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We here at the Quint & Nola site were greatly saddened to hear of the death of actor Benjamin Hendrickson, who played the delightfully dastardly Silas Crocker on Guiding Light during Quola's heyday in the early 80s.
Hendrickson is best known to soap fans for his Emmy-winning work on As the World Turns, where Douglas Marland created a character for him that went against the evil types he'd been playing on soaps – the stoic but heroic Hal Munson, a role he played for 20 years. But we will never forget his portrayal of Silas. We should have hated him – his character was written as a one-note villain and was probably the biggest obstacle to happiness that Quint and Nola had to face. Yet Hendrickson found facets to the character that the script often didn't, making Silas compelling to watch, and sometimes even relate to, in spite of the awful things he was doing to our favorite couple.
In real life, Ben couldn't have been more unlike Silas. Our impression of him was a kind, wryly funny man with a great love of family. Like most of the actors at ATWT, he was an avid golfer. He wasn't one to seek the spotlight, but when there was something that needed his attention (such as when his brother was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor), he went all out to bring attention (and much-needed research funds) to the cause. Those of us privileged enough to have seen him perform on stage know that was really he truly shined, no surprise considering he was in the first graduating class of drama students at Julliard.
"Everyone at CBS Daytime is devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague Benjamin Hendrickson," said Barbara Bloom, Senior Vice President, Daytime Programs, CBS, in a statement.
So are we, and we wish his family and his colleagues all the best during this very difficult time.
To see and hear some of Benjamin's work as the devilish Silas Crocker see our SOUND LIBRARY and videos from retroglyph at YouTube.com
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