Alan Dysert, who portrayed the con man Sean Cudahy on the ABC soap opera All My Children, has died. He was 75.
Dysert died Friday, his wife, Michele Dysert, announced on Facebook. He wrote about dealing with a rare, aggressive cancer for more than a dozen years in his 2023 memoir, Lights, Camera, Cancer!
“Thank you for loving me, for making me laugh, for the adventures, the memories, and the beautiful life we built together,” she wrote. “I would choose you all over again, without hesitation. My heart is broken, but I am so thankful for the love of a lifetime. I will love you always.”
The 6-foot-2 Dysert first showed up as the scheming Sean, brother of the respectable Tom Cudahy (Richard Shoberg), on All My Children in 1979. He left the daytime drama in 1981 but returned for another stint in 1988-90.
“My scenes are written better than stuff on nighttime TV,” he told People magazine in a 1981 interview. “This is such a fun role! I love it.”
Born on June 12, 1951, Dysert was raised on a farm in Oakwood, Illinois. He graduated from Oakwood High School and the University of Illinois and worked in real estate and did stand-up before landing uncredited roles on a 1978 episode of ABC’s Soap and in Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980).
After All My Children, Dysert worked as a producer and director — he wrote, helmed, produced and acted in the 2015 film The Senator — and taught acting in the Nashville area out of The Actor’s School, which he founded in 1991.
In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2008, survivors include his sons, Cody and Cooper.