matthew ashford homepage articles


"I spent an idyllic summer in the mountains of North Carolina working and performing at a rambling old inn called the Farmhouse Restaurant. You'd work grueling hours waiting tables, but you'd also get the chance to perform whatever you wanted in a small stage area. I found some Wizard of Oz props, threw a cape over my back, cut out a silly cardboard crown and sang, 'If I Were King of the Forest.' It was cornball, but it played well. I loved getting the chance to work off a live audience."

"I played a lot of character parts in school. This is my friend, Howard Mungo, and me in Brian Friel's play Philadelphia, Here I Come. He was an older man, and I was a young Irish tough guy. It's kind of funny because I have sideburns again just like I did then. Of course, those were drawn on; now they're real."



"I got the part of Drew Ralston on One Life to Live very quickly after graduation, in 1982. He was apparently the youngest doctor ever to graduate form medical school. All I did was answer the phone and ask, Bo, 'What do you think?' I was waiting for them to give me direction on how to play the part, but that's just not the nature of the soap business. They're moving so fast, it's up to the actor to give them something. After nine months, they said 'This is not working out; we're going to kill you off,' and Drew was murdered on the way to his wedding to Becky Lee.

It ended up being a very good thing, because they finally started writing for the character, and I realized that you have to go to work with a purpose. I learned from the experience and then moved on."

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