TV/Radio & Cable Week, Aug, 23, 1981
This actor's in the eye of the storm By VALERIE DAVISON
Actor Michael Storm who plays Dr. Larry Wolek on ABCs highly rated soap, "One Life to Live, 2 p.m. weekdays is very much like the character be portrays - straightforward, ingenuous, solid as a rock - and much more. He is an intelligent, honest man with a facility for putting others at ease, and an actor who is proud of and dedicated to his profession. Does he see a lot of himself in Larry Wolek? "Well, it's hard not to," he says seriously. "I've been doing it for 13 years and many of the acting choices I make are made on the basis of 'What would I do?' Sometimes, though, it's wrong to impose Michael's standards on Larry's performance."
Nor have many of Michael's talents been imposed on Larry. It's difficult to imagine the conservative, almost square Dr. Wolek painting, playing the guitar and writing songs, or being an avid sportsman. Storm, on the other hand, was a fine arts major in college, supported himself by playing the guitar and writing songs, and was a member of "The Good Times Singers," who appeared on the Andy Williams show. He has obviously taken a pass at just about every sport ever invented, his current fascination being "wind surfing," which he describes euphorically as "the new love of my life." Storm and the other love of his life - his wife Sally - live in Dobbs Ferry with their two children,. Maggie, 7, and Jason, 11.
Back in the early '70s, they were living in Manhattan's upper West Side, where, be remembers that, "It meant that every time Jason wanted to go to the park, one of us bad to get into the elevator with him, go over to the park with him, sit with him among the broken beer bottles and the drunks. Furthermore, the cost of putting him in nursery school was phenomenal." When they began to consider leaving the city, someone recommended Dobbs Ferry. "I liked the sound of it," he laughs. "It Just had a neat ring to it. I really, really love it up there. It's very much like California. Sally and I are both from California, and we feel very much at home."
It was Michael's brother James who lured the Storms to the East Coast Curiously enough, it was James (also an actor) who actually originated the role of Larry Wolek when the serial began in 1968. Preparing to leave the show, James called his brother in California and asked him if be would like to audition for the part "The studios just weren't hiring new actors," Michael recalls, I had spent an awful lot of time learning my craft, but couldn't buy a job. So, on a Sunday, I decided to go back to college and get my master's degree in painting. By Tuesday my brother had called. That taught me that the minute I start planning things, forget it It goes in some other direction."
The direction Storm's life took in 1968 would appear to be a happy one. Some actors are uncomfortable with and sometimes chagrined by the intense exposure of the soap opera medium, and that they as actors are so identified with a particular character. But not this actor. "That's how people make contact with us," be says warmly of the public who frequently recognize him. "They approach us in character. That's what we're known as. They know Larry. They relate to Larry. My face comes into people's bouses. I'm not at all offended by it " What does offend biro, however, is the attitude (ostensibly) held by many that the soap opera medium is something less than an art form, and that if you do, indeed, watch soaps you should not admit it in sophisticated circles. "Well, let me tell you right now that that could not be farther from the truth!" he states emphatically, his voice rising. "Let me tell you, when you cross this country, as I have, and stop in Moline, Illinois, or St. Louis, or Florida or .Arizona — or France or the Carribean or Mexico — and people come up to you, with genuine happiness in their hearts, and say how pleased they are to see you, how happy you make the m feel...well, I'm tellin' you, it is the biggest thing since sliced bread. Not just our show. Soap operas. Daytime serials. Whatever name you want to put to them."
Nor does be buy the theory that only women watch daytime dramas. "I wouldn't be surprised if we have more men than women," be says emphatically. "I once picked up my sailboard at the air freight office at the airport and there were the Teamsters with their cigars — young guys — And they'd say 'Hey, aren't you Larry Wolek? Oh, My god!' And they're stopping everything and calling their girlfriends and wives. Tough macho guys, baseball players, football players, golfers, dancers - you name it .They watch."
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Paul Raven ·
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