CHASE, Mitchell Ryan, 1973-74. photo: Sherman Weisburd/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Credit: Sherman Weisburd/TV Guide/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

One of his former leading ladies shared on March 4 that Mitchell Ryan had passed away.

You may not know his name, but you for sure know Mitchell Ryan. In his six — count ’em, six! — decades on showbiz, he appeared on everything from Riptide to The A-Team, from Murder, She Wrote to Matlock. But it was in daytime television that he made an especially indelible mark.

In the late 1960s, he lit up Dark Shadows as Burke Devlin, an ex-con whose vendetta against the Collins family put him at odds with… well, the supernatural soap’s core clan. Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie Evans opposite him, shared on Facebook on March 4 that “my sweet, beloved friend Mitch died early this morning. He was a great gift in my life.

“I cherish my warm memories of his beautiful soul,” she added. “I’m heartbroken.”

More: Dark Shadows through the years [PHOTOS]

As are all of us who so vividly remember his charismatic presence on screen. In addition to primetime sudsers King’s Crossing, 2000 Malibu Road and the original Dallas, Ryan played mobster Anthony Tonell on Santa Barbara in the late 1980s and mafioso Luke and Laura Spencer’s tormentor Frank Smith on General Hospital in the mid-1990s.

On this sad occasion, stop off on your way to the comments to share your fondest memory of Ryan, who was also Greg’s father on Dharma & Greg, to pay your respects to the soap stars we lost in 2021, from General Hospital great Stuart Damon (Alan) to Bold & Beautiful guest star Betty White (Ann) via the below photo gallery.