Ben Masters

Early career

Masters was born in Corvallis, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon as a theater major, Masters moved to New York and landed a role in the off-Broadway play The Boys in the Band. Ben also had a thirteen-month run in Kevin Wade's Key Exchange off-Broadway. An agent and a few Broadway plays—including Captain Brassbound's Conversion with Ingrid Bergman and The Cherry Orchard with Meryl Streep—soon followed. Masters portrayed Nick, the older brother of the titular character in the 1976–77 NBC Saturday morning live action children's series Muggsy. He later appeared as corporate raider Linc Bartlett in the television miniseries Noble House in 1988.

Soap career

After doing TV movies, miniseries and guest appearances, Masters was introduced to daytime dramas when he portrayed Vic Strang on Another World for three months in 1982. Seventeen years later, he signed a contract for NBC's Passions, as the womanizing billionaire Julian Crane. His role on the daytime drama landed him Soap Opera Digest Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2001 and 2002 and Outstanding Lead Actor in 2005. After NBC announced that it was cancelling Passions in February 2007, Masters said, "I will miss getting to play this part so much. I had such a great time playing Julian Crane. I wanted to do it until I couldn't do it anymore." Passions was later picked up by Directv for the 2007-2008 season.