Just read in a soap trades pop-up on Facebook that Joe Mascolo (our beloved Stefano) has died at the age of 87 from Alzheimers. What a tragic loss!!! That means, Stef has been gone 6 months, they tape 6 months ahead – he was going thru his struggle while he was taping – and he seemed sharp as always. Thoughts of remembrance and love to his family!
villains in soap history, IMO. He had some tough times getting through the last 2 years, suffering two strokes in 2015, followed by having to live out his remaining life struggling through pain, the need to be on oxygen, confined most of the time to his wheelchair, and finally completely lost to Alzheimers. May God welcome him home with love and open arms, and may he rest in peace forever.
There will never be another villain like him. I remember many years back when he was let go
from the show, I wrote him and congratulated on being such a great actor and that it was
not fair to see him let go. He actually replied to me with a long response. At the time when I
was on Yahoo chatting, I chose ThePhoenixRises as my chat name. That was also part of
my email and he commented that he liked the name I had chosen.
What an amazing character, one for the ages.
Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease. My mother just passed away 3 weeks back from dementia
after a brave 3 year struggle. Now we know what was happening in his last months of
the character. He still fought on and stayed on the show as long as humanly possible.
That is the sign of a great actor and human being.
The Phoenix will forever rise in our hearts and our memories….