Jerry Ver Dorn, the soap opera actor who portrayed attorney Ross Marler on CBS’ Guiding Light for 26 years and then patriarch Clint Buchanan on ABC’s One Life to Live for another eight, has died. He was 72.

Ver Dorn died Sunday of cancer at his home in Sparta, New Jersey, his family announced.

On Broadway in 1979, Ver Dorn was playing an investigator in Eric Bentley’s Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? while also serving as George Grizzard’s understudy in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman (and starring in matinees) when he was spotted by Guiding Light casting agents.

He joined the CBS soap in March 1979 as Marler and stuck with the role through 2005, earning Daytime Emmys in 1995 and ’96 and five other nominations along the way.

He moved to One Life to Live in October 2005, taking over as Clint from veteran Clint Ritchie. He retired when that show and its online revival wrapped in 2013.

Born on Nov. 23, 1949, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Ver Dorn grew up in various parts of South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.

He attended what is now Minnesota State University Moorhead with plans to be an English teacher but ended up in the theater department. He had major roles in dozens of productions and many seasons of summer theater and spent a year studying acting in London.

In 1977, Ver Dorn appeared at Rutgers University in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? which moved to off-Broadway and then to Broadway.

For 17 years, he co-hosted an annual benefit called Stars and Strikes, where fans could bowl and mingle with their favorite daytime actors. He helped raise thousands of dollars for charity.

Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Beth (they first met while acting in a university production of Anne of the Thousand Days); sons Jake and Peter; daughters-in-law Laura and Erin; siblings Bonnie, Jim and Dan; and grandchildren Benjamin, Nora and Penelope.

Contributions in his memory can be made to the American Cancer Society, Autism Speaks or The Actors Fund.

In a 2011 interview, Ver Dorn said that soap operas “got into trouble when they started worrying about production values. I don’t think there is one soap opera fan that tuned in to see how well we would blow something up. They tune in for one thing, and that is story. The special effects we should worry about are: ladies gowns, perhaps, and some perfectly romantic lighting.”