General Hospital star A Martinez recalls the soap opera that changed his mind about daytime 

A Martinez may be known to General Hospital fans as Roy DiLucca, but the actor's fans likely best recall his pairing with Marcy Walker on Santa Barbara, where they played supercouple Cruz Castillo and Eden Capwell in the 1980s. The Cruz and Eden romance is synonymous with the NBC serial.

A Martinez from Santa Barbara to General Hospital

Martinez shared a photo from the late 1980s of himself and Walker as their Santa Barbara characters. "Marcy Walker and me as Eden and Cruz, dressed formally in a field somewhere circa 1988," Martinez posted, "@soapoperatimes sent this to me a couple of days ago, and it was a pleasure to remember our good fortune. I hadn’t wanted to do the show at first -- [I] was fooled into believing it was a nighttime soap like #Dallas, where you spend seven days to shoot a single hour-long episode of television, rather than an episode every day -- but sometimes getting fooled is nothing short of grace.

"Had I not done #SantaBarbara, I’d never have gotten to meet and work with this extraordinary human being," Martinez continues. "It was during the five years I spent onstage with Marcy Walker that I learned how to relax under pressure. Gratitude always for her trust, her courage, and her work ethic for the ages. Gratitude always that our producers believed in us -- and that our writers wrote so powerfully to see us through."

Fan response

"I absolutely love everything about this post!" chimed in @lrmusic76. "This was the first time I was able to see a man who looked and acted like my own family on television in a positive role. He wasn't a cholo, a priest, an inmate, etc. I was in middle school and used to fight my older sister (by 2 years) to watch this because she chose [General Hospital]. When Eden died, I cried so hard I couldn't breathe. This had much to do with your character grieving.

Trending

"I called my cousin's house, saying Eden from SB died," continued @lrmusic76. "I could hardly get the words out. Well, I got in trouble, lol. My Mom has lots of family in SB, and they were trying to figure out which of our family members was Eden and who to send condolences to 😂😂😂. Once I told them who I was referring to, I got grounded and couldn't watch SB for awhile 😢. 😂😂😂😂."

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback