Nicolas Coster, actor from “Another World,” “Santa Barbara,” and “All My Children,” has died at the age of 89

On Broadway, he appeared in “All the President’s Men,” “Reds,” and “The Facts of Life” alongside Laurence Olivier and Liz Taylor.

Nicolas Coster, who appeared in All the President’s Men, Reds, and Stir Crazy, as well as Another World, Santa Barbara, and All My Children, has died. He was 89.

His daughter Dinneen Coster announced on Facebook that her father died on Monday in a Florida hospital.

“Please remember him as a fantastic artist,” she wrote. He was a fantastic actress! He has always been an inspiration to me, and I am blessed to have him as a parent.”

Coster, a well-known character actor who typically plays stern roles, played head of detectives J.E. Carson on The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and later appeared as Blair Warner’s millionaire father in an episode of another 1980s NBC sitcom, The Facts of Life.

He regularly appeared on Broadway, and in 1961, he made his Broadway debut as Lawrence Olivier’s understudy in Becket, playing Henry II. Twenty years later, he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

Coster portrayed Markham, a lawyer for the Watergate defendants, in Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 film All the President’s Men. He also appeared as a colonel in Joseph Sargent’s MacArthur (1977), a dentist in Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981), and a warden in Sidney Poitier’s Stir Crazy (1980).

From 1984 to 1988, Coster portrayed the self-destructive Lionel Lockridge, husband to Louise Sorel’s Augusta Lockridge, on NBC’s Santa Barbara, until he departed the programme after disagreeing with a plot involving his character inventing a death in order to collect insurance money. But he returned in 1990 and stayed till the show was cancelled in January 1993.

In addition, from 1988 to 1989, Coster portrayed psychopathic kidnapper Steve Andrews on ABC’s All My Children, and Robert Delaney, the CEO of Delaney Brands who later became an architect, on NBC’s Somerset/Another World in 1970, 1972 to 1979, 1980, and 1989. Andrews was previously referred to by him as “Susan Lucci’s terrorist lover.”

He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his performance as Lionel in 1986, 1988, 1991, and 1992, and he eventually won the award in 2017 for his depiction as Mayor Jack Madison on the Amazon digital soap opera The Bay.

His serial work extends back to the 1960s, with roles on CBS dramas Young Doctor Malone, The Secret Storm, As the World Turns, and its primetime spinoff, Our Private World, as well as ABC soap One Life to Live.

Coster was ranked 44th on We Love Soaps’ list of the 50 Greatest Soap Actors of All Time in 2010. According to one panellist, it was the unusual soap that wasn’t charmed by or with Nicolas Coster, who was also hailed as “smart, charming, and very funny.” He also stated that “he is always spot on as the grifter/con man/bad boy who is so cool, ice wouldn’t melt in his mouth.”

Nicolas Dwynn Coster was born in London on December 3, 1933. His mother created storefront windows, and his father wrote film and theatre reviews. When Little Foxes came to London, he and Taylor, who attended the same prep school (Byron House), returned to their old playground.

Coster returned to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 after residing in Canada and Los Angeles, where he attended Canoga Park High School. He studied acting there and graduated in 1951.

Two years later, after performing in films such as Titanic, The Desert Rats, and Sea of Lost Ships, he relocated to the United States to study with Lee Strasberg in New York and to perform at the Arena Stage in Washington and the Guthrie Theatre (where he was a founding member).

In a 2006 interview with the Orange County Register, Coster emphasised his support for the great Olivier in Becket. Larry recalls being extremely athletic even at the age of 54. “He severely twisted his knee one night during the first act.” Not today, Nicolas, Olivier mumbled as he staggered off stage while I stood in the wings watching.”

After being hired for the film, Coster joined Jada Rowland on the set of The Secret Storm in 1964. “We played the first professor and student to get naughty together,” he boasted on daytime television. Before we had an affair and finally married, the United States Senate used us as an example of immorality on daytime television.

In the 1970s, he co-starred in Twigs on Broadway with Sada Thompson, who went on to win a Tony Award, and he also appeared in Seesaw and Otherwise Engaged with Michele Lee and Tom Courtenay.

His filmography has included William Conrad’s 1965 picture My Blood Runs Cold; Larry Peerce’s The Sporting Club; The Big Fix; Sydney Pollack’s The Electric Horseman; Little Darlings; and Alan Alda’s Betsy’s Wedding (1990).

Naked City, The Green Hornet, Charlie’s Angels, One Day at a Time, L.A. Law, Who’s the Boss?, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Cold Case were among the shows and movies in which Coster appeared.

He was able to continue teaching acting at the University of Georgia after being engaged in a near-fatal vehicle accident in November 1987 that put him in a coma and briefly lost his memory.

As an avid diver, Coster founded the Challenges Foundation in 1998 to provide disabled and disadvantaged youngsters with the opportunity to experience the open sea. He also developed a sailing programme for returning American veterans.

Another Whole Afternoon, his autobiography, was released in March 2021.

Candice Jr. and Dinneen, his kids from his previous marriage to dancer-actress Candace Hilligoss, are among his survivors. He was married to the Carnival of Souls actress from 1960 until their divorce in 1981.