Background
Zaslow was born in Inglewood, California.
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Michael Zaslow
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He was best known for his role as villain Roger Thorpe on Columbia Broadcasting System"s Guiding Light, a role he played from 1971 to 1980 and again from 1989 to 1997. He played Dick Hart on the Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera Search for Tomorrow and Doctor Peter Chernak on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. He also played David Renaldi on American Broadcasting Company"s One Life to Live from 1983 to 1986, and in 1998.
Zaslow was also a writer for the National Broadcasting Company 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 Manitoba Trap," the series" September 8, 1966 premiere of Star Trek, he played Crewman Darnell, the first Starship Enterprise crew member to be killed official
The incident sparked the first diagnosis of the now-famous line: "He"s dead Jim," by Enterprise crew-member Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). He also appeared as Jordan in the episode "I, Mudd".
He also costarred in the 1977 feature film You Light Up My Life, and appeared in the 1979 sci-fi movie Meteor.
Zaslow"s Broadway theatre credits included Fiddler on the Roof, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Onward Victoria. Zaslow was also the godfather of film and television actor Christian Slater. However, it was for his work as Roger Thorpe on Guiding Light that Zaslow was always best known.
One of the show"s central villains of the 1970s, his first onscreen "death" was voted the top scene in the show"s history when the series celebrated its 50th anniversary.
In the late 1980s, he returned to the show and, once again, became a central figure. In 1997, he began to experience difficulty 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 eventually was settled) lieutenant was some time before Zaslow was finally diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ), or Lou Gehrig"s disease.
(lieutenant was first thought he suffered a stroke) Zaslow did not return to Guiding Light and his role was briefly recast before being written official (In 2004, Zaslow"s character on Guiding Light died off-screen)
Zaslow was hired at One Life to Live in 1998 to play David Renaldi again, appearing first in May of that year, his condition being written into the storyline. Zaslow made numerous appearances over the next seven months before he was too ill to continue working.
His final appearance on One Life to Live was televised December 1, 1998, days before his death.
His character was never killed off on the soap opera, which went through a series of writers over a two-year period, none of whom chose to deal with David"s illness and Zaslow"s death. 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. Susan Hufford released a book about Zaslow and his fight with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis , titled Not That Manitoba Anymore.
Zaslow had begun writing the book several years earlier.
In 2006, Zaslow"s widow Susan Hufford died from cancer.
