Hall of Fame: Douglas Watson

Douglas Watson
2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee

• Dr. Clay Carroll, The Nurses
• Dr. Robert Wallace, Moment of Truth
• Walter Haskins, Search For Tomorrow
• Dr. Lloyd Phillips, Love of Life
• Mackenzie Cory, Another World

Larkin Douglass Watson III was born February 24, 1921 in Jackson, Georgia where his ancestors were granted land for fighting in the American Revolution. One of his famous relatives was named Douglas Watson. He was a famous Indian scout, who discovered Indian Springs, site of the current Georgia State Park. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1942, he studied acting in Hollywood with the legendary Maria Ouspenskaya.

A character actor since 1950, his most notable roles were in the movies Julius Caesar (1953), Sayonara (1957), and The Money Pit (1986). He was also one of the most acclaimed actors on the New York stage, acting in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. In addition, he played on such daytime dramatic dramas as Moment of Truth (1965) (a Canadian serial), Search for Tomorrow (1966-1968), Love of Life (1972-1973), and Another World (1974-1989).

Before his acting career began, he received two Purple Heart awards and a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in the Air Force during World War II.

After the war, he toured as Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor and made his New York debut in 1947, personally selected by Eugene O'Neill to play Don Parrit in The Iceman Cometh.

His theater career quickly took off with a Theatre World Award for his performance the next year as Eros in Antony and Cleopatra. In 1949, Watson won the Clarence Derwent Award for That Lady opposite Katharine Cornell, and the next year he topped Variety's New York Drama Critics Poll for The Wisteria Trees opposite Helen Hayes. A number of critically acclaimed roles followed in the 1950s, including Romeo opposite Olivia de Havilland's Juliet, Eben Cabot in Desire Under the Elms, Christian de Neuvilette in Cyrano de Bergerac, the title role in Henry V, Mr. Harcourt in The Country Wife opposite Julie Harris, Ralph Touchett in Portrait of a Lady opposite Jennifer Jones, Brian O'Bannion in Auntie Mame opposite Constance Bennett, and the title role T. S. Eliot's The Confidential Clerk.

Celebrated for his outstanding performances in a series of Shakesperean productions, Watson broke into motion pictures in 1953 as Octavius in Julius Caesar opposite Marlon Brando's Mark Antony. Four years later, he was reunited with Brando in the film version of Sayonara. During the 1960s he continued his Shakesperean award-winning theater streak, appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Othello. He appeared in a number of non-Shakesperean roles, including King Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons, Herald in Marat/Sade, Teddy Lloyd in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Zoe Caldwell, and the Major General in The Pirates of Penzance.

After two decades of busy stage work, Watson starred in his own daytime serial, Moment of Truth, in 1965. He played Dr. Bob Wallace, a psychiatrist, in this ill-fated, Canadian produced entry. Then he was seen as Walter Haskins on Search For Tomorrow for awhile, followed by a stint in 1972 as Dr. Lloyd Phillips on Love of Life. Nancy Marchand who would later appear with him on Another World portrayed his wife, Vinnie.

In 1974, he joined the cast of Another World. On Another World, Watson portrayed Mackenzie "Mac" Cory; the third actor to play the role, he had replaced Robert Emhardt. Watson earned the Another World role after a critically-acclaimed turn playing Kent in King Lear at the 1974 New York Shakespeare Festival.

As the doting father of the spoiled Iris, who found his match in the fiery Rachel, Watson quickly garnered notice inside the industry for his alternately charming and volatile performances, resulting in two Emmy awards for Outstanding Actor in 1980 and 1981.

Although Mac was busy enough for a dozen men (three marriages to Rachel, a poisoning administered by his wife Janice, a hostage kidnapped for weeks, a plane crash survivor who wandered for days on frozen tundra), Watson found time for other projects besides soaps during the 1970s and early 1980s. He appeared in the film Ulzana's Raid with Burt Lancaster and repeated his stage performance in The Trial of the Cantonville Nine in the film version. In 1973, after starring as Don Pedro in the highly praised Joe Papp production of Much Ado About Nothing, he repeated the role in a television production. He also appeared on Broadway in the musical Over Here with the Andrews Sisters and in the revival of The Philadelphia Story.

As if acting with Dame Judith Anderson in Medea, dancing with Martha Graham in several of her premier works, and singing with The New York City Opera were not enough, Watson also managed an equally impressive home life. From November 28, 1942 to his death, he was married to Harriet Eugenia (Genie) Clark. The Watsons had three children: Larkin Douglas Watson, a construction engineer; Celia Strome, a national award-winning poet; and Randall Forsberg, an internationally recognized expert on world armaments and the originator of the Nuclear Freeze Movement.

Watson died on May 1, 1989 from a heart attack at the age of 68, just a few days short of Another World's silver anniversary. His character on the show also died shortly afterward. Douglass Watson is interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut.