority of head writing over to her protege, Wisner Washam, at this time. She still oversaw things much like Irna Phillips did but she wasn't involved as much as before. Also in 1978 Agnes Nixon and Bud Kloss who had produced the show from day one, were replaced by Jorn Winther. He stayed until 1982 and was replaced by Jacqueline Babbin. Winther would return in 1986 for 3 months.

So AMC was going through a lot of changes back stage too.