11/24/2015 by and
He masterfully played the twin brothers Stuart and Adam Chandler, one good and the other evil, on the ABC soap opera.
David Canary, who for nearly three decades played the twin brothers Adam and Stuart Chandler on the ABC soap opera All My Children, has died. He was 77.
Canary, who earlier portrayed Candy Canaday, the ranch foreman of the Ponderosa, on the iconic NBC Western Bonanza, died Nov. 16 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Wilton, Conn., his family announced.
The blue-eyed Canary first appeared on All My Children as Adam in 1984 and received five outstanding actor Emmy Awards and 16 nominations through 2001. He retired from acting in 2010 but returned to play the Chandler brothers for several days before the show's emotional September 2011 finale.
A native of Elwood, Ind., Canary played offensive and defensive end for Ohio's famed Massillon Tigers of Washington High School before earning a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati. He graduated with a major in music.
Instead of accepting an offer to turn pro with the American Football League's Denver Broncos in its first year, Canary went to New York to pursue acting, and he made his Broadway debut inGreat Day in the Morning in 1962 opposite Colleen Dewhurst.
After two years in the U.S. Army, Canary came to Los Angeles and appeared in Hombre (1967) with Paul Newman, as a mobster in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) with Jason Robards and in Sharks' Treasure (1975) with Cornel Wilde. He also drew attention for playing Mia Farrow's physical therapist Russ Gehring in the hugely popular ABC nighttime soap Peyton Place.
Producer David Dortort saw Canary shine in Hombre and in a two-part Gunsmoke episode in 1967 and hired him to play Canaday soon afterward. The handsome actor left briefly in a contract dispute but was with the series until it ended in 1973.