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| Thaddeus "Tad" Martin | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 Michael E. Knight as Tad Martin |
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| All My Children | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Matthew Anton (1973-1977) John E. Dunn (1978-1981) Michael E. Knight (1982-1986; 1988-1990; 1992-present) |
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| First appearance | 1973 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Agnes Nixon | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | September 1, 1963 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Pine Valley, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Thaddeus James "Tad" Martin is a resident of the fictional town of Pine Valley on the American TV soap opera All My Children. Tad is portrayed by Michael E. Knight. Knight has portrayed the role on and off since 1982. Tad represents the good on the show All My Children, often butting heads with "villains" like Adam Chandler. He is perhaps the best male friend to Erica Kane. His relationship with Dixie Cooney made them a favorite of fans, reaching supercouple status. Knight has won three Daytime Emmys for his portrayal of Tad Martin. He won the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actor twice in 1986 and 1987, and won the Supporting Actor trophy in 2001. He is one of the very few actors to be nominated in younger, supporting, and lead actor categories, all while portraying the same character.
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Character history
Tad's childhood
The character Thaddeus Gardner is written into All My Children as being born on September 1 1963, as the son of Ray and Opal Gardner. When he was ten years old, Tad was abandoned in a park in Pine Valley by Ray. He was found by Jeff Martin and his girlfriend, Mary. They were unable to adopt Tad without his birth parents. Upon Mary's unexpected death, Jeff gave Tad to his parents, Joe Martin and his wife, Ruth. Tad was taken into the Martin home. Ray came back and tried to "sell" the Martin's Tad for $15,000. Joe refused. Angry, Ray raped Ruth. When Ray was sent to prison for the crime, Tad was formally adopted by the Martin's at the age of fifteen, changing his name from Tad Gardner to Tad Martin. Despite the loving Martin home, Tad was a rebellious teenager. He developed a close relationship with his adoptive grandmother, Kate Martin. But despite this, he still chose to make trouble. He stole the Martin car and ran away from home for two years.
Tad the Cad
Tad returned to Pine Valley in 1983, as a twenty-year-old street smart con artist. He started to develop the suave persona that earned him the nickname "Tad the Cad". He began dating Liza Colby (who had been a bitter rival of his biological sister Jenny Gardner), and it was Tad who took Liza's virginity. He then began to have a simultaneous affair with her mother, Marian Colby. Because of Tad's deflowering of Liza, she became obsessed with him for years. In 1984, Tad was paid to date Dottie Thornton by her mother, Edna. During this time, he met and fell in love with a woman named Hillary Wilson, the stepdaughter of town matriarch Phoebe Tyler. Dottie found out about his love for Hillary and got pregnant in an attempt to keep Tad. The two married, even though Dottie had miscarried and lied to Tad about it. The marriage ended when the truth came out. Meanwhile, Hillary was angry at Tad's marriage to Dottie, and married his best friend Bob Georgia. In 1985, Tad suffered his first major loss when he found out that his Grandma Kate had died. But he kept her spirit in his memory. He also reconciled with Hillary. Tad and Hillary finally married in 1986, but the marriage ended in divorce when Hillary discovered Tad knew a secret. He knew the truth about Wade Matthew's intentions regarding her stepmother, Phoebe. He kept it a secret from Hillary and that ended their marriage. With the marriage over, and Tad's life returning to shambles, he left Pine Valley again and stayed away for two years.
Portrayer Michael E. Knight was suprised at the reaction he got during the 'Tad the Cad' era:
"It's so weird. I'm playing a jerk. No one should like Tad Martin. But the letters I get...I feel like writing back and saying, 'Don't you see, people like that can only hurt you. You don't aspire to be like them."
– Michael E. Knight in 1984 [1]
Tad and Dixie
Tad would return in 1988. He began to have an affair with Barbara Montgomery. But it was quickly ended when he met the new maid of millionaire Adam Chandler, Dixie Cooney. Adam had hired Dixie, the niece of his bitter business rival Palmer Cortlandt with the ulterior motive of producing a son, an heir to the Chandler fortune. His affair with Dixie ruined his marriage with Brooke English. After that, Adam and Dixie married, with Dixie giving birth to their son, J.R. Chandler. But Dixie loved Tad, not Adam. Tad and Dixie began an affair behind Adam's back. When Adam found out, he committed Dixie to a mental institution and tried to take full custody of their son. Tad would rescue Dixie from the institution and help her win back custody of Junior. The couple finally married in 1989, but the marriage would not last long. Tad's biological mother, Opal, returned to Pine Valley and helped Dixie's uncle Palmer break up the couple. They paid a woman to say she had slept with Tad. Dixie heard this and separated from Tad. Devastated at losing Dixie, Tad had an affair with Brooke, his old friend. Dixie found out about it. Dixie and Tad divorced for the first time. Shortly thereafter, the evil pimp Billy Clyde Tuggle kidnapped Dixie in an effort to force her to marry him. Tad rescued Dixie, and the two realized they still loved each other and made plans to marry a second time. On their wedding day, Tad and Billy Clyde got into a fight. They both fell off a bridge into the river. Only Billy Clyde's body was found, and it was assumed that Tad had died as well. Tad's "death" rocked both Dixie and Brooke, who had just found out that despite thoughts that she would never have another child she was pregnant with Tad's child. 1992 finds Ted Orsini, of Orsini Vineyards - the spitting image of Tad - doing business in NYC with fairly new resident to Pine Valley, Dimitri Marick. *You see, Tad, suffering from amnesia after the fall from the bridge, ended up in Northern California. Looking for work, he meets vineyard owner Nola Orsini who believed Tad to be her own son, Ted, who was kidnapped when he was just a child. She took him in and taught him the family business which he ended up running.* Dimitri invites 'Ted' to Wildwind. Brooke sees him and discovers that he is really Tad - he didn't die after all! Brooke helps him to regain his memory and introduces him to his two year old son Jamie. Meeting up with Dixie again his feelings for her were coming back, but all three decide that he belongs with Brooke and their son. So in 1993, Brooke and Tad marry, with his love for Dixie still weighing strong. Eventually, Brooke realizes the marriage won't work and tells Tad to go back to Dixie and so they divorce. Tad and Dixie get back together and in 1994, they get married for the second time. Meanwhile, Nola shows up in town to tell Tad even though he wasn't Ted, she still loved him as her own son. She dies soon after of heart failure.
Death of Greg Madden and aftermath of Dixie's death
On the episode in which aired Tuesday October 3 2006, Tad Martin confessed to Dixie that he was the one who buried Dr. Greg Madden alive in an attempt find out who adopted the child he had with Dixie and that Dixie had given up at birth. Tad finds out that Krystal Carey is pregnant with his daughter. Krystal gives birth to the child and Krystal and Tad are currently raising her together; Tad asks Krystal to move in with him so that he can be with her and their baby daughter often. In late December, Krystal and Tad got married after Krystal divorces Adam.
See also
References
- ^ "Biography of Michael E. Knight who portrays Tad Martin on All My Children", Soap Opera Digest. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
| All My Children | ||
| Characters (Current contract cast only) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ava Benton | Angie Baxter | Babe Carey | Krystal Carey | Adam Chandler | Colby Chandler | J.R. Chandler | Stuart Chandler | Palmer Cortlandt | Aidan Devane | Amanda Dillon | Myrtle Fargate | Kendall Hart Slater | Del Henry | Jesse Hubbard | Erica Kane | Annie Lavery | Jonathan Lavery | Ryan Lavery | Dre Lerman | Josh Madden | Dr. Joe Martin | Tad Martin | Jackson Montgomery | Lily Montgomery | Sean Montgomery | Hannah Nichols | Richie Novak | Julia Santos | Zach Slater | Greenlee Smythe | ||
| Important crew | ||
| Created by: Agnes Nixon | Headwriters: James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten | Executive producer: Julie Hanan Carruthers | ||
| Related topics | ||
| Pine Valley, Pennsylvania | List of cast members of All My Children | List of All My Children characters | ||
