By WAYNE D. KING, NH Secrets, Legends and Lore
If you saw a photograph of Dick Backus and you thought – “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. I caught up with Dick recently over Zoom and we chatted about his illustrious career.
Listen to the Podcast here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/ep/68Mazpx0JG/media
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.
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 first appeared in the role, which he 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]
Backus has also acted in film and television. In the seventies, Backus was in Deathdream a movie that today is considered a cult classic in the horror genre. He also portrayed scheming but well-meaning Jason Saxton on Lovers and Friends. Closer to home, he appeared in several episodes of Spencer for Hire with the late Robert Urich.
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
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]
While Dick’s career has led him to live in and work in many different venues, especially New York, his heart has always seemed to lead him back to New Hampshire where I first met him in 1965 when I was a boy and he was among my favorite camp counselors at Mowglis, the School of the Open, a camp on Newfound Lake in East Hebron.
