Louis Stirling Edmonds (September 24, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was an American actor from

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of count ...

. He was best known for his roles in ''

Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinspor ...

'' and ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 2013, via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and ...

''. Edmonds appeared in the musical '' Ernest in Love'' in 1960. He acted on the

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

soap ''Dark Shadows'' as Roger Collins from 1966 to 1971. His other roles on ''Dark Shadows'' were Joshua Collins (the father of Barnabas Collins), Edward Collins (the older brother of Quentin Collins), Roger Collins PT (Roger Collins' opposite self in 1970 Parallel Time), the adult Daniel Collins (a cousin of Barnabas Collins and Millicent Collins' younger brother), Amadeus Collins (a lawyer who was the main prosecutor in the trial of Judah Zachary in 1692, whose spirit later possesses Gerard Stiles in 1840), and Brutus Collins (a ghost who haunted the secret locked room in 1841 Parallel Time). On ''All My Children'', he played Langley Wallingford/Lenny Wlasuk from 1979-92 (on contract, returning for special events up until 1995, the show's 25th anniversary special), who was married to

Phoebe Tyler This is a list of characters appearing (or who have appeared) on the ABC Daytime and TOLN soap opera ''All My Children''. A Carter Anders *Jason Pendergraft (2013) Pine Valley Hospital doctor with an unknown past. Bill Anderson * James Prit ...

, portrayed by

Ruth Warrick Ruth Elizabeth Warrick (June 29, 1916 – January 15, 2005) was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on ''All My Children'', which she played regularly from 1970 until her ...

. He received

Daytime Emmy The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (N ...

nominations in 1984, 1985, and 1986. He also received

Soap Opera Digest Award ''The Soap Opera Digest Awards'', originally known as ''The Soapy Awards'' when introduced in 1977, is an awards show held by the daytime television magazine '' Soap Opera Digest''. History 1977 until 1983 The Soapy Awards were an award prese ...

nominations in 1989 and 1990. Edmonds retired from the show due to ill health after being off contract for several years. He died of

respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a rise ...

on March 3, 2001, in Port Jefferson,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Early life

Edmonds was born in

, on September 24, 1923, to Walter R. Edmonds and his wife, Katherine L. Stirling. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Louis Edmonds, 77, Stage and TV Actor
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

. Retrieved February 13, 2022.

Stage work

Edmonds began his career off-Broadway in the 1950s, appearing in mostly light comedy and classical works. He created the role of Algernon in '' Ernest in Love'', the musical version of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

''. The cast recording was recently reissued on CD. He played Max in the original Broadway production of

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

's ''

Candide ( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, Th ...

'', but due to a temporary illness, he is not heard on the cast recording. In the 1970s and 1980s Edmonds toured in several national tours; two of the most successful were ''

Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay '' I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cerva ...

'' (as Cervantes/Quixote) and ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flowe ...

'' (as Henry Higgins).

Personal life

Edmonds

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

publicly in the biography ''Big Lou'' by Craig Hamrick, published while Edmonds was in his 70s. The actor gave details of his life as a gay man.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Louis 1923 births 2001 deaths American male soap opera actors American male television actors American male musical theatre actors Burials in New York (state) Deaths from respiratory failure American gay actors LGBT people from Louisiana Male actors from Baton Rouge, Louisiana 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American male singers 20th-century LGBT people