A Man For All Seasons

Matthew Ashford might be best known as DAYS OF OUR LIVES’ Jack Devereaux, but ABC fans still remember him for his turns as ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Dr. Stephen Haver (Jessica’s nutty professor who turned out to be the Music Box Killer) and Buchanan cousin Drew Ralston. He was also the actor who brought GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Dr. Tom Hardy back from Africa. What all of those characters had in common with their portrayer is that they were driven men. In fact, not even a severe case of laryngitis was going to keep him from telling Soaps In Depth about “Matt’s Musings Month By Month,” the wall calendar of pen and ink cartoons that he’s produced to raise funds for Retinoblastoma International (the charity that he founded following his youngest daughter Emma’s diagnosis).

“The girls always asked, ‘What were you like when you were our age?'” Ashford says of his daughters. “We were at the beach, and I started drawing pictures of funny things that happened to me growing up.

“The calendar was an idea I’ve been kicking around for a few years,” he continues. “I enjoy drawing cartoons… [and] I’ve been trying to think of a way I can raise some much needed funds for RBI,” Ashford says. The dedicated advocate of curing the rare infant eye cancer is determined to carry on. “We have seen the time of diagnosis almost cut in half because of heightened awareness — what will be next?” he wonders.