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Our early acquaintance came up in scenes we had to play opposite one another. There was a rapport there right from the beginning. In the early years on the show, Ellen owned a dress shop and I remember one time, he did something so silly. They were playing that Mark was much younger than Ellen, even though he was only three years younger than I am in real life. This was a new kind of thing in society at the time, so they were breaking ground with that by really making a big deal over it. Anyway, as we were just getting used to working with one another, we were doing this scene where he was supposed to come up from behind me and give me an affectionate touch on my neck. Well, he grabbed a hand off a mannequin, and he took that and he used that hand [to touch my neck]! He was just wonderful to play off of. He’d walk in as an actor and give you gold, and when you have gold working with you, it brings you creativity and life.
I spoke with him about a week before he died. I had heard he was in remission and doing better, but a friend called to tell me that he was sick again. I got off the phone and I called him at Sloan Kettering [Cancer Center] and he answered. I said, “Mark, honey, it’s me, Kath.” He said, “Kath, I’ve been thinking about you a lot,” and I said, “And I, you, honey.” He said he was prepared [to die], and I said, “Okay, love.” He talked so beautifully about his wife, Liz, and his daughter [Gabrielle] and how much he loved them. And we had a chance to talk about our working years on ALL MY CHILDREN, and how important they were for us, and I got to tell him just how much it meant to me that I had the chance to work with him for all those years, so it was very special. It was like one of those ordained moments for him to pick up his phone at Sloan Kettering in the midst of all the stuff that’s going on around you when you’re not well. It was amazing. I felt so privileged that he was able to share with me all the love he had for his family, his wife and his daughter. I just felt so humbled by it.
We had a good, long relationship on the show. He was just superb in the storyline that got me the Emmy [for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 1987], the story of Mark’s drug addiction. Drug use was rampant at that time and we were really addressing that and how it affected society and families. Mark and I would get letters from people who said how much those scenes had affected their lives. One girl wrote and said she was on her way out to meet her dealer, but ALL MY CHILDREN was on, and the scenes we did that day, the intervention scenes, stopped her from going to the corner and meeting her dealer, his intervention scenes. Both of us felt so privileged playing such an important storyline.
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At that time on ALL MY CHILDREN, we were really a family. We would go out after work. We would sit in the green room and watch each other’s work, watch each other’s scenes. If somebody was in a play, we’d go out and support that person’s effort on the stage. We really were a support system and Mark, my goodness. He was loving and fun and mischievous. When people were rehearsing a scene, we’d hold up very naughty signs for them to read. When people had bedroom scenes, we’d short-sheet the bed together. Mark was professional and hardworking, but he brought joy to the work. He kept it as light and playful as possible, and he was up for anything that could be new and exciting to try, always throwing out ideas. “Yeah, let’s do that, Mark!” We would challenge and surprise each other with what we would do and there was mutual trust. He was an actor’s actor — and damn was he handsome [laughs]. It was great to have eye candy every day!
I was just thrilled for Mark when he fell in love with his wife. I remember the first time I met her, this beautiful, red-headed Irish lady, and then when they had their daughter, you could just see the pride he had in this beautiful daughter. I was so, so happy for him that he found that, found his nuclear family. It was special to hear him talk of his love for his wife and his daughter, and so, so sad that he is not going to be here with them. That’s where the heartache comes in. It’s just too soon! Mark always took good care of his body, never smoked, and he gets lung cancer? It is very, very difficult to accept.
When I talked to Mark on the phone, I think four days before he died, I said to him, “May I call you again?” He sounded weak, and he said, “Oh, yes, Kath. Please do.” And I was never able to reach him after that. I thought, “Well, we had our conversation.” Nick Surovy [ex-Mike Roy] and Mark were good buddies and had remained very close over the years, and Nick called me and let me know right after he got word that Mark had passed.
Mark sometimes called me “his other wife” and we would laugh about it. We were a significant part of each other’s lives at a significant time in our lives. It may have been a long time ago, but that time was a very powerful time. I cherish those memories and I cherish Mark. That’s for sure.
