A fifth C.C. Capwell for Santa Barbara
By Alena Prime, Télé Star, 1988	Home   Cette page en Français

Jed Allan did not play the capricious ones to enter the cast of Santa Barbara, where he plays the fifth C.C. Capwell. "I was under contract with the soap Days of our Lives, when I learned that they were looking for somebody for C.C. Capwell, he remembers. I immediatly called the production of Santa Barbara to present me as a candidate. But one noticed to me that I owed two more years to Days of our Lives and that I had to do them. I thus had to wait twenty-four long months before being able to pass an audition for the role of C.C.. Because I have been asked to pass an audition ! And me who, for a long time refuse all of them, for Santa Barbara, I agreed to undergo the same treatment as any beginner..." It has however been thirty years that Jed Allan is an actor and fifteen years that he plays without interruption in soap-operas.

Born on March 1, 1936 in New York, Jed grew in a family where everyone was more or less an artist. In particular his father, a professional musician. Built as an athlete (1,90 meters), Jed had the choice between two ways : sport or comedy. Although impassioned of sport, he chose comedy as of the university, by preparing a diploma of dramatic art he obtained without effort. After beginnings in theatre in Washington in 1958, he found himself in 1961 in Broadway, with a small role in Viva Madison Avenue. He will stay in New York until 1967, the year when, attracted by Hollywood like all the actors, he obtains his first contract in cinema in Ice Station Zebra, starring Rock Hudson. With his pay, Jed buys his first house in Los Angeles and makes his wife and his three children come : Mitch, born on December 23, 1960, Dean, born on July 6, 1963, and Rick, born on May 28, 1966.

The following year (1968), he plays in his first TV show : Lassie. He played one of the foresters of this show whose action happens in the most wild corners of Alaska. "It is with this show that Jed began to like travels, says Toby, his wife. He was such a "stay at home" and was suddenly unable to stay in one place." "We travel a lot now, continues Jed. Four years ago, we went to Australia. I adored it. Especially Sydney. I could live very easily in a town like that one. Australians are very hospitable and they have a very pleasant way of life, completely at the contrary to ours. The following year, we went to London at spring time, and to Spain during the summer, he continues. What enabled us to make an prank in France and in Italy..." Now, Toby and Jed Allan wait impatiently 1990, the year they decided to devote to a turn of the world in love.

Their children have grown. Mitch is twenty-eight years old; he is an actor like his father, under the name of Mitch Brown (he recently played in Capitol). Dean is twenty-six; he is a lawyer. As for Rick, he will be soon twenty-three, and learns film edititing in one of the big studios of Hollywood. "To see our children installed in life gives us an impression of being old, Jed says. But a big breath of freedom too."