Roger Newcomb over at We Love Soaps noted that yesterday, May 1, was the 20th anniversary of Douglass Watson’s death. For those of you who didn’t have the great joy of watching Mr. Watson onscreen, he was Mac Cory on Another World for many years.
His death was sudden and unexpected, and came just as AW was celebrating 25 years on the air. (It would be unceremoniously dumped by NBC almost exactly a decade later.)
As I searched for a Mac scene today on YouTube, a scene featuring the late Beverlee McKinsey popped up.
A shiver went up my spine as I realized today is exactly one year since McKinsey’s death. I hadn’t realized that these two greats, who played father and daughter, passed away on nearly the same day.
Here’s a clip that’s chock full of AW goodness. Rachel! Mac! Ada! And the return of shit-stirring, troublemaking Liz. As was customary for Christmas episodes, it features one of Douglass Watson’s magnificent toasts.
The more recent loss of McKinsey means that many of you have read our raves in the blogosphere about her work. She was magnificent on AW and GL. Many of you have seen the glorious, definitive GL/Alexandra country club scenes, so I won’t repeat those clips here.
But this clip, for some reason, has always been a favorite – a beautifully written and acted scene that may not have huge plot revelations or earthshaking action, but says so much about Alexandra (and Maureen Garrett’s Holly) in such a small window of time.
I may be boring and old-fashioned in the extreme. But let current viewers have all the gunfire, kidnappings, bombings and mob hits that their little 18-34W demographic hearts can stand. As for me, I love these kinds of scenes. I watch for these kinds of scenes. And I miss these scenes (and these memorable performers).
A | THOUSAND | OTHER | WORLDS 
I loved Beverlee McKinsey as Iris–even when she mellowed out a bit on “Texas”. She was an amazing actress. Thanks for the memories, Patrick!
Any clip of Douglass Watson (along with the incomparable Constance Ford and Victoria Wyndham) is a welcome one! What a wonderful clip!
Of course, that has to take second place to the Beverlee McKinsey/Maureen Garrett clip. For those of you “younger folk” who never got to see McKinsey on GL (or Texas, AW, etc.) — you missed out on a giant of daytime. She is so terribly missed. Thank goodness for the YouTube clips!
Of course, you put Beverlee McKinsey on the same stage as Douglass Watson…my lord, you talk about a master class! Simply stunning!
Patrick,
Lovely tribute to both Douglass and Beverlee. Thanks for digging up those You Tube clips.
This past weekend, I transfered some of my old GL VHS tapes to disc. And Alexandra was featured prominently in those tapes that I chose to save. Wonderful to have a little Beverlee McKinsey festival, even though I didn’t realize at the time it was the annniversary of her death.
She was truly one of the best actresses ever on daytime. Glad I got to spend time with her on AW, Texas and GL.
As for Douglass Watson, his death really shook me up when it happened. I’d experienced other soap characters dying when their real life portrayers died – Grandma Kate and Charles Tyler on AMC, Bert Bauer on GL – but Mac was the one I grew up with. The father figure I always wanted. And unlike those others, Mac was still driving the storylines when Douglas died. The whole show was still built around Mac and Rachel. So, his death really hit me hard.
And in my opinion, it really was the beginning of the end of AW after Mac died. While Charles Keating was a good actor, Carl Hutchins was no Mac Cory.