Joel Crothers was am American actor, born Joel Anthony Crothers on January 28, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was raised in New York where he graduated from Birch Wathen School in 1958. He was an exceptionally successful and popular soap-opera actor who, in 1981, was noted by popular columnist Molly Ivins to so strongly resemble Tom Selleck that they could be twin brothers.

From 1966-1969, he played Joe Haskell (boyfriend of Carolyn Stoddard (Nancy Barrett), later boyfriend of Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), on Dark Shadows; and during the 1795 storyline, he played Lt. Nathan Forbes.

From 1969-1971, he played two-timing cheat Ken Stevens #2 on the CBS serial The Secret Storm--UCLA and other TV archives have some videotapes and kinescopes of these episodes perserved, but, unfortunately, not available to the public for viewing. From 1972-1976, he played Julian Cannell on Another World in Somerset, the first of four soap spin-offs of the 1964-1999 NBC serial Another World. From 1977-1984, he made it big with another soap opera role: Dr. Miles Cavanaugh on ABC'sThe Edge of Night, for which he was twice nominated as Best Actor for the Daytime Emmy Awards in 1982 and 1983. He played that role until it went off the air on December 28, 1984.

In 1985, his final soap opera role was on Santa Barbara as Jack Lee #1/Jerry Cooper.

Sadly, on November 6, 1985, Crothers passed away from cancer. (Some sources claim he succumbed to AIDS.) His remains were cremated and scattered in Lake George, NY .

He attended one Dark Shadows convention in 1984.

Other links: http://www.joelcrothers.net