Misplaced Pages

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (January 2017)

Thomas Knight Slater (December 26, 1938 – November 14, 2022), known professionally as Michael Hawkins and credited sometimes as Michael D. Gainsborough, was an American actor. He is known for playing Frank Ryan on the soap opera Ryan's Hope (1975–1976). He was the father of actor Christian Slater.

Life and career

Thomas Knight Slater was born in Queens, New York on December 26, 1938, the son of Helen Margaret (Knight) and Thomas G. Slater. He would later also use the stage name Michael Gainsborough. His uncle was radio personality Bill Slater.

Hawkins spent the early part of his childhood in Forest Hills section of Queens, as well as in Texas and Tennessee. Later in the 1940s, he lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, Long Island. He was athletic and was one of the faster boys at his grade school, Munsey Park School, and started his acting and singing career in a fourth-grade production of the Gilbert Sullivan operetta, HMS Pinafore, as Captain Corcoran. His family left Manhasset in 1950. It is not clear where he was raised after that point. After a small role on the CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow, he played Dr. Paul Stewart #4 on another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns. He later replaced David Birney as Mark Elliott on another CBS show, Love is a Many Splendored Thing. He later played Larry Kirby #2 on the NBC soap opera How to Survive a Marriage.

Hawkins later created the role of Frank Ryan on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope but was fired from the role at the end of the show's first year reportedly due to his alcoholism and inability to memorize lines correctly. He was asked back, but replaced with actor Andrew Robinson later that year. At the time she was cast in Ryan's Hope, Helen Gallagher, who played matriarch Maeve Ryan, taught singing in her home three times a week. Hawkins was one of her students.

Hawkins was married to casting director Mary Jo Slater until their divorce in 1976; their only child is actor Christian Slater.

Hawkins died in Los Angeles on November 14, 2022, at the age of 83.

Filmography

References

1. Dillon, Nancy (February 24, 2016). "Christian Slater sued for allegedly ruining his dad's acting career". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
2. "Thomas Knight Slater birth reference". FamilySearch.org. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
3. "Search or browse our".
4. Lewis, John (November 22, 2011). Radio Master. Publish Green. ISBN 9781936183869.
5. "For Michael Hawkins, Suddenly – Happy Days". Soap Opera People Magazine. September 1976.
6. Wilson, Earl (July 16, 1975). "Helen Gallagher Slips into Soaps". The Milwaukee Sentinel.
7. Andriakos, Jacqueline (June 11, 2015). "Christian Slater Opens Up About Reconnecting with His 'Manic-Depressive' Father: 'We Were Able to Begin to Build a Better Bridge for the Both of Us'". People. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
8. "Thomas Knight Slater". Legacy. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
9. "Magazine Fall/Winter 2023". SAG-AFTRA. p. 61. Retrieved December 3, 2023.

External links

• Michael Hawkins at IMDb

This article about an American television actor born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article about a United States film actor born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1938 births
• 2022 deaths
• Male actors from New York (state)
• Male actors from Queens, New York
• American male film actors
• American male soap opera actors
• American male television actors
• People from Manhasset, New York
• American television actor, 1930s birth stubs
• American film actor, 1930s birth stubs