Thursday, March 28, 2024

RIP Ray McDonnell, Patient and Kind Dr. Joe Martin of “All My Children” from the Beginning to the End

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Ray McDonnell, known to millions as Dr.Joe Martin on “All My Children,” died on June 10th at age 93. The news is just being reported now.

McDonnell spent 40 years on “All My Children” as the kindly patriarch of the Martin family, always patient even the people around him were having affairs, getting amnesia, and sleeping with Susan Lucci’s Erica Kane. You kind of hoped Dr. Joe had a secret life we didn’t see, drinking and partying and driving a sports car.

McDonnell was on “All My Children” from the beginning to the end, starting in 1970. Before that he spent most of the 196os on CBS’s “The Edge of Night.” He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmys in 2004. On “Edge of Night” his character was named for the show’s associate producer, Phil Capice, who went on to fame as the producer of “Dallas.”

How Ray McDonnell did it, with all those wild plots, was his own mystery. But he was steady as a rock, and you looked for him to remain calm in crazy Pine Valley. RIP.

 

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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