Claims to fame: First actor to appear in both daytime and nighttime TV shows simultaneously; has portrayed Roman Brady since 1997 on Days of Our Lives; previously portrayed Chris Kositchek on the show, 1977-87

Career: Star of The Hogan Family (which originally aired as Valerie), in which he was dad to a character played by Jason Bateman, 1986-91; star of Riker, 1981; father to Luke Perry’s character on Beverly Hills, 90210, 1991-2000; previously worked as railroad brakeman, busboy, parking lot attendant, restaurant manager and bartender

Education: A.B., sociology; J.D., University of Denver, 1969

Personal: Lives in Tarzana, California, with wife Lisa; daughter Tristen, by his first wife, was born his senior year at Dartmouth

“I was an all-state quarterback in Illinois. When people asked me where I was thinking about going, I’d list all the colleges that were recruiting me: ‘Illinois, Missouri, Colorado…Dartmouth.’ Everybody would go, ‘Wow, the Ivy League.’ That kind of swayed me.”

“I didn’t act in college, but it was something I’d always wanted to do.”

“I went to law school because I didn’t feel the corporate pull a lot of my Phi Delt brothers did. First I went home and helped my dad coach football and worked as a brakeman on the Santa Fe Railroad.”

“The day after I was sworn in as a lawyer I took off on my Easy Rider trip, just hopped in my GTO and headed west, intending to work my way to Alaska and get a job on the pipeline. I wound up managing a restaurant in Beverly Hills where most of my staff were aspiring actors and actresses. One of them invited me to her workshop.”

“The first time I was put up on a stage I felt the same kind of rush I’d had running onto a football field: ‘This is what I want to do.’ Even when my acting career wasn’t going anywhere, I couldn’t imagine a future of going to movies and thinking, ‘What if I’d just kept at it?’ ”

“When I auditioned for Days of Our Lives and the role of Chris Kositchek, I purposefully wore jeans and a denim shirt. The character was a foreman at a manufacturing company. When I got the job they wanted me in slacks and a jacket, but I refused. I became the first jeans-wearing-cocky-hero-type soap opera guy, and it kind of exploded, which was pretty exciting.”

“In the glory days of soap operas it was wild. When I took my family to Disneyland they’d give me three security people to get through the line. We’d have fan events and 10,000 people would show up. It wasn’t like Brad Pitt—or the Beatles—but close enough to that kind of hysteria for me. I loved every minute of it.” 

“When daytime TV led to nighttime, I was glad the car phone was invented. I’d be racing from one studio lot to another, calling to say, ‘I’m just 10 minutes away.’ ”

“I’m offended when actors who make it big badmouth their soap experiences. Acting is acting whether it’s daytime, nighttime, a play or a movie. Doing all of them has been an incredible ride.”

“When I got killed off on Days, I knew—and only I knew—that I was coming back a few months later. I couldn’t tell even my relatives.”

“Soap operas’ aren’t the only plots that are over the top. If we staged a fight scene like the one between Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman in Air Force One, people would be all over us.” 

“Soaps don’t get enough credit for pushing the envelope, whether it’s sex scenes—and I had some pretty racy ones with Mary Frann and later Shannon Tweed—or social issues like mixed and gay marriages. Daytime pushed women’s rights well before nighttime, but all anyone talks about is the salacious stuff.” 

“If there’s one quality I’m most grateful for, it’s being able to appreciate the good fortune I’ve had.”