Michael Zaslow
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| Michael Zaslow | |
 Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe on Guiding Light, 1992 |
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| Birth name | Michael Joel Zaslow |
| Born | November 1, 1942 Inglewood, California |
| Died | December 6, 1998 New York City |
| Notable roles | Roger Thorpe, Guiding Light David Renaldi, One Life to Live Crewman Darnell, Star Trek |
| Emmy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series 1994 Guiding Light |
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Michael Joel Zaslow (November 1, 1942 — December 6, 1998) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as villain Roger Thorpe on CBS's Guiding Light, a role he played from 1971 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1997.
He had earlier played Dick Hart on the CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow and Dr. Peter Chernak on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. He also played David Renaldi on ABC's One Life to Live, from 1983 to 1986. Zaslow was also a writer for the NBC soap opera Another World.
Zaslow guest starred on a number of other television shows and soap operas, including Barnaby Jones and Law & Order. In the episode "The Man Trap," the series' September 8, 1966 premiere of Star Trek, he played Crewman Darnell, the first starship Enterprise crewmember to be killed off.
In 1997, he began to experience difficulty in speaking. When it became noticeable on screen, he was placed on leave at Guiding Light. (There are conflicting stories as to whether Zaslow was then fired; there was for some time a legal action against Guiding Light and sponsor Procter & Gamble, which was eventually settled.) It was some time before Zaslow was finally diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Zaslow did not return to GL and his role was briefly recast before being written off. (In 2004, Zaslow's character on GL died off-screen.)
In a show of support, Zaslow was hired at One Life to Live to play David Renaldi again, and made several appearances there before he was too ill to continue working. His final appearance on "One Life" was televised December 1, 1998, days before his death.
His widow, psychologist/writer Susan Hufford, and his daughters, Marika and Helena, founded ZazAngels, a foundation that wishes to raise funds in order to find a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease. Several of his Guiding Light and One Life to Live castmates, along with many Broadway-based theater luminaries, have participated in tributes to Zaslow that were fundraisers for ZazAngels.
In 2004, Zaslow and Hufford's daughter Helena died. Hufford released a book last year about Zaslow and his fight with ALS, titled Not That Man Anymore. Zaslow had begun writing the book several years earlier.
In 2006, Zaslow's widow, Susan Hufford lost her battle to cancer. [1]
