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GENERAL HOSPITAL

GH’s John J. York Shares His Real-Life Love Story With Wife Vicki (EXCLUSIVE)

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More than 35 years ago, John J. York landed the movie role… and the girl! And he’s as in love with Vicki Manners this Valentine’s Day as he was on their first one. “She gets more beautiful and sexy every single day,” the GENERAL HOSPITAL legacy player who brings Mac to life grinned to Soaps In Depth. “I don’t know how that works! But I got pretty lucky when I married her.”

York admitted he was taken with Vicki from the moment she checked him into the audition for Chattanooga Choo-Choo back in 1983. “I even remember what she was wearing,” he chuckled. “She had one of those yellow angora sweaters and a white skirt that went below her knees. She had white stockings and white pumps with a big old curly, fluffy hairdo. I’d landed in California in January, and that audition was months later, in September, so I just talked to her about being out here. There was just something about her that was pretty special.”

John J York Wife Vicki 1988
York and his wife back in 1988.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Needless to say, York was thrilled to get a call-back audition… because that meant he got to talk to Vicki again! But the hunk was too nervous to make a move. “I was a new actor,” he explained. “I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have nothing! I got to the auditions on a 10-speed bike!”

When he landed the small role of Mickey, however, Vicki made it easy for him. “She needed my wardrobe sizes, so my agent said he’d call me and get back to her, but Vicki said, ‘Don’t. I’ll call him,’” York recounted. “At the end of the conversation, she said, ‘You should go out to celebrate. You got a job.’ That was my opening. I said ‘Oh, really? What do you want to do?’ I actually used my agent’s car to take her on a date to Gladstones. And the rest is history.”

The couple said “I do” in 1986, survived the hustle of the acting biz and welcomed their daughter, Schyler, literally weeks after York’s first day at GH in 1991. “Your relationship is one thing when you’re just a young couple… and then, all of a sudden when you have a kid, it becomes something different,” York noted. “You may have different philosophies about whether to be strong and disciplined about certain things. I might say, ‘She’s got to learn — now!’ ‘No, be patient and love her.’ It’s al- most a whole new relationship that grows and blossoms, and it’s just been great.

“No one’s been a bigger supporter of my career than Vicki,” he added. “She’s always been in my corner, and when I was a struggling actor, she was really the breadwinner. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs along the way. A lot of memories. A lot of travel. We’ve shared a lot of great stuff, and now we have grandchildren! It’s amazing.”

For more real-life love stories from your favorite GH stars, pick up the new ABC edition of Soaps In Depth magazine, on sale now!

This story originally appeared in our print magazine

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