Other names Michael Gainsborough Children Christian Slater Role American actor | Name Michael Hawkins Occupation Actor | |
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Full Name Thomas Knight Slater Born August 12, 1935 (age 89) ( 1935-08-12 ) New York City, New York, U.S. Grandchildren Jaden Christopher Haddon-Slater, Eliana Sophia Haddon-Slater Similar People Mary Jo Slater, Christian Slater, Ryan Slater, Ryan Haddon, Francis Bacon | ||
Michael Hawkins (also known as Michael D. Gainsborough; born Thomas Knight Slater on December 26, 1938) is an American actor. He is the father of actor Christian Slater.
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Life and career
Hawkins was born Thomas Knight Slater in Queens, New York, the son of Helen Margaret (Knight) and Thomas G. Slater. He would later also use the stage name Michael Gainsborough. His uncle was radio personality Bill Slater.
He spent the early part of his childhood in Forest Hills section of Queens, as well as in Texas and Tennessee. Later in the 1940s, he lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, Long Island. He was athletic and was one of the faster boys at his grade school, Munsey Park School, and started his acting and singing career in a fourth-grade production of the Gilbert Sullivan operetta, HMS Pinafore, as Captain Corcoran. His family left Manhasset in 1950. It is not clear where he was raised after that point.
After a small role on the CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow, he played Dr. Paul Stewart #4 on another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns. He later replaced David Birney as Mark Elliott on yet another CBS show, Love is a Many Splendored Thing.
He later created the role of Frank Ryan on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope but was fired from the role at the end of the show's first year reportedly due to his alcoholism. He was asked back, but replaced with actor Andrew Robinson later that year. At the time she was cast in Ryan's Hope, Helen Gallagher, who played matriarch Maeve Ryan, taught singing in her home three times a week. Hawkins was one of her students.
Hawkins was married to casting director Mary Jo Slater until their divorce in 1976; their only child is actor Christian Slater.
In the mid-1990s in Los Angeles, Hawkins, using the name Michael D. Gainsborough, composed a wide range of songs of varied genres. This collection of songs hinged on the lyrics "Make Haste Slowly (Baby)" and were an example of his ability to compose "variations on a theme," much like the work of Italian Artist, Fornasetti. These compositions spanned such musical genres as country, hip-hop, funk and vaudeville.