From Hollywood to Holy Weird! From Broadway to Oddway: Actor, Writer and NH Icon Richard “Dick” Backus takes his shot at Public office.
If you saw a photograph of Dick Backus and you thought - "I think I know him!" it may be because you are of a certain age when you watched daytime soaps like Ryan's Hope or went to see Eugene O'Neill's "Ah Wilderness" at the Ogunquit Playhouse, or you even went to see "Butterflies are Free" on Broadway. These are just a few of the gems that Richard Backus, born, and still living, right here in New Hampshire, has to his credit.
Today, however, you are more likely to find him going door to door in his hometown of New Boston or one of the other towns in Hillsborough District 42 running for the NH Legislature.
This was not how Dick saw himself spending time in his golden years, but his deep concern for the loss of community among our citizens and our elected officials has drawn him into the fray. I caught up with Dick recently over Zoom and we chatted about running for the legislature, always with the thread of rebuilding community running through the discussion and how rebuilding impacts and is impacted by so many of the challenges we face in our lives. How do we rebuild a sense of community when our commitment to public education is under fire? How do we restore community when more than 50% of our population are denied bodily autonomy? These and other issues compelled Dick to do something he never expected to do, to run for public office.
Back when I was a student at UNH in the 70's I spent a good deal of time at the Memorial Union Building where I was running the photo school for MUSO and eventually Photo Editor of the New Hampshire, our student newspaper.
I'll never forget one of the first times that I walked into the MUB at midday to find hundreds of students crowded around every available TV watching the day's episodes of their favorite soap opera. The General Hospital crowd was in one room and Guiding Light fans in another, etc.
I had no idea that so many of my fellow students were so invested in the day-to-day drama's of what were TV's hottest and most profitable productions in that era.
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New Hampshire's roots in the acting and performing community run deep and Dick Backus has been an important part of that legacy over the years.
Though his first love has always been the stage, Dick is An Emmy-nominated soap actor ("Ryan's Hope"), he eventually went behind the scenes as a daytime serial writer. In fact He has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and one for acting.
In 1972 he won the Theatre World and Clarence Derwent Awards for his multiple roles in the Broadway comedy "Promenade, All!".
He also understudied Keir Dullea on Broadway in the original "Butterflies Are Free" (1969) and eventually took over the role.
Richard Backus was born on March 28, 1945 in Goffstown, New Hampshire, USA. Where
His dad was a local physician.
He discovered his love for acting, the theatre and writing at a relatively early age and made his Broadway theatre debut at the Booth Theatre in the Theatre District of Manhattan in the original production of Butterflies Are Free. The production began in October 1969 with Backus cast as the understudy for Keir Dullea in the role of Don Baker. He was first appeared in the role, which we would later take over, in 1971.
Since then, he has appeared in several other Broadway productions, including Ah, Wilderness!, Camelot, and most recently You Never Can Tell.[5] Other venues at which Backus has appeared include the American Shakespeare Theatre, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[3]
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| Wind on the Rails at Livermore |
On the Soap Opera circuit He replaced Eric Roberts in the role of Ted Bancroft on Another World. From 1980 through 1981, and portrayed Barry Ryan on the soap opera Ryan's Hope, a performance for which he was nominated for the 1981 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Daytime Drama Series
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| Reaching into the Past at the Powwow |
He married his wife Sharon Romeyko in 1985.
In 1989 he turned his talents toward screenwriting and has not looked back. Richard Backus has been a screenwriter since early 1989. He has worked on three television shows: As the World Turns, One Life to Live, and Days of Our Lives. As the World Turns and One Life to Live have each earned Backus two nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team.[2] The writing team behind One Life to Live was also nominated for the 2004 Writers Guild of America Award for Daytime Serials.[6]
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