“My career on All My Children has given me more than words could ever covey, both professionally and personally”, he had said, upon retiring, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
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Playing confident, classically-handsome Adam Chandler (and, at times, his timid brother Stuart), Chandler embraced the soap trappings. He was always at loggerheads with the other villain, Palmer Cortlandt. Characters like Erica Kane, Brooke English, Adam Chandler, Tad Martin and Dixie Cooney have found fans across multiple generations over the years, and have been fondly remembered even after the series ended just a few short years ago. Canary’s stint on “All My Children” lasted 26 years – he won five Outstanding Actor Awards and 16 nominations between 1983 and 2001.
During their peak years in the 1970s and 1980s, afternoon dramas such as All My Children and One Life to Live helped make up what Time magazine described as “TV’s richest market”.
David was born on August 25, 1938 in Elwood, in to the late Hillary Canary and Lorena Heal. He attended the University of Cincinnati. He graduated with a major in music. He got his start in acting in the theater in NY City before he finally tried his hand at film and TV roles, USA Today reported.
Producer David Dortort saw Canary shine in Hombre and in a two-part Gunsmoke episode in 1967 and hired him to play Canaday soon afterward. He appeared in a production of the musical “The Fantasticks” in San Francisco.
He made his small screen debut as Mia Farrow’s physical therapist in “Peyton Place” and then as Ponderosa ranch foreman in “Bonanza”.
He is survived by his wife of more than three decades, Maureen, a son, Christopher, a daughter, Kathryn, a grandson, and a brother, John.
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Ripa played Canary’s daughter on the long-running ABC soap opera for 12 years, from 1990-2002.
