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nearly as much of a mystery as the whereabouts of that leading man since he left daytime TV. Here he was now, personally explaining all that had gone on behind the scenes.

"It was impossible to carry on and so after a few years, we broke up. She left, and it was very upsetting to me." His voice tinged with regret. ". . . she became angry with me because I was upset with her." They did things against each other, as so often happens when love gets hurt. John sounded surprised at the depth of his recollections all these years later. "I don't even barely remember the things I did that upset her but, apparently," he laughed uncomfortably, "she's still upset, I discovered years later. She's one of the few women I've had a serious relationship with that I didn't remain very good friends with . . . and for whatever reason, I have not remained friends with Genie."

So the stormy truth of the Laura and Stavros/Genie and John story is finally revealed. He lived with his regrets and went on after Genie, though still not toning down his lifestyle.

"I did two years on Guiding Light, as John Martinuzzi." The name change hadn't yet taken placethe disappearance was still a few years into the future. "That was interesting," he continued, "but I think my alcoholism began to flare more during that time . . . soap opera acting just wasn't what I was interested in. It was a little too limiting."

John sighed heavily. It sounded as if he hadn't visited this period in his life in quite some time. "I was very young and extremely frightened of taking a step away and trying to get somewhere more on my own, go in whatever direction I really wanted to go as an artist, on any level. . . . I did some plays while on the show. And right after my contract ended, I came to L. A. in 1987. I had acted on a bunch of episodic television but found I was at the peak of my alcoholism and still in denial, still not recognizing it, but it was interfering in my life."

What happened? Love happened. "I met this woman, and I liked her a lot . . . and I met some other people who were film producers, and film production began to interest me. . . . Acting is ego-oriented. Even [for] actors who are not particularly egotistical."

The surprise here was that John didn't seem to be an egocentric man. When the world has but one or maybe two personas on which to base an impression, and when those personas are self-serving and not-so-nice, it's an unfortunate mistake to expect the person behind the characterizations to be

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