Robin and Michael

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"A lot of actors would have just said, 'Look, I don't want people seeing me in this condition.
I want them to remember me as the matinee idol that I was.' But Michael was a warrior.
He took issue with his disease [ALS], and he decided to declare war on it."
Robin Strasser, in People Magazine, Tributes, December 28, 1998.

*****

"All his life Michael Zaslow was a fighter. This disease did not weaken his spirit,
it transformed him into a true hero."

SOAP OPERA WEEKLY – May 19, 1998
East Coast by Pat Sellers

-New Life on One Life- Robin Strasser (Dorian) was looking forward to a special gift on her birthday last Thursday. The first of her "One Life to Live" episodes with Michael Zaslow as David Renaldi, Dorian’s one-time lover and the father of her daughter, Cassie, was scheduled to air. When I spoke with Robin after she had taped four of the ten episodes they’ll appear in together, she pointed out that her May 7 birthday is shared by the late Gary Cooper, who starred as Lou Gehrig in the bio-pic "The Pride of the Yankees". Lou Gehrig died at age 38 of a degenerative neuromuscular condition called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which henceforth became commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Michael was recently diagnosed with the same disease, and his returning character, David, is now similarly challenged.

ALS, which eventually atrophies all the muscles of the body, can initially attack anywhere. In Michael’s case, it struck first in his throat, destroying his ability to speak. He delivers lines via the same computer he uses off-screen, though the wheelchair is a prop; in real life he’s still able to walk with the help of a cane. Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, Robin says working with Michael again is "extraordinary and illuminating. It’s bringing out the best in everybody – oh, the love on the set! – and the best in the show. The storyline got better. We didn’t make an accommodation, we got a bonus. The guy’s a star! And the wonderful, delicious news is, he’s the same brilliant, opinionated, funny, iconoclastic Zaslow. Even though he can’t speak, he’s communicating by typing notes on his computer, and he’s got wonderful, creative concepts that he shares with you – lines he wants to rewrite, ideas about how something should be played. It’s a joy to be able to perform with him.

"And I feel nothing but gratitude toward Pat Fili-Krushel (president, ABC Daytime), Jill Farren Phelps (the executive producer) and Pam Long (the head writer) for making this happen," Robin adds.

Another key player in making this happen was Michael’s former OLTL wife, Brynn Thayer (ex-Jenny Renaldi), with whom he’s maintained a close friendship since both opted to leave the show in 1986. In fact, Brynn was with Michael when he received the conclusive diagnosis from ALS expert Dr. Stanley Appel at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. I spoke with Brynn, who explained to me that she accompanied Michael because Susan Hufford, his wife, had to remain in New York with their teenage daughters and her critically ill father, who has since passed away.

"Michael was going to go by himself, but I bullied myself into meeting him in Houston. He sent me a fax saying, ‘I don’t want you coming,’ and I wrote back a fax saying – well, I used some severe language and said, ‘I don’t care, I’m going to meet your flight.’"

Brynn flew in from L.A., and they went to see Dr. Appel together. "Michael and Susan had already been to many other good hospitals where he had had a lot of testing done." The results pointed to ALS, but Michael was holding out hope that Dr. Appel, who puts patients through his own three-day testing program, would arrive at another, less devastating diagnosis. It was not to be.

"Dr. Appel had studied the other test results, and we basically got the diagnosis on the first day," Brynn says. "He said, ‘We’ll go through the tests, but it looks like this is what you do have.’ He also said, ‘I’ll need you to be mentally accepting that you have ALS, because once you mentally accept it, you can be more positive in this fight.’"

With those words, Michael accepted his condition and began his fight. Over the next three days he and Brynn, and Susan back in New York, outlined their battle plan, which would include forming ZazAngels, a nonprofit ALS research foundation associated with the ALS Association of Greater New York. (Contributions can be made via and AT&T-donated website at www.zazangels.com or by calling the Association at (800) 672-8857 and designating ZazAngels.) They also decided to propose to ABC that David, and possibly Jenny, be brought back on OLTL. "We went to them and asked for one show, two shows, anything they could give David, or David and Jenny, because we wanted to raise awareness, raise money, find a cure. And they went beyond our wildest dreams," Brynn says.

As of now, Jenny, who was buried in an avalanche, has not been written back on. "Somebody get me a snowblower!" Brynn jokes. (Better yet, send a letter to ABC). Brynn’s working on ZazAngels from a desk in Robin’s dressing room. She’s also lobbying to get Michael on the Daytime Emmys as a presenter, and urging that supporters wear little blue-and-white bows (symbolic of the Yankee pinstripes) made by the OLTL cast and crew (you can get a bow, T-shirt or baseball cap when you make a contribution).

Brynn also was with Michael when he made a surprise appearance at the recent OLTL fan club luncheon. As he walked to the dais, cane in hand and head held high, a beaming Carol Dickson, the fan club president, said: "What can I possibly do next year to top this?"