OLTL’s Cowboy Cord Returns
Though John Loprieno was over the moon when he got the call to bring Cord back to ONE LIFE TO LIVE for a few episodes this August, he says he does not miss the acting profession all that much.
“I got tired of pitching myself,” Loprieno explains, “putting my material out there and putting me out there.”
When viewers saw Cord in 2004, he had come to Llainview to aid his ailing daughter Sarah, a.k.a. Flash, and bring her back to London.
Cord is not the only Buchanan coming home this summer: Dan Gauthier (Kevin), Tonja Walker (Alex) and Nathan Fillion (Joey) will all be back to celebrate the show’s 10,000th episode. The special intallments airing Aug. 16 and 17 will involve Asa’s death and funeral. (The 10,000th falls on Aug. 17.)
Loprieno, who also spent several years as a writer for OLTL, is now a full-time professor in the theater department at Moorpark College, outside Los Angeles.
“I just love working with these kids, who are 18 and 19 years old, trying to put it all together,” Loprieno says. “In many ways, I’m rediscovering why I got into the business in the first place. [I see] all the connections that they’re making and what I loved about working in the arts and working in theater in particular.”
In fact, show business is still very much on Loprieno’s mind: He’s directing the college’s production of Scapino,” which opens July 19. “It’s a big slapstick comedy set in an Italian seaport,” explains Loprieno. (Want to to go? Tickets are available at moorparkcollege.edu/theater.)
Loprieno remains a devoted family man. Two of his three children are still in grade school, while the third recently graduated from Penn State. The family temporarily moved to Chicago after both of Loprieno’s parents passed away.
“We were [in Chicago] when we needed to be. It was just at the time when I made the transition to full-time teaching here at Moorpark, so we just moved right back into our old house and put our furniture back where it was. It’s like we never left.”
Which is exactly the way Loprieno felt like when he returned to the OLTL studio.
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