Randall England died on September 25 in Los Angeles from esophageal cancer at 75. The actor was best known for playing General Hospital villain Jack Slater, a role that made him a familiar face in the mid-1980s.
He landed Jack Slater in 1984 and stayed with General Hospital for nearly a year, with the character arriving in Port Charles posing as a film producer before turning to jewel thieving and meeting his end in a shoot-out. The death closes the chapter on the role that defined his soap-opera profile.
Reed, Burgess and Baker
England is survived by his daughter Micaela Reed, grandchildren Katherine and Julian, mother Catherine Burgess, sister Linda Baker and extended family. Memorial donations may be made to the Esophageal Cancer Action Network, which gives readers a practical way to respond rather than just note the loss.
Born on September 22, 1951, in Oklahoma City, he began modeling in the early 1970s and worked in New York, London, Zurich, Milan and Los Angeles before studying acting with Kim Stanley and Stella Adler. That early career matters because it explains how he moved from fashion work to stage and screen without being locked into a single lane.
More than Jack Slater
He performed in productions of All My Sons and The Glass Menagerie, shared a Drama-Logue Award for Best Ensemble Cast in 1994 for a Los Angeles production of The Three Sisters, and appeared on television in Dallas, The Young and the Restless and Baywatch in the 1980s. He also appeared in the music video for Maroon 5’s Sugar and continued to act, write and produce projects throughout the 1990s and 2000s, which makes the obituary larger than one soap role.
England also made music under the name RAE, a reminder that his work kept shifting even after General Hospital. How long he had been battling esophageal cancer before his death is not stated, but the immediate practical step for anyone who wants to respond is to direct memorial donations to the Esophageal Cancer Action Network.
