Lee Patterson

Lee Patterson (March 31, 1929 — February 14, 2007) was a Canadian film and television actor.

After attending Ontario College of Art, Patterson moved to England, where he specialized in playing virile American types in British films. He appeared in a number of movies during the 1950s and 1960s, including The Good Die Young (1954), Above Us the Waves (1955), Reach for the Sky (1956), Time Lock (1957), and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960). After moving to the United States in the early 1960s, he worked mainly on television. With roles on shows such as Surfside 6, he was one of the handful of primetime and movie performers to appear on daytime serials prior to 1970. His first soap opera role was that of Brad Kiernan on ABC's The Nurses. After that show's 1967 cancellation, he joined the original cast of One Life to Live, reuniting him with Doris Quinlan, the producer of The Nurses.

Patterson remained on One Life to Live until 1970, when his character Joe Riley was presumed dead; he returned to the show in 1972 and remained the romantic lead until 1979, when he left due to his unhappiness with the direction the show took after Doris Quinlan left to produce NBC's troubled serial The Doctors. Patterson then joined the cast of Another World and Texas in the role of Dr. Kevin Cook. The character began on Another World, but moved to Texas when that show began on August 4, 1980. He stayed until 1981 when the show revamped to bring up its poor ratings against the number one daytime program, ABC's General Hospital. Texas was cancelled in 1982. Patterson returned to One Life to Live as Joe's twin brother, Tom Dennison, from 1986 until 1988. Patterson continued to make guest appearances in other television shows such as Magnum, P.I. and The A-Team, and appeared in movies including Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and Death Wish 3 (1985). His last known role was Sergeant Gaylor in the 1994 movie, Healer. Patterson died on 14 February 2007 at age 77 in Texas.