Background
Hawkins was born Thomas Knight Slater in Harlem, the son of Helen Margaret (Knight) and Thomas G. Slater.
Hawkins was born Thomas Knight Slater in Harlem, the son of Helen Margaret (Knight) and Thomas G. Slater.
He would later also use the stage name Michael Gainsborough. During the 1940s, he lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, Long Island. He was athletic and was one of the faster boys at his grade school, Munsey Park School, and started his acting and singing career in a fourth-grade production of the Gilbert Sullivan operetta, HMS Pinafore, as Captain Corcoran.
His family left Manhasset in 1950.
lieutenant is not clear where he was raised after that point. After a small role on the Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera Search for Tomorrow, he played Doctor Paul Stewart #4 on another Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera, As the World Turns.
He later replaced David Birney as Mark Elliott on yet another Columbia Broadcasting System show, Love is a Many Splendored Thing. He later created the role of Frank Ryan on the American Broadcasting Company soap opera Ryan"s Hope but was fired from the role at the end of the show"s first year reportedly due to his alcoholism.
He was asked back, but replaced with actor Andrew Robinson later that year.
At the time she was cast in Ryan"s Hope, Helen Gallagher, who played matriarch Maeve Ryan, taught singing in her home three times a week. Hawkins was one of her students. In the mid-1990s in Los Angeles, Hawkins, using the name Michael Doctorate. Gainsborough, he composed a wide range of songs of varied genres.
This collection of songs hinged on the lyrics "Make Haste Slowly (Baby)" and were an example of his ability to compose "variations on a theme," much like the work of Italian Artist, Fornasetti.
These compositions spanned such musical genres as country, hip-hop, funk and vaudeville. Search for Tomorrow (1967 - 1968) Steve Haskins As the World Turns (1968-1969, 6 months) Doctor Paul Stewart #4 Love is a Many Splendored Thing (June 1970 – September 1971) Mark Elliott #3 Ryan"s Hope (July 7, 1975 - November 8, 1976) Frank Ryan #1.