Chris was a werewolf, Joe slowly lost touch with reality and was sent to a mental hospital by Maggie. He was never seen again and was mentioned only once in a later episode. From 1969 to 1971, he played twice-married cheat and liar Ken Stevens #2 on the CBS serial The Secret Storm. Several of his 1971 episodes have been preserved by UCLA's TV Archives, though the magnetic VHS tapes are awaiting digital transfer and are not available for viewing by the public. From 1972 to 1976, he played concert pianist-turned-newspaper editor Julian Cannell on Somerset. From 1977 to 1984, he made it big with another soap opera role: Dr. Miles Cavanaugh on ABC's The Edge of Night, for which he was twice nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the Daytime Emmy Awards in 1979 and 1984. He played that role until the series went off the air on December 28, 1984. In 1985, his final role was on Santa Barbara as both Jack Lee, a prominent attorney, and his villainous lookalike cousin Jerry Cooper, who had locked Jack in a dungeon and was posing as him. His soap opera fame helped draw attention to the ground-breaking off-Broadway play Torch Song Trilogy. The play made major stars of its writer (and lead performer) Harvey Fierstein and castmates Estelle Getty and Matthew Broderick—but when it premiered, Crothers was better known than any of them and received star billing on posters, playbills, and even the tickets. Fierstein played Arnold, a world-weary drag queen; Crothers played Arnold’s bisexual lover, Ed. He left the cast when Torch Song transferred to Broadway. Brian Kerwin played Ed in the film version. Personal life Crothers was engaged to his good friend, actress Veleka Gray, at the time of his death. They became close friends on the set when she joined the final season of Somerset, where they played the lovers Julian Cannell and Vicki Paisley. Death During his last appearances on Santa Barbara, he was by then growing very ill. On November 6, 1985, Crothers died from AIDS-related lymphoma in Los Angeles at the age of 44. His remains were cremated and scattered in Lake George, New York. References External links 1941 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American male actors AIDS-related deaths in California American male soap opera actors American male stage actors American male television actors Harvard University alumni American gay actors LGBT