Ron Hale, who starred as Roger Coleridge during the entire 14-year run of Ryan’s Hope and had an even longer stretch as Mike Corbin on another ABC soap opera, General Hospital, has died. He was 78.
Hale, who lived in St. George, South Carolina, died Aug. 27, his family announced.
Hale worked on Ryan’s Hope from 1975-89 and received supporting actor Daytime Emmys in 1979 and ’80. As Coleridge, a doctor from a well-do-do family who often clashed with the Ryan clan, he was married to Delia Reid (Ilene Kristen/Randall Edwards), Maggie Shelby (Cali Timmins) and then Delia again.
Hale then recurred as Corbin, the father of mob boss Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), on General Hospital from 1995-2010, and he showed up on the G.H. spinoff Port Charles from 1997-2000 as well. (Max Gail played the character from 2018-21.)
Ronald Hale Thigpen was born on Jan. 2, 1946, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Furman University, came to New York when he was 19 and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1967.
He made his onscreen debut on an episode of ABC’s N.Y.P.D. in 1968 and a year later appeared on his first soap opera, CBS’ Search for Tomorrow. Also that year, he made it to Broadway in William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life.
In All the President’s Men (1976), he portrayed Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis.
Hale’s résumé also included Trial by Jury (1994), episodes of Matlock and MacGyver and plays performed at Columbia, South Carolina’s Trustus Theatre, which was started by his late brother, Jim Thigpen Jr., and late sister-in-law, Kay Thigpen.
Survivors include his nieces, Lori and Erin, and nephews Max and Marc.
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