The Texas native completed his degree at Harvard in 1969 and immediately moved to New York City to kickstart his acting career.
The roguishly handsome actor made his Broadway debut in 1969’s A Patriot for Me, before nabbing his first film role in 1970’s Love Story.
Tommy’s big break came in 1971 when he won the role of Dr Mark Toland on the hit soap opera One Life to Live, and he stayed with the show for four years before pursuing other projects.
In the series, Tommy’s character was a dashing and suave bachelor, which he played to perfection, before the star grew tired of Mark’s wild storylines.
“They had me kill my parents! About the nicest thing I did was take drugs,” he once shared in an interview.
Tommy went on to act in Jackson County Jail, Rolling Thunder, The Betsy and Eyes of Laura Mars in the ’70s, and also found love with actress Kate Lardner, whom he married in 1971.
The pair split in 1978 after seven years of marriage, with Kate later claiming in her memoir, Shut Up He Explained: A Memoir of Growing Up on the Blacklist, that his drinking “scared” her during their relationship.
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