After
Raising His Kids, Stuart Damon's Life Suddenly Takes a Detour
Ten Minutes Ago? Damon starred with Lesley Ann Warren in Cinderella in 1965.
Personal Crusade: Raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. (The disease struck son Christopher at age 7.)
Favorite Golfing Buddy: John J. York (Mac, GH). "We have the best time together."
What he likes most about Female Bosses: "There's a wonderful, warm, motherliness that runs through the whole place and I love it."
These days, no one knows that better than Stuart Damon, beloved portrayer of General Hospital's cranky Dr. Alan Quartermaine. He and his wife of 36 years, Deirdre, now find themselves raising a one-year-old child, Alexander Damon. And they couldn't be happier.
"My daughter, Jennifer, had a baby," explains Damon. "My daughter was not in a position to give the child the care and stability that was necessary, so we became the legal guardians. Alexander lives here with us. Jennifer is here twice, maybe three times a week. She did a very good, unselfish thing because she was realistic enough to know that she wanted Alexander to have an E ticket [the primo rides at Disneyland] life, and that Deirdre and I could give him one."
Alexander is approaching 18 months now, and is clearly the apple of his grandfather's eye. "I can't even begin to tell you," beams Damon. "He's big and chunky and he looks like Frankenstein when he walks. He's good to squeeze and we're just crazy about him." Since Damon's wife hails from England, Alexander will call her "Mumsy." He will call Damon "Papa." "And he's going to call Jennifer 'Mom,'" stresses the actor. "She is his mom and always will be, but we are raising him."
Damon is quick to downplay the sacrifice involved with literally starting over and raising another child from infancy. "It's only an unusual situation in the sense that Jennifer's got two parents who are young enough -- and love her and the baby enough -- to totally change our lives," he argues. "Of course, the commitment has to be total. The only difference being in a parental role this time around is that before, I was scrounging for a job. I was out. I missed a lot. This time, I see everything because I'm secure in where I am and what I do. So, I take him around with me all the time. I take him in the stroller and we go and have coffee together and he makes everybody smile. And when I walk down the street with him, everyone thinks that I'm his father. Which makes me feel fabulous."
Damon fans -- and they are legion after 20 years of yeoman work on GH -- know that Stuart and Deirdre have already raised Jennifer and her brother, Christopher. "Christopher is in love with this little boy," continues Damon. "He calls him his'brephew' and says he is his 'bruncle.' Christopher is wonderful with him. So, the kid is growing up in a household that is as stable as you could find. He is nothing but loved. And he's a very happy, big old moose of a baby."
At an age when Damon could have been playing golf or traveling, he is changing diapers and watching Barney. "You get to a time in your life where you say, 'I wonder what the last third of my life holds for me.' Well, I know exactly what it holds for me now. There are no decisions to be made. The No. 1 responsibility in my life is to make sure that Alexander has a great upbringing, great schooling and a great home. To be honest with you, if I live to see him graduate college, everything after that is just gravy."
How cute is this man? "That's just the way I feel," he shrugs. "That's the truth. So I won't be leaving General Hospital. They're gonna have to throw me off the friggin' train."
Not surprisingly, Damon has only good things to say about his job, too. "What I love most about me and Leslie [Charleson, Monica] is that no matter what happens on GH -- no matter how far it may drop off the deep end -- what happens in our little family, people can always believe in. There is always something you can play as an actor. I've never been a big fan of the stuff that is outrageous. I don't think that's what soap operas are about. I think they're about good stories and characters that people care about. And I've been fortunate enough to be Alan Quartermaine, part of a family that is highly dysfunctional, highly powerful, but interesting and fun and always believable."
Twasn't always thus. "We used to have a lot of star patrol on General Hospital," he confides. "There is no more of that. There really isn't. One way or the other, we're a team. If you are a pain in the a-- or are not doing your job, sooner or later, you're gonna get shown the door."
Damon credits Executive Producer Wendy Riche for that change. The squeaky wheel used to get the grease at GH, but no more. "I give Wendy 100 percent credit for that," praises Damon. "She is very big on team players, and I agree with her. If anybody has a right to feel that the world owes them a living, it's us guys who have been here forever. And I don't feel that way at all. I feel priveleged to be going to work every day."
When he's not working, Damon can now be found back on the golf course. "I quit playing golf because it took me, Deirdre and help in the house full-time to make sure that the baby was well cared for 24 hours a day," he states matter-of-factly. "I couldn't go running off for five or six hours. I wanted to make sure that everything was going to be exactly as it needed to be for him. His bat time, his sleep time... he used to cry every night when we put him to sleep. All the books, all the doctors say eventually you're gonna have to let him cry. It's supposed to take a week, maybe two. Two months he screamed. It was excruciating. But now when the monster -- meaning me -- picks him up to go upstairs, he looks at me like, 'You ratbag!' but he getsinto bed and doesn't make a peep."
In fact, everyone is sleeping pretty easily these days. "Can I get soppy?" he asks. (Who would say "no" to Stuart Damon?) I really do love my children. I really feel that God has presented me with another gift with Alexander and I will do whatever is necessary so that things will be right for him.
"I've got this great job," he concludes. "I've got this wonderful grandchild and another chance to be a good parent. The nice thing is that any decisions I would have had to make about the future of my life have totally been taken out of my hands. And that is a blessing."
With Friends Like This...
While 1996 was a year of ultimate happy change for Stuart Damon, it was exactly the opposite for his on-screen wife and pal, Leslie Charleson. Both her parents died and her sister committed suicide. In our 4/8/97 issue, Charleson said of Damon: "I've got Stuart's big shoulders to cry on. He is so supportive; he really saved me."
"That's a very sweet thing to say," responds Damon. "You don't get a year much tougher than she had. I think that the only thing I do for her is make her laugh. I call her on the phone and say the most inane, stupid things."
Like? "This week, she called me and said, 'Have you seen Friday's script?' And I said, 'No.' She said, 'Will you read it and get back to me? I have no idea what it's supposed to be about.' So yesterday I called her up and I said, 'Leslie, I read the script. I got all the extra pages. I put the whole thing together and I tried to look at it from your perspective. And I have to say, the writing is wonderful. The only problem is: Leslie, you stink.' She falls on the floor. So I said, 'If you can get past the fact that you have no talent, you'll probably be able to do something passable.' She's absolutely hysterical, on the other line, long distance, with somebody else and I'm saying this crap to her. That's the kind of stuff I do to her all of the time."
By Carolyn Hinsey, June 10,1997
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