Former daytime soap opera publicist Dick McInnes died Monday at the Veterans Affairs hospital in West Los Angeles. He was 81.According to Edward McNeill, his longtime business partner at their firm, P.R. Plus. McInnes had been a patient at the VA for more than a year, and many of the soap stars that he had worked with had come to pay him a visit.
McInnes represented dozens of daytime actors during his career, including Richard Dean Anderson, Emily McLaughlin, Anna Lee and David Lewis of General Hospital, Brenda Dickson of The Young and the Restless, and Macdonald Carey and Bill & Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of our Lives.
He was hired by Bill Bell, the co-creator of The Bold and the Beautiful, to help publicize the CBS soap when it debuted on CBS in 1987.
McInnes also presided over an annual soap opera cruise that allowed fans to rub elbows with their favorite stars; produced and hosted talk shows that centered on interviews with soap actors; penned a column for Rona Barrett's Daytimers magazine; and ran a soap opera merchandise store, Bubble Boutique, on Hollywood Boulevard.
He collaborated with actress Dorothy Lamour on her 1980 autobiography, "My Side of the Road."
A native of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, McInnes attended L.A. City College, and later landed a gig on the KABC-TV program A.M. Los Angeles, hosted by Regis Philbin. He got his start in PR at Rogers & Cowan.
McInnes also worked on The Thalians annual ball for decades alongside actresses Debbie Reynolds and Ruta Lee, who headed the charitable organization. He helped create and edit the Thalians book, which each year honors a Hollywood legend.
Survivors include his daughter Lauren, brother Terry and sister Liz.
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