Tad Martin is a fictional character from the American daytime drama, All My Children. Tad was played by three actors, according to the age of the character: Matthew Anton, John E. Dunn, and Michael E. Knight. Knight has portrayed the role on and off from 1983 until the series finale in 2011. Tad represents the good on the show, often butting heads with "villains" like Adam Chandler. He is perhaps the best male friend to Erica Kane. His relationship with Dixie Cooney made them a favorite of fans, reaching supercouple status. Under secrecy, Knight returned for the first-season finale of Prospect Park's version of All My Children on September 2, 2013.
Development and casting Portrayer Michael E. Knight was surprised at the reaction he got during the Tad the Cad era. In 1984, he said, "It's so weird. I'm playing a jerk. No one should like Tad Martin. But the letters I get...I feel like writing back and saying, 'Don't you see, people like that can only hurt you. You don't aspire to be like them."
Knight has won three Daytime Emmys for his portrayal of Tad Martin. He won the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actor twice in 1986 and 1987, and won the Supporting Actor trophy in 2001. He is one of the very few actors to be nominated in younger, supporting, and lead actor categories, all while portraying the same character.
In 2021, Wally Kurth revealed that he had auditioned for the role of Tad.
Storylines Thaddeus James "Tad" Gardner is written into All My Children November 14, 1972. Tad (then Matthew Anton), whose birthdate is noted as September 1, 1963, is beaten and abandoned (off-screen) by his biological father Ray Gardner (Gil Rogers). Tad is found in a Pine Valley park by Dr. Jeff Martin (Charles Frank) and his fiancée, nurse Mary Kennicott (Susan Blanchard), who become Tad's foster parents. When Mary is killed during a home invasion, Jeff asks his parents, Dr. Joe (Ray MacDonnell) and nurse Ruth Martin (Mary Fickett), and grandmother, Kate Martin (Kay Campbell), to care for Tad. Ray returns and tries to sell Tad to the Martins for $15,000. Angered at their refusal to pay, Ray rapes Ruth. When Ray is sent to prison for the crime, Tad is formally adopted by the Martins. He develops a close relationship with his adoptive grandmother. But despite this, Tad (then John E. Dunn) proves to be a rebellious teenager. In 1981, he steals the Martins' car, and runs away from home for two years.
Tad (Michael E. Knight onward, except for a brief appearance by Terrell Anthony in 1990) returns to Pine Valley January 19, 1983, SORASed to age 20. He gets a job modeling for Olga Swenson (Peg Murray). He is nicknamed "Tad the Cad" because he seduces and dumps many women. He is once caught in Erica Kane's bedroom with another model, which costs him his job. He begins seeing Liza Colby (Marcy Walker, briefly Alice Haining in 1984), a rival of his biological sister, Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) for the affections of Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau). Tad has a simultaneous affair with Liza's mother, Marian Colby (Jennifer Bassey) which is eventually discovered by a furious Liza.
In 1984, Edna Thornton Ferguson (Sandy Gabriel) pays Tad to date her daughter, Dottie Thornton (Tasia Valenza) at the same time, he falls in love with Hillary Wilson (Carmen Thomas), step-daughter of town matriarch Phoebe Tyler Wallingford (Ruth Warrick) and daughter of Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds) Tad's sister Jenny is killed in a jet ski explosion, and Hillary reaches out to help him cope with his loss, but encourages him to do right by Dottie when he gets her pregnant. Tad and Hillary end their relationship, and he marries Dottie. She has miscarried, but hides this from him as she knows he would not marry her otherwise. Meanwhile, Hillary captures the attention of Tad's friend, Bob Georgia (Peter Strong) who soon learns he is terminally ill. She agrees to marry him to make his last days happy. Before the wedding, he discovers he was misdiagnosed and is not going to die, but keeps quiet because he fears losing Hillary to Tad, who is now having his marriage to Dottie annulled after discovering her deception.
In 1985, Tad's beloved grandmother Kate dies. He later finds out that Bob is lying about his condition, leading to Hillary and Bob's divorce. She and Tad marry in 1986. Hillary discovers con artist Wade Matthews (Christopher Holder) has evil intentions toward her stepmother, Phoebe, and that Tad knows but is keeping it secret under threat of blackmail. Between the stress of this revelation and Hillary's focus on law school, Tad succumbs to the attentions of a lounge singer, who is revealed to be Adam Chandler's estranged daughter, Skye Chandler (Antoinette Byron, then Robin Christopher) despite desperate attempts to gain Hillary's forgiveness after she finds out about Tad's infidelity, she ends their marriage. A broken-hearted Tad leaves Pine Valley in 1986 to make a fresh start.
Tad returns to Pine Valley in 1988. He quickly has an affair with Barbara Montgomery (Susan Pratt), and then meets billionaire Adam's (David Canary) new maid, Dixie Cooney (Cady McClain). Adam hires Dixie, the niece of his bitter business rival Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell), with the ulterior motive of producing a son, an heir to the Chandler fortune. His affair with Dixie ruins his marriage with Brooke English (Julia Barr). Adam and Dixie then marry, with Dixie giving birth to their son, Adam Chandler Jr. (called Junior as a child, JR as a teen and adult). Dixie falls in love with Tad. They begin an affair. When Adam finds out, he gaslights Dixie and commits her to a mental institution, getting custody of their son. Tad rescues Dixie from the institution and helps her win back custody of Junior. They marry in 1989, but the marriage does not last long.
Tad's biological mother, Opal Cortlandt (now Jill Larson), returns to Pine Valley, and helps Palmer break up the couple. They pay a woman to tell Dixie that she slept with Tad, leading to Dixie separating from him. Devastated, Tad falls into an affair with Brooke. Dixie finds out and divorces him. Shortly thereafter, the evil pimp Billy Clyde Tuggle (Matthews Cowles), who is obsessed with Dixie, kidnaps her in an effort to force her to marry him. Tad rescues Dixie, and they realize they still love each other and make plans to remarry. On their wedding day, Tad and Billy Clyde get into a fight. They both fall off a bridge into the river. Only Billy Clyde's body is found, and it is assumed that Tad is dead. His "death" rocks both Dixie and Brooke. Brooke had been told she would never be able to conceive another child, but discovers she is pregnant by Tad, and has a son, who she calls Jamie (for Tad's middle name of James). She initially keeps the identity of Jamie's father a secret from all but her aunt Phoebe, but eventually shares the news with Tad's loved ones.
Meanwhile, Tad drags himself from the river, with no memory of who he is, and hitchhikes to California. He gets a job at Orsini Vineyards, where the owner, Nola Orsini (Barbara Rush), says that he is the spitting image of her missing son, Ted Orsini, who was kidnapped as a child, and insists Tad is him. She takes him in, trains him to run the vineyards, and makes him her heir, completely convinced he is her lost son. Tad (as Ted) is doing business in New York City with Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader) and is invited to Wildwind, the Marick estate in Pine Valley. Nola accompanies "Ted" on the visit to Pine Valley and becomes gravely ill, ending up in the hospital. While being treated, Nola meets and befriends Dixie - completely unaware Dixie is the mystery woman "Ted" is having memories of. During this visit to Pine Valley, "Ted" only ever encounters residents who never met Tad and very narrowly avoids meeting with any of Tad's loved ones. The only exception was an incident where "Ted" rescues Junior in the park; Junior recognizes him as Tad, but "Ted" leaves the scene before running into anyone else who would recognize him. Nola eventually puts it all together but before she can tell Tad, she dies of heart failure - leaving Tad her fortune. Concurrently, "Ted" meets investigative reporter (and Brooke's fiancé) Edmund Grey (John Callahan) and asks him to look into the name Billy Clyde Tuggle, a name "Ted" is remembering but doesn't know why. Edmund eventually discovers "Ted" might actually be Tad and shares this information with Brooke. Brooke travels to Napa Valley, CA for Nola's funeral hoping to determine if "Ted" is Tad. Brooke sees him and discovers that he is really Tad. She helps him to regain his memory and introduces him to Jamie. Meeting up with Dixie again, his feelings for her return, but they decide that he belongs with his son and Brooke.
The real Ted Orsini (also Michael E. Knight) eventually arrives in Pine Valley, showing up injured at a cabin Dixie is staying in while sorting out her feelings for Tad. Dixie initially believes he is Tad, causing her to miss Tad and Brooke's wedding which she intended to prevent by telling Tad she loves him. Brooke and Tad marry, but the union is doomed from the start due to the unresolved feelings Tad and Dixie share. Ted and Tad face off several times, with the ever-scowling Ted expressing his resentment over what he perceived as Tad usurping a life that was rightfully Ted's. Dixie spends a fair amount of time during this period trying to convince the residents of Pine Valley that Ted is misunderstood, but eventually even she realizes he is a lost cause. After one last standoff between Ted and Tad in Canada, Ted is shot and never seen or heard from again. Tad and Dixie embark on an affair that eventually causes an acrimonious end of his marriage to Brooke. At this same time, Brooke discovers she is pregnant again by Tad. She initially hopes this news might sway Tad's feelings about ending their marriage, but the pregnancy is discovered to be ectopic and is terminated to save Brooke's life. Brooke eventually realizes the marriage won't work, and tells Tad to go back to Dixie. Tad and Dixie get married for the second time in 1994.
Tad falls back into his old ways and has an affair with Liza. He and Dixie divorce again and she moves back to her hometown of Pigeon Hollow, WV. Tad strikes up a renewed friendship with Dixie's good friend, nurse Gloria Marsh (Teresa Blake). The relationship soon blossoms into a romantic one. Dimitri seduces Gloria away from Tad and back into his life. Gloria defends Dimitri's unsavory actions to Tad unwaveringly. The final straw for Gloria comes when Tad and Dimitri's half-brother Edmund trick Dimitri into confessing all of his misdeeds, and she overhears the entire conversation. Enraged at his deception, Gloria leaves him. Later on, after apologizing to Tad for being so taken in by Dimitri's lies, Gloria leaves town to sort out her life.