After years of playing proud and upstanding types on daytime dramas like The Doctors and Search for Tomorrow, well known gay, New York based actor David O’Brien got his Norman Bates on by playing Dr. Alan Glaser AKA “The Sin Stalker” on Another World throughout the spring and summer of 1987.

Famously, Glaser stalked popular country singer Crystal Gayle for singing lustful odes at Felicia Gallant’s (Linda Dano) top flight nightclub and even killed off established cast member Petronia Paley, who had played the notable Quinn Hardy for six years, in a particularly vicious attack.

Goaded on by the voice of his long dead mother, ’60s Hitchcock-style, Glaser soon became obsessed with the assumedly virginal Lisa Grady (Joanna Going), eventually determined to make the upstart heroine his (very reluctant) bride. Naturally, the fact that Lisa was a psychic, often receiving flashes of the Stalker’s evil actions, only added to the soapy intrigue.

Legacy character Donna Love, then played by Philece Sampler (of Days of our Lives and Rituals fame), didn’t fare so well with Glaser’s affections, though. Trapping her in a lighthouse tower, Glaser intended to put an end to Love and her often mischievous ways. A rescue attempt by John Hudson (David Forsythe), the frightened lass’s brother-in-law, resulted in an audience reveal of Alan as the formerly-mysterious killer and a highwire fall that left the heroic Hudson temporarily blinded.

Kindly doctor Jamie Frame (Laurance Lau) also felt the wraith of this twentieth century marauder. Its obvious that O’Brien is having a great time as he rises up from behind a garbage dispenser and, sneakily, attacks Frame in a parking garage.

In fact, it is his commitment and actorly-reveling here that helped make this story so memorable to passionate fans of the show. Of course, the week long appearance of Gayle as a potential victim, the noir-style lighting that decorated Gallant in several red herring sequences and the presence of Lisa’s supernatural abilities all added grand flourishes to this story, helping to bring it a significant notch or two above a standard psycho on the loose tale.

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Pride Notes:

O’Brien, who died of AIDS in 1989, spent well over two decades in daytime television, making him a perfect (if previously unheralded) Pride Month subject. While his life was cut much too short, the amount of entertainment he was able to give throughout his career was paramount, making his impact on the genre one of long lasting significance. An honored member of our community, his impact should never be forgotten. 

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