Mark Dobies, an actor best known for his portrayal as Dr. Noah Chase on “Guiding Light” and District Attorney Daniel Colson on “One Life to Live,” has died. He was just 65 years old.
Born Mark Steven Dobies on April 3, 1959, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the late actor passed away on Tuesday, March 11 in Dunellan, New Jersey, although no official cause of death was announced.
An obituary posted on the Apyre National Cremation Services website notes Dobies was a “loving father, accomplished athlete, and talented actor.”
During his school days, Dobies earned a football scholarship to attend Delaware Valley University (then Delaware Valley College), where he and his teammates won the school its first Middle Atlantic Conference football championship in 1980. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Science from the school, and later a Master of Science from Easter College, with certifications in weight management and as a senior population specialist.
Throughout his life, Dobies was a personal trainer, where he eventually became a fitness, health and wellness consultant, competed in triathlons, worked as a lifeguard for the Ocean City Beach Patrol in Ocean City, New Jersey, and was an avid player of several sports including baseball, basketball, tennis, track and scuba, among others. He also appeared on the September 1994 cover of Men’s Health and IN NY magazine, both of which highlighted his dynamic fitness routines, plus his fitness brand Mark Dobies Fitness.
Outside of sports and wellness, Dobies had a passion for the arts, appearing in movies, television shows, and theater productions, particularly having memorable roles on the aforementioned CBS and ABC soap operas, as well as his run as Bruce Niles in the 2004 Off-Broadway revival of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart,” which told the story of the pain and frustration felt by its characters dealing with the devastation of the AIDS crisis.
In the play, which received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play and four Drama League nominations, including one for Distinguished Revival of a Play, Dobies portrayed a still closeted bank executive who wouldn’t risk his high-level job by revealing his sexuality. The revival also featured the likes of Raul Esparza (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) as Ned Weeks, Billy Warlock (“Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital”) as Ned’s journalist lover, and Richard Bekins as Ned’s successful older brother, Ben, among others. The production had 13 previews and 63 performances before it closed on June 29, 2004.
The late actor’s credits also include roles in such shows as “Melrose Place,” “Just Shoot Me!” “Nash Bridges,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “CSI: Miami,” “Fringe” and “Gossip Girl,” among others.
In 2005, Dobies appeared as D.A. Daniel Colson on both “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” with the two soaps seeing a significant rise in the ratings as part of an ongoing crossover storyline.
During his time on “One Life to Live” (July 2003-June 2005), his character was married to Nora Buchanan (Hillary B. Smith), who would later find out he had been cheating on her with another man, Mark Solomon (Matt Cavenaugh). However, before that, Daniel turned to murder to keep his secret from those close to him, including the killing of Paul Cramer (David Tom).
“I am so terribly sorry to hear this. Too young. Hard to believe,” said Dobies’ former “Guiding Light” co-star Beth Chamberlin (ex-Beth Raines) in response to a post on Facebook by former Procter & Gamble Productions publicist turned podcast host Alan Locher (“The Locher Room”).
“I was lucky to work with Mark at ‘Guiding Light’ and always knew him as a genuinely good guy,” said Locher in his post. “I also feel very lucky that I got to see his performance in ‘The Normal Heart.’
“I’ll never forget this small-world connection: When I started dating my now-husband Ray and we were going to meet his parents for the first time, their street name sounded so familiar to me. It turned out Mark and his family lived just down the road. His children and ex-wife, Linda, are still our neighbors today.”
A father of three adult children, Francesca (27), Olivia (24), and Robert (21), Dobies is also survived by his mother, Suzanne, his brother, Paul, and his sister, Sandy.