Hospital Rates an A

TV Guide 8/28/99

by Michael Logan

    Actor A Martinez, who won an Emmy as sensitive supercop Cruz Castillo on NBC's Santa Barbara, has signed a three-year deal with ABC's General Hospital. However, major resuscitation measures will be required:  Martinez will play Roy DiLucca, the heartthrob baddie who was shot to death by security guards in 1979 - in full view of the audience - after he tried to assassinate a senator.

    "I'm told they never wanted to kill Roy," says Martinez.  "The original actor, Asher Brauner, suddenly got cast in a pilot and left on short notice.  The idea of eighty-sixing the character came down in a flash."  Martinez, whose episodes begin airing in October, knows he will be teamed romantically with Jackie Zeman (Roy and Zeman's character, nurse Bobbie, were a serious item when he kicked the bucket, and it has long been rumored that he is the father of Bobbie's villainous daughter, Carly).  But the actor says he has not yet been told how GH will explain Roy's miraculous return.  "I'm taking a leap of faith," he concedes, "though it's not that big a leap.  Once of the big inducements to joining GH is that I'll be working again with (former SB writers) Bob Guza and Patrick Mulcahey.  Those guys know how to use me well."  Martinez has been busy since SB went off the air in 1993 with a diverse array of TV-movies (his latest one, Cruel Justice, airs August 29 on NBC) and a recurring stint on Profiler (as Ally Walker's lover, Coop).  But he has no qualms about his return to soaps.

    "My years on SB were an amazingly sweet time in my life.  They changed my life," notes the Latino star.  "Before SB, I was always cast as the bad guy or the friend of the important guy or the victim who was being protected by Baretta or Barnaby Jones.  Since then I've had the great fortune -- or maybe I've earned it -- to have broken through to the point where I get cast in roles that are not written for a Hispanic, but for a man.  Soaps gave me my first chance as an actor to exercise my heart."

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