Although born only in the late 1950s, Dan Stewart was fully grown and a doctor by the late 1960s on AS THE WORLD TURNS. Actor John Colenback played the role the longest, and was approximately the same age as Patricia Bruder, who played his mother, Ellen Lowell Stewart. Dan was involved in two of ATWT's most memorable love quandrangles, the Paul/Liz/Dan/Susan story of the late 1960s/early 1970s and the John/Kim/Dan/Susan story of the mid-1970s. Dan sired two daughters, Betsy and Emily, both of whom named their children after him.
Although Dan's death in 1979 paved the way for Kim and Bob's marriage, wouldn't it be nice to have Dan around today, as a legacy character with connections to many of Oakdale's residents? And does anyone know what happened to John Colenback? IMDB gives him only a handful of post-ATWT acting credits in the 1980s (BERRENGER'S, CAPITOL, FALCON CREST).
John seemed to have disappeared. Dan's death was a big blow to the show, and the first of many to come. Shortly thereafter, the Mary Ellis-Bunim team came in, started firing or disregarding vets, and until Marland came on to rescue the show, this show was much like it is today - unwatchable and no attention to history. That awful pairing of Kim with Nick Andropolous was very painful to watch. Not long after, when Nancy and Chris Hughes were featured left, Helen Wagner left the show on her own accord, and Don MacLaughlin was on recurring for a year before he finally disappeared. It wasn't until Susan Bedsow Horgan and Cynthia Benjamin took over as interim headwriters, prior to Marland, at the end of 1984, that we learned that Chris and Nancy had moved to Arizona. Thanks for this picture of John Colenbeck. I expect we'll see one of Henderson Forsythe soon, to complete the Stewart family scrapbook, and to remind viewers where Emily's legacy comes from.
ReplyDeleteI sure that Besty is Paul's daughter, Dan's niece not daughter.
ReplyDeleteBetsy's biological father was Dan; when she was born, her mother Elizabeth married Paul Stewart, and Betsy grew up thinking Paul was her father. She learned as a young teenager that Dan was her biological father, and went into "hysterical deafness" as a result. It was a couple years later when Dan died.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rob. The end of Dan was definitely the end of an era on ATWT. Didn't Doug Marland write for ATWT briefly in 1979? I wonder what his input was on the decision for Dan to die.
ReplyDeleteAre their any photos or footage of James Ear Jones on ATWT?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the super-handsome, smiling headshot of John Colenback!
ReplyDelete:-)
I remember reading something that John Colenbeck had made a producer or writer mad, so they wrote him off the show.
ReplyDeleteI loved that character and felt he was the best of Kim's romances. His death was a shock; couldn't believe the show would kill off the male romantic lead who was so intricately tied to the main families. There also was room for much more story for Dan. Imagine how rich the story would have been with him playing the father and mentor to the adult Betsy and Emmy (Emily). I always thought it would have been interesting to see the show resurrect the character to put a solid conflict into the marriage of Bob and Kim, and to re-enliven Susan's role as Kim's romantic rival.
ReplyDelete