Bernard Grant (GL, OLTL) and his wife actress Joyce Gordon

[edgeofnight]

Bernard Grant, who had long-term roles on GL as Dr. Paul Fletcher, and later as Steve Burke on OLTL, died in 2004 at the age of 83.

His wife was actress Joyce Gordon, who, many from my generation (I'm 55), will recall, was seen in, literally, hundreds of TV commercials. I think she and my friend Dagne Crane probably hold the record for being the spokesperson for the most TV commercials, at least in the first 30-40 years of the medium.

The couple lived in Westchester County's White Plains, NY, and I distinctly remember Joyce Gordon running for City Council (in the 1970s?)...I don't remember if she won her race or not, if she had, I'd probably remember it, as politics and soaps are my first two loves (as anyone who knows me from this board can figure out).

There's no death date listed for Joyce Gordon in Imdb...She'd be up there in years, and from what I gather, she's done a lot of voice work for animated films, according to Imdb...

I'd love to know whatever became of Joyce. If she is still alive etc...My research indicates that she would be 82 years old now. I wonder if anyone out there would know...I'm betting that our #1 eagle-eyed poster (who, in my opinion, knows everything about soaps and soap related actors) would know. I'm betting he would...and judging by his voluminous archives of magazine articles, perhaps, he will treat us to some old articles of Joyce and Bernie at home in suburban Westchester.

[DRW50]

This is from the March 1975 Daytime TV. I have a few others but found this for right now. The scan is not great so I will type out the pages without photos.

[DRW50]

explains. "But sometimes, especially to Japanese movies. I fool them."

He's done the voice of the villain, Jean-Maria Valonte, in the Clint Eastwood movies, A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More. He's supplied the English voice of Vittorio De Sica, Fernandel, Rossano Brazzi, Vittorio Gassman. In recent years, says Bernard, foreign films don't record voices while on location. They add the voices later, in a studio.

Bernard's amused at the misconception that some people have about an actor's work. "They think dubbing is easy; it's not! They think doing commercials is easy, but it's not! Actually, working on a soap opera is about the toughest buck to make; it takes a lot of concentration and skill!"

He's been in show business ever since he quit the fur business (his father was a furrier) and switched to being an announcer on radio station WPAT. After he served in the Army, he went back into announcing and then became announcer of a trio, The Wry Guys. "Our pianist was Anita Leonard, who married Louis Nye."

He managed to become an actor in radio, playing roles on Hilltop House, Road of Life, Counterspy and dozens of others. He remembers working with John Larkin and Jan Miner on Radio City Playhouse, "the last of the great radio shows on NBC."

He became active in TV with The Inner Flame, which was Portia Faces Life with a new title. "That was when Mary Fickett joined. I was also doing Hilltop House, and I thought this was great: finishing Inner Flame at 1 p.m. and rehearsing for Hilltop House at 2. But both serials went off the air the same week!"

As exciting as his career has been, perhaps the greatest moment of his life was marrying actress Joyce Gordon.

They met in the NBC actors' lounge (which no longer exists) and it was love almost at first sight. They married Jan. 7, 1951 and today, he sighs, "Unbelievable!"

His wife, Joyce, happens to be a dynamic, talented woman. She's a vice present of the Screen Actors Guild, and does loads of commercials. She is also special assistant to County Executive Office of Westchester, N.Y.

The entire Grant family is like that: everybody's busy. Last summer, son Mark, 22, did research for a legislative program, and daughter Melissa, 19, worked in South Carolina.

"We all do our things. Joyce does her things, and I do my things. We're both busy!"

But the activity enriches all of them. His wife, for instance, "can hardly wait to come home and tell me of her experiences of the day, and I do, too."

He insists, smiling, "We like each other at least more than half the time."

For a while, Joyce even studied law, but found it difficult getting into a daytime law school.

Music is important in the Grant home out in the suburbs (Westchester). Recently Larry Keith (who plays Nick Davis on All My Children) visited the Grant home and sang while Mark played piano.

"That Larry Keith...I hate him! He's such a fine singer!" says Bernard, pretending to be angry.

And about Mark: "He has such a high I.Q., and he's such a talented musician and writer!"

Bernard has a midtown New York apartment for use when he's working late and can't make the trip home. Home is a big English Tudor house, on grounds that Bernard himself landscaped. They've been living in it since 1960, and it's the Grant's refuge from the tensions of busy-busy careers in New York.

The house was built in 1928 and has brown beams and large rooms and plenty of light. He calls it a "cozy big house" where you can be alone when you want to. It's a good house for both Mark and Melissa when they're deep in their music: Mark plays piano and Melissa plays and teaches guitar.

Bernard stays fit by dieting, exercising, and playing tennis. And now he's trying to write a play. "I always wanted to write a play." And what is the subject? "Well, everybody has a very good friend, with whom he's inseparable, and the play is about the breaking up of one such friendship. Yes, it comes from my life. I had this very good friend and one day it was over. I was more artistic and he was more commercial, and our paths parted."

Of course, Bernard and Joyce have a big circle of friends, and many of them, he's glad to say, "have a good record in marriage." He's proud of his own marriage: Twenty four years!" he claims.

And what is the secret of a lasting marriage?

"You have to work at it. There's no easy way. You have to give and take. You have to be involved with each other, and you have to give autonomy to experience and feeling. You must not be too engulfing. You have to trust your mate. My wife, for instance, right now is attending the International Actors' Federation in Toronto. She goes. I don't say, 'Don't go.' I trust her. Trust is very important."