What actor would have been a good re-cast for Gerald Davis? Maybe Ed Nelson after Capitol ?

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by SoapDope78

3 hours ago, SoapDope78 said:

What actor would have been a good re-cast for Gerald Davis? Maybe Ed Nelson after Capitol ?

I'm leaning toward Robert Lansing (a.k.a. "Control," in the original "Equalizer").

4 hours ago, SoapDope78 said:

What actor would have been a good re-cast for Gerald Davis? Maybe Ed Nelson after Capitol ?

Knowing P&G in the 1980s, they would have likely recast Gerald Davis with Gil Rogers (who had played Ray Gardner on AMC and Hawk Shayne on GL). I believe Gil Rogers could have played Gerald Davis well -- he certainly had the talent. But I'm almost sure some of his acting tics from AMC and GL (the vague Southern drawl, the tendency toward campy humor, etc.) would have made their way into his version of Gerald. In fact TPTB at AW might have even encouraged it. And all of that would have been completely inappropriate for Gerald Davis and for AW. Gerald Davis was a serious loser who was never able to do anything right in his entire life. He wasn't funny, or cartoon-ish. He was a man to be pitied. He had betrayed is own daughter (Rachel) more than once. So I don't believe Gil Rogers would have been a good choice, despite his talent at playing dead-beat loser fathers.

Ed Nelson would have been an interesting choice. He took his roles seriously and was rather intense. But I doubt Ed Nelson would have left California at that stage in his life. And would Nelson have enjoyed playing a working-class perpetual loser who had been married to working-class Ada?

But was there any real need to recast Gerald at all? Was Walter Matthews (the original actor) deceased by the mid-1980s? Walter Matthews created the role and played it to perfection -- especially when Harding Lemay was writing.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Tisy-Lish