Remembering Michael Zaslow as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Sweeps the Nation

Michael Zaslow
Photo Credit: Jessica Burstein/NBC/NBCU

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've undoubtedly seen The Ice Bucket Challenge, the latest viral meme, splash across social media pages. It's all over TV news, newspapers and magazines.

Everyone from your next door neighbor to Oprah Winfrey is being showered with cold water and ice in an effort to raise awareness about ALS - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or as it's also known, Lou Gehrig's disease).

It's also raising money -- as of today, over $40 million has been raised. (The ALS Association usually raises less than a tenth of that in an entire year.)

I'm really glad that ALS is getting some well-deserved attention and awareness. But for many of us soap fans, the person who shone a spotlight on ALS, and its horrible impacts, was the late Michael Zaslow.

For those that may not know him or his work, Zaslow was a New York based actor, and for many of us, he was Roger Thorpe, Guiding Light's most memorable villain, a man both dastardly and dashing. Roger was a passionate fighter, but his tormented relationship with ex-wife Holly, a woman he'd raped while they were married, was as much a battle of intellect as it was of heart.

His powerful performances made an huge impact on GL fans. We Love Soaps' 50 Greatest Actors poll ranked him at #4, while his relationship with Holly landed at #6 on the 50 Greatest Couples poll.

Zaslow had been on GL on and off since the early 1970s, but in 1997, he began to have trouble speaking, and it showed on camera. It took several months of testing, and uncertainty, before doctors confirmed that Zaslow had ALS. In the meantime, Zaslow's health issues led to a forced leave of absence at GL.

That leave of absence led to what many of us veteran GL (and P&G) fans felt was an unspeakably cold move: Mary Alice Dwyer Dobbin, then P&G's executive in charge of production, said in a statement that Roger Thorpe, a powerful character, could not be played by “a wizened old man.”

In a September 1997 People magazine article, Zaslow said he was stunned at his dismissal from GL, saying he'd believed it was a "family." Fans were just as stunned, as Zaslow WAS, in fact, much like a member of the family.

After reaching out to executive producer Maxine Levinson and writer Claire Labine at One Life To Live, Zaslow returned to our screens and reprised his OLTL character of David Renaldi. While David was, like Michael Zaslow, unable to speak naturally, a voice machine enunciated David's dialogue -- and Zaslow's face and expressive eyes did the rest.

Michael Zaslow.  Photo Credit: Suzanne Opton/
The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

It became Zaslow's last chance to shine on screen. It gave many of his fans a last chance to bear witness to his talents. And even years later, those OLTL scenes (on YouTube) are deeply moving.

Zaslow and his family fought back against ALS, and launched ZazAngels, an advocacy and fundraising group to help raise money and awareness for ALS. Many members of the casts and crews of various soaps (including many of his old friends at GL) appeared at fundraisers to support ZazAngels - and Zaslow himself.

ALS is an incredibly destructive disease. It was just a little over a year between Zaslow's diagnosis, and his death in December 1998. It's still a shock to think that a strong, engaging actor, writer and humanitarian like Zaslow could be taken so quickly and so brutally by ALS.

It's great news that the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has raised millions more than it has in years past. But after the ice melts and the water evaporates, I hope awareness of ALS continues.

For awareness to be truly meaningful, it needs to move beyond water and ice, beyond viral videos on the Web, and focus on people, the people who fight ALS every day.

People like Michael Zaslow.