To read Walt's comments visit his Facebook page. My main exposure to Mr. Malloy was his work as Travis Montgomery on "All My Children" and on "Loving" as Clay Alden. If you watched New York based soaps in the 80s through the early 90s, he is someone that was part of the experience. He was one of those soap hoppers, who jumped shows every few years gathering fans through the various stops. I didn't see his time on "The Edge of Night", though his run as Sky and the pairing of him with Sharon Gabet as Raven, was one of the handful of things I know about the program. (One of these days, when I have the time, I'm going to see what the fuss was all about.)
My exposure to him at "Guiding Light" was rather funny, as it was during the old videotape trading days. What I liked about Larkin Malloy as Kyle was the character was smart, educated, self-made and not a villain. These days, soaps don't make powerful characters who are basically good. Kyle was Billy's half-brother via their mother, and fathered Ben. He also was one of Reva's many conquests and they ended up with the Yoders living Amish life. Unlike many of Reva's other lovers, they never married though they were engaged. There were only a smattering of scenes from that time that I found. When I think of Kyle, the first thing that comes to mind is the Sampson Girl event. Now this was big hair all around though more for the ladies then the men. He was the host and sponsor of an event looking for a woman to promote his products done in the style of a beauty/talent competition. I found the event on YouTube to enjoy, and this version even with the slightly off audio is better than what I saw on tape. Imagine jumping screen mixed in with snow, and audio distortion. Of course, it is a bit odd, that this is what made it in the tape collection, but when you're relying on others sometimes interesting things can happen.
When it comes to my favorite scenes on "All My Children", I must admit I was for Travis and Erica. I was so unhappy how years later so many of Erica's marriages were undone by a divorce that didn't happen between Erica and Adam. Then when Travis was killed off screen, I was even more annoyed. This is on my list of why AMC why. How Erica and Travis had their relationship shatter, and he got custody was tragic. Unfortunately with a quick look, I couldn't find anything outrageously happy or else I would post it. This clip package from 1990 shows the devastation of the end of Travis and Erica's relationship courtesy of an EON page. With "Loving", it is almost impossible to find what I'm looking for of his time on that show, so apologies. His last regular role on a soap was as a guest bad guy on "As the World Turns" in 2002. One of the episodes from that story was on a SoapClassics release. During that time and after he worked behind the scenes coaching actors in their performances. Mr. Malloy's acting style was such that he could play both a good and not so while still being sympathetic, which is something that is needed in the soap opera genre.
Anyway, since yesterday in my free moments, I've been watching clips of Larkin Malloy. And I felt the need to share them. My heart goes out to his family, friends and fans.
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