Note: on this page I'm going to gather data which have already appeared on some public medium and which pertain to Mr. Beecroft's acting career, and personal details divulged by himself or of common knowledge. I will post no gossip nor anything that could amount to stalking.
All text in "quotation marks" are textual quotes. All text in {braces} are my comments.

Bio
David Beecroft was born in Massachusetts, on April 26, 1960. He is the brother of actor Greg Beecroft.
"David Beecroft has starred in numerous television movies, including Moonlight Becomes You, Suddenly, The Counterfeit Contessa, The Awakening, River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene, and Jack of Hearts. He was a regular on the television series Hearts Are Wild, Silent Whisper, and Falcon Crest, and also appeared in multiple episodes of Melrose Place and Class of '96. Beecroft has held starring roles in the films Code of Ethics, The Rain Killer, and Shadow Zone, and also has an extensive theatre background which includes Williamstown Theatre Festival productions of Eleanor, Summer and Smoke, Miss Julie, and Steitz, as well as regional theatre productions of South Pacific, Cactus Flower, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, and Romeo & Juliet." {From the USA Pictures page for Kidnapped in Paradise.}


April 18, 1999
David Beecroft takes part with his wife and son in the first Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman BBQ, during Star Week. {You can find a very nice report of the Star Week on Tiff's DQMW site!}


August 2, 1999
From The Hollywood Reporter
"Filming began 11 Jul 99, in San Diego. The King's Guard, an action/adventure film starring Eric Roberts, Ron Perlman, Ashley Jones, David Beecroft, Brian Cousins." {From a Ron Perlman site.}


December 1999
David Beecroft has expressed his wish to take part with his family in the next DQMW BBQ, to be held in May 2001. {From the DQMW List.}


March 30, 2000
A NEW LOVE FOR BROOKE
(Soap Central - The AMC Pages)
"After a failed romance with child pornographer Jim Thomasen, a friends-but-not-lovers buddyfest with Jackson Montgomery, a fizzled affair with Dimitri Marick, and a disastrous relationship with not one but three Pierce Rileys, Brooke English (played by Julia Barr) will soon find the heavens smiling down upon her.
   "A casting call has been put out for the contract role of Eliot Freeman. It's said that Eliot, a man in his forties, will turn out to be a minister - a unique change of pace from some of the other men who've been in her life. Eliot is slated to be a love interest for Brooke, but it is possible that that could change.
   "According to insiders with the network, many familiar faces have tried out for the part. Rumored to have audition for the casting department is Stephen Schnetzer (ex-Cass from Another World), Paul Satterfield (ex-Paul, General Hospital and ex-Pierce, The Bold and The Beautiful) and Michael Swan (ex-Adam, B&B, ex-Bishop John Carpenter, One Life to Live and ex-Duncan from ATWT). So far no word on who has the early edge."


April 3, 2000
FAMILIAR FACES TO NEW PLACES
(Daytime TV Magazine - News Archives)
"DAVID BEECROFT joins All My Children in the contract role of Eliot Freeman beginning mid-May. David is no stranger to daytime. He is remembered as Trent Chapin on One Life to Live, a role he portrayed in 1984. He also has guested on Falcon Crest, Melrose Place and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. David's brother GREGORY BEECROFT portrayed Duke Lavery on General Hospital."


April 11, 2000
From the Soap Opera Digest
"The coveted contract role of Pine Valley minister Eliot Freeman has gone to DAVID BEECROFT. The actor, whose soap credits include stints on One Life to Live, Falcon Crest, and Melrose Place, will first appear on All My Children in mid-May." {thanks, dq!}


April 24, 2000
(about.com - AMC Scoops)
"David Beecroft (ex-Trent Chapin, OLTL) begins his contract role of Eliot Freeman in mid-May.  He is scheduled to become involved with Brooke. If you watch General Hospital, David's brother, Greg Beecroft was the recast of Duke Lavery in 1990."


April 26, 2000
(The Pine Valley Bulletin)
"The role of Eliot Freeman, a 40ish protestant minister who will be Brooke's new love interest has been cast! The contract role will be played by David Beecroft. That should be a nice change for Brooke after her last lover was a murdering child pornographer bomb planter that she ended up killing anyway! Some places you may remember David from... he played Dr. Paul Graham on Melrose Place, he was Trent Chapin on OLTL, and he was Nick Agretti on Falcon Crest. His first airdate is May 18."


May 15, 2000
RENT IS MORE THAN A BROADWAY SHOW
(The New York Post)
"After living in LA for the last 10 years, David Beecroft was completely unprepared for the shock of returning to Manhattan. The actor playing Eliot Freeman on All My Children can't believe how high rents have gotten. 'We have a big house in California,' he says. 'It's over 2,500 square feet. It's got mountain views, it's near my gym and my son's daycare. Coming from a house with all that space to where they charge $4,000-$5,000 for 1,000 square feet - well, it's mind boggling.' Even with the sky-high rents - and the wait until his artist wife, Greer, and year-and-a-half old son, Damien, arrive after the sale on their home is completed - Beecroft is still happy. 'Being an actor makes for such a bizarre existence,' he says. 'You can earn a bunch of money in a month, and then, if you don't go right into another project, it begins to dwindle. I'm a father now, and it's great to have steady work. So does anyone know of a nice apartment with two bedrooms for less than $5,000?'" {Relayed on the DQMW List by Pat P.}


May 18, 2000
David Beecroft makes his first appearance on AMC.


Aug 11, 2000
SOAP TALK: 'ALL MY CHILDREN': A KISS IN TIME
By Claire Siegel (The New York Post)
"This week on All My Children, Brooke (played by Julia Barr) is learning that it takes a lot of courage to risk being vulnerable.
   She hasn't even kissed a man in years. But this week, she and Eliot (played by David Beecroft) do kiss and it's astonishing to her.
   'It's been a very dry season - a long, long time,' Barr says. 'And their kiss is beautiful, sweet, and poignant.'
   After years of choosing the wrong men, and more years of being everyone's friend but no one's heart, Brooke is beginning to love again.
   She tells Eliot she hasn't been able to have a real relationship since her daughter Laura was killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver. It's almost like she couldn't allow herself to be happy. But now, she admits, she wants to be at the center of someone's life.
   There's one thing Brooke can't get past.
   Eliot clearly has a secret he needs to confess, and can't bring himself to tell her. She knows he's been in prison and that he became a minister in jail - but she doesn't know why.
   'She wants him to know there's nothing he can't say to her,' Barr says. 'Finally, he admits he stole the most precious gift from a family. She thinks he was a thief, but she believes he's turned his life around.'
   The two of them have the possibility of great joy. So it gets down to this: How can he reveal what he came to town to reveal about himself? There's the potential for hope and love but, underneath it all, there's a dreadful secret.
   At the end of the week, Brooke confesses to Edmund: 'I think I'm falling in love.' At the very same time, Eliot is making a confession of his own to his superior, Reverend Taylor.
   And what he's confessing is such a shocking revelation, it just might break Brooke's heart.
   What's not secret is that Barr, a two-time Emmy winner and seven-times nominee, is enjoying playing these scenes.
   'I haven't had a real storyline in a while,' she smiles. 'It's like a racehorse that likes to run. You don't want to be in the stable too long; you want to be out there on the track. So I'm very happy.'"


October 2, 2000
POPULATION COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL TO HOST SOAP SUMMIT V - "First Annual CDC Sentinel for Health Award for Daytime Drama to be presented."
See a picture at my David Beecroft Pictures page!
   "Population Communications International will present the fifth annual Soap Summit on October 13 and 14, 2000 at the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel [West Hollywood, California]. The Soap Summit brings together the writers, producers, and network executives who are responsible for the content of ten daily soap operas. The purpose of the Summit is to heighten the awareness of the creative community as to its importance in shaping attitudes and behavior in this country.
   This year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be presenting its first Sentinel for Health Award for daytime drama. The award recognizes the story lines of daytime dramas that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. The four finalists are: 'Drunk Driving Revisited', All My Children; 'Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS Awareness', General Hospital; 'Viki's Breast Cancer', One Life to Live; and 'Matt Walks', Port Charles. {The award has been assigned to One Life to Live for its spotlight on breast cancer.}
   [...] The following soap stars will be present at the Luncheon on Saturday:
   Amber Tamblyn, Emily Quartermain on General Hospital
   Mitch Longley, Matt on Port Charles
   Julie Pinson, Dr. Eve Pinson, on Port Charles
   Marie Wilson, Dr. Karen Wexler on Port Charles
   David Beecroft, the minister, on All My Children
   WHY: Collectively soap operas reach about 20 million Americans daily. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that health messages received through these dramas are taken seriously - and acted on - by their viewers. The purpose in presenting the Summit is to ask the creative community for their continued help in dealing with problems that are significant to our country.
   Population Communications International is a non-profit organization committed to working creatively with the entertainment industry to examine issues such as teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and the prevention of domestic violence and incorporate those themes into their programming."


October 17, 2000
GUILTY AS SIN - "It's confession time as Eliot reveals to Brooke that he's the devil in disguise."
(ABC Soaps In Depth) - See the pictures which went with this article, in my AMC Pictures page!
   "It was mid-May when Brooke English found herself reflecting upon that tragic day 12 years ago, when her young daughter, Laura, was killed by a drunk-driving, off-duty police officer named Josh Waleski. Imagining the harrowing tire screeches from that time, the mournful mother broke down in tears, grasping for support at the edge of a table. Brooke, though, found the support that she needed that night from a kind stranger, Reverend Eliot Freeman. With compassionate words and an odd sense of understanding, he helped her deal with the heartbreak which she was reliving.
   Since that first meeting, Brooke and the reverend have grown close, and even shared a tender kiss on the beach. Eliot, though, has been living in a private hell, struggling with a shocking secret: Behind a face bruised, battered and ultimately reconfigured by prison beatings, he is really Josh Waleski. Eliot was falling in love with a woman whose daughter he accidentally killed!
   This week, though, that traumatic truth comes out, and neither Brooke nor Eliot's lives will be the same afterward.
   The Father, The Son & The Holy Terror - Celebration kicks off the week, as Brooke and Eliot are awarded temporary joint custody of Ricky Collins, the youth who has been being abused by his father, a disgraceful cop named Hank 'The Tank'. Although this is good news for Ricky, his dad flies off the handle upon hearing that he's having his child taken away.
   Incensed by the court hearing, Hank shows up at Brooke's home and begins to cause trouble, hurling both objects and verbal assaults. Forcing his way into the house, Hank grabs Brooke, and proceeds to put the fear of God into his son's new 'parent'. If he doesn't regain custody, Hank growls, Brooke will have to pay!
   Divine Intervention - Unbeknownst to Hank or Brooke, Eliot already is inside the house, awaiting her return so he finally can reveal his identity. Hearing the scuffle, he rushes to the foyer, pulls Hank away, and a battle of good-versus-evil ensues. As Brooke looks on in horror, Eliot knocks Hank to the ground. Alas, Eliot's problems are far from over. Having come to recognize the cop-turned-con-turned-reverend, Hank goads Eliot into telling the truth, to come clean about his murderous ways. And if Eliot doesn't enlighten Brooke, Hank promises, he will!
   Cornered, Eliot unburdens his soul: 'I am Josh Waleski,' he tells Brooke. 'I am the person who killed Laura.'
   True Confessions - Hearing Eliot's admission, Brooke goes through a multitude of emotions. 'The first thing she feels is confusion,' her portrayer, Julia Barr, explains. 'She doesn't know what he's talking about. It's information that does not compute for a minute.'
   Yet once the police interrupt to cart away Hank, the stage is set for Brooke to slowly comprehend this revelation, and have a much-needed one-to-one confrontation with Eliot.
   'The next thing she experiences is denial,' Barr continues. 'There is a fear in the back of her mind that he's saying the truth. It's like when you don't believe somebody, but the hair on the back of your neck sticks up because something is very wrong.'
   Eliot's Exodus - Listening to Eliot's explanation of how he came to have a new face and name, Brooke gradually brings herself to face - up-close - the devastating truth. 'She saw [Josh],' Barr recalls. 'She saw his eyes. So she wonders, 'How can this be?' Then she looks at Eliot, knowing that she might see the truth in what he's saying - and she does. The truth is there in his face.'
   Next week, in the ensuing aftermath between himself and Brooke, Eliot takes to his church's pulpit, prepared to make a life-changing announcement to his congregation. He's caught off guard, however, by Brooke's entrance.
   What are Brooke's intentions? 'This is not something she can let rest,' Barr replies, noting the upheaval which just has rocked her character's world. 'If she has to live with this truth - and she has lived with it before, and now she's living with it again, in a different way - she is damn well going to see that Eliot has to live with it too.'
   Heaven help them!"
Captions:
"At first, when Eliot confesses that he killed Laura, Brooke doesn't believe him. 'Basically, what she says to him is, "You're a sicko,"' relates Julia Barr. '"This is a screwed-up thing to do."'
Brooke's marriage to Tom already was over by the time that their daughter was run over by Josh. Still, the tragedy forever bonded the ex-Cudahys."


November 28, 2000
PRIME MINISTER - "Playing a man of the cloth cloaked in guilt, AMC's David Beecroft is one papa who just won't preach."
by Stephanie Akner (Soap Opera Weekly, Vol. 11, Issue 48) - See the pictures which went with this article, in my David Beecroft Pictures page!
   "When I arrive at Midtown Manhattan's Redeye Grill to interview David Beecroft, the first thing he says, looking up from a script he's trying to commit to memory, is: 'You wouldn't believe how many lines I have to learn!' To prove it, Beecroft holds up two scripts and flips through them, showing me all of the Rev. Eliot Freeman's, well, sermons to Brooke. Scanning the pages, I see he's right: Brooke's minimal dialogue is interspersed once every couple of pages, seemingly in an effort to remind viewers that she's still in the room. 'It's so much to learn,' he says with a sigh. 'It's been so long since I've done this.'
   He's got a point. The last time Beecroft faced this rigorous a schedule was the last time he was on a soap, as One Life to Live's Trent Chapin from 1984-'85, after which he swore off daytime - for a while, anyway. 'The reason I left One Life,' Beecroft explains, 'was because I had signed a two-year contract, and, after a year, the summertime was coming around and I had gotten a summer-stock job. I wasn't working that many days on the soap, so I was wondering if they would just let me go and do the summer stock. They said no.
   'So I stayed here [in New York] for the summer and hardly worked at all. So I went to the producer and said, "Why won't you let me off the show if you're not going to use me? I've sat around here all summer long waiting for something to do. I was forced to pass up a job in summer stock!" One Life didn't let me go immediately; they kept me for another six months.'
   As soon as he was emancipated from Llanview, Beecroft hopped the first plane to Los Angeles. He ended up getting a pilot - Silent Whisper with Richard Lawson (ex-Lucas Barnes, AMC; ex-Nick Kimball, Dynasty), which never made it to series - 'and staying there.'
   For the Warwick, R.I., native, the difference between New York and L.A. is more professional than cultural. 'The fact was that there was more stuff going on there.'
   And there he remained until his agent told him that he was up for a newly created role on AMC. Casting director Judith Blye Wilson, who had hired Beecroft for OLTL, 'called my agent for this job and said, "It's the part of a priest we're having on our show, and we'd love to have David test for this thing." I wasn't a watcher of soap operas, so I didn't really know what to do.'
   In the 15 years since his previous daytime experience, Beecroft's life has taken a very different turn. He met Leslie Greer - known simply as Greer - a potter, 'whose stuff is in shops in the Catskills (N.Y.) and Los Angeles," in an acting class that both were auditing in L.A. "She had very long legs,' he remembers dreamily. 'I looked across the aisle, and I saw these cowboy boots, and I saw these long legs, and there she was.'
   Happily married for over two years now, 'which is amazing, considering living in Hollywood all this time,' the Beecrofts added to their fold a year and a half ago, when Damien Oliver was born. The actor calls his son 'a cool guy,' and says he is the ultimate reason he returned to New York and opted for the relative stability of life on a soap.
   Even if it means venturing into uncharted territory. 'The thing about playing a [member of the clergy] is that the action for this character is different from any other character I've ever done,' Beecroft pontificates. Then, in character, 'I'm a minister, so I minister. People come to me for advice, and I'm supposed to be able to tell them the right road to take - particularly the decisions they make with their lives. And I've never really dealt with that before as an actor.'
   Before becoming a minister, Eliot was the drunken driver who killed Brooke's daughter, Laura. Beecroft approaches the dramatic aspect of this thoughtfully and with the proper respect. 'I use my imagination,' he says. 'Nothing that awful has ever happened to me. I've never been responsible for something such as that. Potentially, it would make my life unlivable.'
   In an attempt to deal with his own guilt surrounding the accident, after much soul-searching Eliot became a minister. 'This is a heavy weight for me to carry,' Beecroft agrees on behalf of both himself and his alter ego. 'I deal with it all the time. I have all these scenes, and when I'm not working, I'm studying for the next day's scenes. When we wrap on Friday, I don't go, "I'm not looking at my script again until Monday morning." I look at my scripts over the weekend. It's with me all the time. The character's going through it, but it's with me all the time.'
   Sounds like Beecroft has been playing his part, well, religiously. And though neither he nor his onscreen minister will wax holier-than thou, Beecroft didn't take on the role without being able to relate to Eliot's devotion to his faith. As a child, the third in a family of four brothers and a sister, Beecroft spent a lot of time in church... just a different one than Protestant Eliot: 'I'm a Catholic,' he explains. 'I'm very well-acquainted with it. I remember talking to my mother about becoming an altar boy. I didn't end up doing it, but I did want to.'
   Upon winning the role, Beecroft began attending Protestant services to get further inside Eliot's head. 'I was looking for some sort of seedling of inspiration that these [ministers] could be to their flocks,' he explains with quiet intensity. 'I wanted to hear how they communicated from the pulpit. The Catholic ceremony is much more formal than the Lutheran or the Presbyterian ceremony. At the two churches I went to, the ministers were wearing suits; they didn't wear any sort of religious garb.'
   While Beecroft was prepared for the challenges and emotional demands of the role, he couldn't be more pleasantly surprised by an aspect of the job he couldn't research: his co-stars. Just mention his on-screen partner Julia Barr (Brooke), and his face lights up. 'I have a real affection for her,' he says with a smile. 'That affection is easily translatable into the part.'
   And then there's the show's big fish, with whom Beecroft has considerable on-screen dealings. 'I knew Susan Lucci (Erica) was probably the biggest soap star around," he recalls. "What was interesting was that my first lines to her, dialoguewise, had Eliot thinking the same thing about Erica that I do about Susan Lucci. My line was, "I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but you look even more lovely in person." It was an easy line to deliver because that was exactly what my reaction to her was when I met her.'
   Speaking of looks - in this case, his son's - 'I think he looks more like me,' Beecroft confides with a wink. 'Actually, he does look more like me. Everyone's admitted that.'
   Then, with the humility and honesty of, well, a man of God, he adds, 'I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's true.'"


December 18, 2000
BROOKE LOSES ANOTHER LOVER
(The AMC Pages)
"When the rumors last week started to swirl about a leading male character being fired, fan speculation was fast and furious. Initial reports that the character was male and married proved to be right - and wrong. Though the performer in question is male, his character is not married.
   The AMC Pages have learned that David Beecroft (Eliot) has been released from his contract. A spokesperson for ABC, while extremely pleasant and willing to answer questions on a variety of other non-related topics, was unwilling to confirm the report.
It's been no secret that the Brooke-Eliot storyline has fizzled since its inception. Shortly after Eliot revealed that he was really the man who had killed Brooke's daughter, Laura Cudahy, the storyline seemed to go nowhere. Additionally, actress Julia Barr has expressed frustration that the story has been relegated to a back-burner plot.
   It is unclear why the writers decided to drop the storyline. Fans have been critical of the plot ever since the writers used jailhouse plastic surgery to explain why Eliot had a new face, one that Brooke did not remember.
   Moreover, many fans were unhappy with the way the storyline had developed. Brooke and Eliot had a pinch of a relationship when Eliot revealed his secret. If the pair had developed a stronger bond and been in love, it might have made Eliot's confession more powerful. In essence, in some fans' minds, there wasn't enough oomph behind the saga to really generate feelings from the fans.
   Brooke has apparently accepted, if not forgiven, Eliot's transgressions. The idea of Eliot and Brooke ever getting back together must have seemed impossible even to the writers. So, another of the men in Brooke's life will leave town. If you're keeping track, Eliot is added to a list that already includes: Dimitri, Jim Thomasen and Pierce numbers one through three.
   Now comes the question of what to do with Brooke. Barr's fans have been irate over the writers neglect of her character. Barr has hopes that she and Edmund (played by John Callahan) will be able to share some more on-screen time together - even if a romance doesn't re-ignite.
   Expect Beecroft's final scenes to air in mid-to-late January."


January 5, 2001
DAVID BEECROFT OFF OF AMC
by Delaina Dixon (TV Guide)
"David Beecroft, who plays reformed alcoholic-cop-turned-reverend Eliot Freeman on All My Children, is leaving Pine Valley. Beecroft will make his exit 'by the end of the month,' confirms an AMC rep. The character's departure is storyline-dictated. Beecroft's alter ego resurrected a tragic storyline from All My Children's history books: the death of Brooke English's biological daughter, Laura. Laura was struck and killed by drunken off-duty police officer Josh Waleski in 1988. While in prison, Josh was beaten, underwent plastic surgery, and found religion. He came back to Pine Valley to atone for his sins and fell in love with Brooke in the process.
'David has been a lovely, warm and generous actor, and it has been a true pleasure working with him,' says Julia Barr, who portrays Brooke. 'I am sorry to see him leave All My Children.'"


January 25, 2001
David Beecroft makes his last appearance on AMC.


January 29, 2001
DTV'S SOAP SIREN SCOOPS - ALL MY CHILDREN
by Carol Banks Weber, aka Coggie
"It wasn't easy being Reverend Eliot, a man hiding behind plastic surgery, a man who drunk drove and killed Brooke's beloved biological daughter Laura. How in the world TPTB expected a romance out of that disastrous beginning baffled portrayer David Beecroft who bid adieu on January 25. They tried having him rescue Brooke's adoptive daughter Laura, but even that wasn't enough to turn the fan tide from against to for. Even at a recent AMC fan event, Beecroft got the cold shoulder from some delusional viewers who couldn't separate his acting fact from the show's fiction. 'I looked up in the balcony and a couple of girls were giving me a thumbs-down. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before!' Let me give these idiot fans a newsflash: The man was only doing his job by pretending to be a drunken child killer seeking redemption. Furthermore, the actor agreed with you all, that something this heinous could never truly be forgiveable. That you couldn't tell the difference and took it out on an innocent victim of stupid short-sighted writing speaks volumes for your own collective inhumanity. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for soap operas as legitimate entertainment jobs, either, to the outside world. Lookie what to expect." - Soap Opera Weekly, January 30


January 30, 2001
THE NEWS - Star haunted by storyline
by Pat Sellers (Soap Opera Weekly, Jan 30, 2001 - Vol. 12 Issue 5)
    "'THERE ARE BILLIONS OF guys in the world. Why would Brooke want to have a romance with the very guy who killed her little girl?'
    David Beecroft says this was the question that haunted him from the beginning of his tenure as Rev. Eliot Freeman (last April) to the end (this Thursday, Jan. 25). Beecroft says AMC told him he'd be playing a 'minister who was going to have a romance with Brooke.' But they left out 'one teensyweensy detail,' he laments. 'They were hesitant to tell me what the real storyline was, but I said, 'You've got to tell me if I'm going to build a base for this character before I come on.''
    When he learned his character's secret - that he mowed down Brooke's daughter Laura Cudahy while driving drunk - Beecroft 'was kind of excited, because there seemed to be a lot of stuff there to play.' But a couple of days later, 'I remember being with my wife and saving, 'If something like that had happened to you, could you ever have a romance with the man who'd done that?' We started thinking about it, then I just said, 'Oh, the writers probably have it all worked out.''
    Beecroft began to suspect that was not the case when he wasn't even fulfilling the two-day-a-week minimum guaranteed in his contract. His character never got involved with anyone other than Brooke, and that relationship seemed doomed from the start. 'At the AMC fan-club gathering, I looked up in the balcony and a couple of girls were giving me a thumbs-down. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before! During the Q&A, somebody [asked]: 'Do you think what you did was forgivable?' I said: 'I leave that up to Brooke; Eliot certainly is repentant.' But what I thought was: This is an unforgivable sin. I had discussions with Julia (Barr) about it: 'What would it take for Brooke to forgive me?' We never came up with an answer. She'd just go: 'It would have to be something pretty big, pretty monumental.''
    Saving adopted daughter Laura from drowning was evidently not redemptive enough. So, after working only two days in November and receiving no notification of upcoming dates for the first two weeks in December, the actor called executive producer Jean Dadario Burke. 'I said, Am I off the show? What is the deal?''
     Burke said she'd get back to him. Within a week, 'she said they didn't know how to proceed with the story, so I'd just go through the next cycle and be off the show.' Beecroft got this information right before Thanksgiving, but couldn't tell anyone except his wife, who 'wasn't very happy about it, that's for sure.'
    If Beecroft had known from the outset that it was going to be a limited run, he would have taken the part anyway ('In fact, I only wanted a one or two-year contract; they insisted on four.'). But 'I would have treated a few things differently. We sold our house in California.'
    Mid-December, he realized Barr might not be aware of his impending exit. 'I said, 'Julia, you know what's happening, right?' She said, 'Well, yeah, I do.' They told her a few days after they told me, because it directly affected her.'
    His last scenes with Barr, taped Jan. 3, 'went fairly well. Eliot and Brooke had a long talk about things that had happened over the last nine months. It was actually a nice, emotional farewell.' His own farewell, which included flowers from the show, was mercifully lacking in emotion until he was walking out of the studio. 'I felt something I never expected to feel: relief. And I'll tell you why - because I'm not a child-killer anymore.'"
Captions:
Beecroft's pairing with Julia Barr's Brooke didn't catch on.

{I usually let the News speak for themselves, but this time I can't resist. So Ms. Burke admits the *writers* don't know how to *write a story*. Hey, I work as a translator. Just imagine me saying to my boss: "Look, I translated only half of this book because I don't know how to go on, so forget about publishing it, break the contract with the author and pay me all the same." Can you spell P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L?}



May 4, 2001
OFF CAMERA: WITH DAVID BEECROFT
by Julie Phoenix (Entertainment Magazine)

"Hi, This is Julie, we recently caught up with actor David Beecroft, who you may remember as playing the role of Rev. Freeman on Abc's 'All My Children' and is currently co-starring in the Sci-fi movie 'Octopus'. He was in the process of renovating his house, but he was still gracious enough to talk to us.

ENTERTAINMENT MAG: Where did you grow up?

DAVID BEECROFT: I grew up in the state of Rhode Island and in the New England area.

EM: What inspired you to become an actor?

DB: As a kid I admired films.

EM: Growing up what sports did you play?

DB: At the age of ten or eleven I was on the swim team. In high school I skied, played football, ran track and played baseball. In college I also played football.

EM: How would you describe a typical day?

DB: Reading another script....There is no typical day. Weekends play golf with a group of friends. I work out, take kickboxing classes. I like to travel, go to Las Vegas; I haven't done that lately.

EM: What style of music do you like?

DB: I listen to everything rock, classical. I just purchased a few cd's by Frank Sinatra.

EM: Okay, Last question, If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change?

DB: I would want to be better looking, I have no idea!"



September 11, 2001
Since it has been mentioned that David has lived in New York for a while, I feel it is right to answer many fans' concern by reassuring them that, on this day of criminal attacks to America and the world, David was not staying anymore in New York, and he and his family and friends are presently safe and sound.



October 16, 2001
ALL MY CHILDREN IN DEPTH: FLASHBACK
from Soaps In Depth

"Last year at this time, Julia Barr's Brooke was learning the shocking truth about Eliot Freeman, who, behind a reworked face, was actually the drunk driver who ran down her daughter in 1988. Barr, reflecting on that 2000 story twist, says, "It definitely accomplished what it needed to - in that Brooke was forced to look at this man as a person, and grant him forgiveness - but whether it accomplished all it could have definitely is up for grabs." Conceding that the lukewarmly received Eliot/Josh tale came to an abrupt halt not long after the revelation, a part of Barr wishes otherwise. "Wouldn't have been interesting," she asks, "if the audience didn't know Eliot's identity, and Brooke developed a relationship over, say, a year, and then the truth came to the fore? It might have ended the same way, but there would have been more of an 'Oh my God!'" "
Captions:
The Eliot-Brooke story could have packed more punch, says Barr.
{thanks to Pam for the article}