Nicolas Coster, an English–born American actor, has passed away at the age of 89. Coster was most known for his work in daytime drama and as a character actor on nighttime television series, such as Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, T. J. Hooker, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Coster was born in London to an American mother and a New Zealand father who was a London theatre critic and marine commander, Coster was raised mostly in California. Coster returned to England to study acting at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Art. He also studied acting with Lee Strasberg in New York City. After his stint on Broadway and the Victoria Theatre in England, Coster appeared in the NBC soap opera Young Doctor Malone. He created the role of Professor Paul Britton on The Secret Storm, a role he played in 1964 and from 1967 to 1968. He played John Eldridge in the primetime serialized drama Our Private World and on As the World Turns.
Coster created the role of Robert Delaney on Somerset in March 1970 and later moved to Another World playing the same character. He played gangster-turned-informant Anthony Makana on One Life to Live, but left that series to create the role of Lionel Lockridge on Santa Barbara. He played kidnapper Steve Andrews on the ABC soap opera All My Children and returned to Another World for its 25th anniversary in 1989. He returned to his role on Santa Barbara in 1990 until the show was canceled in January 1993. He appeared on As the World Turns from 1993–1995.
I first watched him on Santa Barbara back in the early 90s when the show was being telecast on cable tv in India. Back then we had one channel with American and some British shows and my sister and I watched a bunch of the soaps as well. After that I saw him in an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation in which he plays Admiral Haftel and more recently in The Concorde … Airport ’79.