Robert Milli as Adam Thorpe on Guiding Light
Credit: Image: CBS

Soap opera alum loved sharp clothes and the New York Yankees.

Soaps.com is sad to report that veteran soap opera actor Robert A. Milli, best known for his role as Guiding Light’s Adam Thorpe, passed away on July 18 in New Jersey at the age of 86 following a battle with cancer.

Born March 15, 1933, Robert Milli was pre-deceased by his wife, Mary Jane, in 2015, and is survived by his children, Brian and Liza, their spouses, Lisa and Marshall, and four grandsons; Nick, Harry, Robbie, and Andrew. According to his obituary, Milli was born and raised in Brooklyn and Baltimore, and it was in Maryland that he met and married Mary Jane Mulligan following his service in the Navy, which he had joined at age 17. Milli was said to have ‘enjoyed every day of his life’, and loved ‘great food, sharp clothes, the New York Yankees, and yelling at the TV whenever the Giants were playing’. He was also a golf enthusiast and was skilled at building and restoring World War II model planes and Lionel trains.

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Throughout his Broadway and acting career, which began in 1962 playing Robert Wells in The Seducers, Milli worked with movie stars such as Richard Burton (as Horatio in Hamlet), Helen Hayes and Jessica Tandy. He got his start in daytime television playing Dr. Jim Abbott on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing in 1967, then moved to One Life to Live as Dr. Jim Craig the following year. In 1970, he appeared as Wayne Addison on both Somerset and Another World, before joining Guiding Light as Adam Thorpe, father of Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow), where he stayed from 1974 – 1981, and later popped up to reprise the role numerous times in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. His last soap opera role was that of Lars Bogard on All My Children, who he played from 1981 – 1982. Milli continued to act into the 1990’s with guest-starring spots on TV series and mini-series such as Spenser: For Hire, I’ll Take Manhattan, and Law & Order.

Soaps.com extends condolences to the family and friends of Robert A. Milli. Remember other soap opera actors lost in 2019 in our gallery below…