Tuesday, August 17, 2010

CLASSIC ATWT Photo of the Day: Santos Ortega


Santos Ortega played Grandpa (Will) Hughes on AS THE WORLD TURNS from 1956 through 1976, when the actor and character both passed away. Ironically, Ortega was the same age as Don MacLaughlin, who played his son Chris.

Ortega had an extensive career in radio prior to joining AS THE WORLD TURNS, including roles on such series as MYRT AND MARGE, THE MAN I MARRIED, LIGHT OF THE WORLD, MR. AND MRS. NORTH and ELLERY QUEEN.

5 comments:

  1. Rob, imdb.com lists Santos Ortega as having been born in June 1899 and Don MacLaughlin as having been born in November 1907. Not a massive difference in ages, but (if correct!) means they weren't literally the same age. Still, they were the original equivalent of the visually-off father/son relationship of John McCook and Ronn Moss on B&B who are also quite close in age in real life!

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  2. Dan, that could be correct. I got my information from another source, the book Radio Stars by Thomas A DeLong, which lists both having been born in 1906.

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  3. One thing I notice doing the birthdays every day is that on IMDB some actor's year of birth changes yearly (usually to make them younger!).

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  4. I'm very glad that a few of the ATWT episodes exist from the early 1960's that have "Grandpa Hughes" in them. My Mother always talks about the "good ol' days" with Grandpa...

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  5. Is there any footage or photos of James Earl Jones?

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