Marc Alaimo – Soap Opera History, Part I

As a fun project, I’ve been researching Marc Alaimo’s various soap opera roles. It's fascinating to see where great actors like Marc got their start and how far they've come.

Marc's first New York television appearance¹ was on the popular long-running soap, The Doctors. He played troubled Wyoming cowboy, Frank Barton from February 1971-May 1972. After coming to New York with dreams of becoming a rodeo star, Barton loses hope when he is unable to make his dream a reality. He becomes obsessed with Maggie, one of the doctors at Hope Memorial Hospital, after carjacking her at knifepoint.

In a 1996 Q&A session, Marc related the awesome story of how he got the role of Frank Barton:

“I walked in off the street to a soap opera called “The Doctors.” There was a character called Maggie Powers on it and they were looking for a guy who kidnapped her. And I walked in off the street! Just by chance I walked up to the producer’s office, and I knocked on the door, and I could tell he was immediately interested in me. And he said well, look this scene over and come back in five minutes and do it with my secretary. Well, I went in and we did the scene. And by the time we finished, I had her backed up into a corner and she just about wet her pants! I scared the hell out of her! And I got the job!” In 1972, Marc’s third soap opera², The Edge of Night, a more male-oriented “crime opera,” was broadcast live from CBS’s Eastside Studios in New York, so anything could happen! As he told Star Trek Communicator magazine in 1997: “It was live! There were times when I was choking on a sandwich or something. You can’t stop! You have to keep going. But what a wonderful thing. It was like doing a one act play every day in front of 12 million people with hardly any rehearsal at all and just a few hours of preparation. And then you wing it! You go out and you do it!”
Marc played Bailey, a prison thug convicted of armed robbery. While incarcerated, Bailey became a drug dealer who conned the prison doctor and sold dope to his fellow inmates. Bailey also attempted to stab main character Vic Lamont in the showers, but was thwarted by another character, Johnny Dallas. Marc told The Record, “I was a King Rat type, a real dude.” From all of my research, his favorite soap to work on was Edge, as there was a definite closeness with the cast and it was most like being in a play. As Marc said in The Sunday Record: “I’m more uptight before taping; you have to wait a couple of weeks to see how you did. When it’s live you know that day. Boom, and it’s over.”

Marc’s theatre training must have come in very handy for these early roles. With the shows going out live (or live-to-tape in the case of The Doctors, Where the Heart Is, and Marc’s 1972 soap Somerset) and the actors only getting the scripts a few hours before the broadcast, they had very little preparation time and a lot of pressure!

Marc does such an amazing job as Frank Barton on The Doctors, I was instantly smitten. The character is not the nicest guy, but Marc gives Frank a vulnerable edge that makes you care about him instead of hate him. For those who want to watch Marc’s eps of The Doctors, they are available on the streaming service, It's Real Good TV for under $5 a month! This was the best money I’ve spent in awhile. (Note: I am not affiliated with this website, I just love that it exists!). For those who just want to watch Marc's performance, you can email me for a spreadsheet of timestamps/dates.

MARC'S SOAPOGRAPHY The Doctors (Frank Barton, February 1971-May 1972) Where the Heart Is (Unknown character, mid-1971) The Edge of Night (Unknown character – possibly Sheriff Penbrook, Fall 1971; Bailey, Summer 1972) Somerset (Virgil Paris, August 1972-September 1973) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (George Curtis, 1 episode – April 1976) Days of Our Lives (Alex's Henchman, September 1982 – unconfirmed) Click here to read Part II of Marc Alaimo's soap opera history (Huge thanks go to the amazing soap opera fans for helping me with this info and research.)

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1 Marc's very first television appearance was on NET TV (PBS Milwaukee) in 1964 in a dramatic adaptation of the short story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" as Tom Simson.^↩

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2 I have new information that Marc appeared on at least one episode of the short-lived soap opera, Where the Heart Is in 1971. Sadly, as was the practice at the time, all of the episodes have been wiped, so there is no way to confirm what episode he appeared in. Marc may have also appeared on EON in the fall of 1971 as another character (possibly Sheriff Penbrook). I am still gathering details on this performance. I also have sources that tell me Marc was also on three episodes of Days of Our Lives in 1982 as Alex’s Henchman and am currently trying to track down more information/footage. ^↩

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