Former One Life to Live star Stephen Markle (ex-Mel Hayes) passed away due to complications with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.
Beloved One Life to Live actor Stephen Markle, who played Dorian Lord's husband Mel Hayes from 1997 to 2010, has died. His wife, Deborah Dietrich, just recently revealed that he passed away on November 6, 2018, from complications related to Parkinson's disease.
Markle was born in Toronto, Canada, and started acting a young age, graduating from Canada's National Theatre School. Some of his early credits include Police Surgeon, Sidestreet, The Littlest Hobo, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Markle caught the eye of daytime fans when he landed the role of corrupt cop/serial murderer Ted Loomis on The Edge of Night in 1982. According to IMDb, the fans loved him so much, they wanted him to keep killing even more characters -- which alarmed the producers, who worried that his evil, psychopathic character was becoming a little too popular. As a result, they decided to kill off Markle's character rather than allow Ted to continue his killing spree.
Markle's other major soap opera role was playing One Life to Live's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Mel Hayes. The actor took on the role in 1997 and played him on-again, off-again until 2010, with Mel having a romance and marriage with Dorian (Robin Strasser) in that time.
Markle's real-life wife, Dietrich, shared on Legacy that a Celebration of Life will be held for Markle next month in North Hollywood.
Trending
"Stephen died on 11/6/2018 at home in North Hollywood after complications related to Parkinson's. Celebration of Life service will be held Sunday, 6/9/2019, at 1:30p at First Christian Church of N. Hollywood (FCCNH.org), reception onsite," she wrote. "Please contact me (Deborah, wife since 2003). I'm keeping an online memorial for photos, stories, info at GatheringUs. Thank you for being here. And Stephen... well, Datz Dat!"
What are your favorite on-screen memories of Stephen Markle? Would you like to leave your condolences for his family? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
Reply
