Four-time soap veteran Matthew Ashford's latest credits include a new Aaron Spelling show and a Sundance Film Festival hit. But his most riveting role to date is the one he's playing at home.

BIRTHDAY: January 29
HAILS FROM: Davenport, Iowa
MIDDLE NAME: Nile
EIGHT IS ENOUGH: Ashford is the sixth of eight children, David, Teresa, Jeffrey, Phil, Randy, Susie and Sally.
FULL HOUSE: The actor wed actress/dancer Christina Saffran on June 6, 1987; the couple has two children, Grace, 6, and Emma, 1.
SOAP CREDITS: Tom Hardy, General Hospital (1995-97); Jack Deveraux, Days Of Our Lives (1987-93); Cagney McCleary, Search For Tomorrow (1984-86); Drew Ralston, One Life To Live (1982-83).
RECENT PROJECTS: The feature film Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and the pilot episode of the new WB series, Charmed, in which he plays the former beau of Shannen Doherty's (ex-Brenda, Beverly Hills, 90210) character, Prue, a witch.

When Matthew Ashford was 12, his big sisters took him to his first audition. It was for a local play and the kid quickly became hooked on theater. In fact, all through Hayfield High in Fairfax, Virginia and the North Carolina School of the Arts, he kept busy on the stage. So taken was he with performing, the actor even worked for the Ragamuffin Magic & Mime Company, juggling, pratfalling and riding a unicycle.

After graduating from college, Ashford didn't have to play the starving actor role for long in New York City; he soon won the role of One Life To Live's Drew Ralston, a short-lived character. However, several soap roles would follow for Ashford, including his most popular, Days Of Our Lives' comic leading man Jack Deveraux, one-half of the Salem supercouple Jack and Jennifer (then played by Melissa Reeves).

These days, Ashford is busy working outside of daytime, most notably appearing on the debut episode of Charmed, a new series on The WB, and in the Sundance Film Festival hit Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. But what has most defined his life post-daytime -- and has most challenged him -- has been his baby daughter Emma's diagnosis of a rare form of eye cancer, Retinoblastoma. Amazingly, the same disease has struck Katya Tylo, daughter of Michael and Hunter Tylo (respectively ex-Quint, Guiding Light; and Taylor, Bold and Beautiful). "This is an orphan disease," says Ashford. "Nobody's ever stood up for it before and said, 'This is important.' It's kind of a secret, silent killer." With the non-profit group, Vistas For Blind Children, Inc., Ashford is working to help raise awareness and funding for research. Adds Ashford, "We were shocked and horrified by [Emma's cancer] and didn't know quite what to do at first, but then we were determined we were going to take this as an opportunity and turn poison and medicine."

Below, the actor talks to Digest Online about testing the waters outside of soaps, the good, old Days, and rising to the challenge of cancer.

DIGEST ONLINE: So you popped up in the pilot for Charmed on The WB...
ASHFORD: At this point, that's all I'm in. I don't know if there will be any call for my character to come back. He's sort of on the outs with Shannen Doherty's character, Prue. She's his ex-fianc‚e and employee. It was fun and my character was a funny character.

DIGEST ONLINE: Sounds right up your alley. What was Shannen like?
ASHFORD: I had a great time working with her, and she seemed to be having fun herself playing a witch... Her character and her sisters discover they have witchcraft powers and it's about what they do with them. It's quite fun.

DIGEST ONLINE: You're also appearing on the big screen. How did your role Whitey in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss come about?
ASHFORD: Just the usual audition. I got a call from my agent about an independent film. I went down and read for it and it seemed like a fun role. I thought it was a really well-made film [about Billy, a gay photographer who falls for a waiter who is heterosexual]. Once I saw it, I thought, "Oh, yeah. This is something I would be proud to say I'm a part of." [Tommy O'Haver is] a good director and he had a vision... That's key to a good film, soap, primetime show, anything -- a vision.

DIGEST ONLINE: What's next for you?
ASHFORD: I just did this TV movie, Paper Bullets. It's a James Russo movie. It might end up going on Showtime, but I'm not sure at this point. I play the husband of James Russo's ex-wife. It's kind of a sad role, the dying ex-wife and I'm the new husband. It's not a major role but I'm building up my credits... It's mostly a bang, bang shoot 'em up movie. But I'm not part of that story. I'm a part of the heart subplot. I'm also auditioning for new pilots and shows right now.

DIGEST ONLINE: Do you entertain thoughts of returning to daytime?
ASHFORD: I'm pursuing film and nighttime stuff and doing theater when I can. As far as the daytime thing goes, the important thing is that there really has to be something there, a strong desire on the part of a writer or producers and a storyline that's spread out over a couple of years. You need to be part of a long drawn-out thought, and working together with writers and producers with an integrated vision, then things happen. That point hasn't arrived. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying going out for other projects and trying new things.

DIGEST ONLINE: Do you keep in touch with anyone from daytime?
ASHFORD: There are various people, including David Forsyth [ex-John, Another World; ex-Jim, All My Children; ex-Hogan McCleary, SFT], Jeff Meek [ex-Quinn McCleary, SFT], Mary Beth Evans [Katherine, GH; ex-Kayla, Days], Stephen Nichols [Stefan, GH; ex-Patch, Days]. I just talked to Wally Kurth [Ned, GH; ex-Justin, Days] the other day.

DIGEST ONLINE: Reflecting back on your four daytime characters, which was your favorite?
ASHFORD: Jack on Days Of Our Lives... Cagney on Search For Tomorrow was a challenge [but a role that helped me with Jack]. [Cagney] started turning into an interesting character at the end. Everything is an evolution, too. I started turning him into a right wing conservative type guy. But the one thing about him was that he was a good guy. I was chafing under that all the time, because what do you do? The guy's so good and that's like death for all these characters. I had been in the good guy camp for so long. After awhile, there's nothing there. I found a way to work within that, and say to myself, "Yeah, he's a good guy, but he's so narrow-minded and become so conservative and right wing about things." This was 1984-85. But I was starting to find a lot of new things again [about him] in a place where you think, "Oh well, this is all over." It gave me the confidence as an actor, working with a character and creating something. It was hard but there's a great sense of satisfaction in doing that. And then the show went off the air. Taking that experience, it helped me with Jack to say, "If I can wring something out of that character, I know I can get something out of this one."

DIGEST ONLINE: Well, Jack was a good guy but one stood out with all his humor and idiosyncrasies ... Just curious, was it your idea for Jack to always stop by pay phones to see if there was any change in the coin return?
ASHFORD: Yes. Well, he was always on the phone. You know, he was rich, so I thought, "Hmm. How do you think he got rich?" Saving a nickel here and a penny there. People would laugh. The reason they were laughing is that they do the same thing. Everyone does. It's just behavior people recognize. You do these scenes, how many times on daytime shows are people on the phone? It was just an extra peek into Jack's character. Those peeks ended up becoming more interesting to people than some of those scenes.

DIGEST ONLINE: The one thing you always had on Days with Melissa Reeves [ex-Jennifer] and on GH with Kristina Wagner [Felicia] was a fun chemistry with your leading ladies. Did you have to work to generate that or did you click with them right away?
ASHFORD: I think it all takes time. When things are working, things are clicking. Things didn't always work with Missy and me. We'd work at it, and make it work and with Kristina, too. She's so talented but they weren't giving her anything to do. It seemed very odd that with someone like Kristina with her looks, ability and that the people love her, that she was given the same old stories with these kids and all that. We were locked into this downward spiral. Any attempt I made to try something different... well, they were set on their other storylines. We went through so many [cast members leaving], storylines dying, head writers leaving.

And head writers don't just leave, they leave slowly. They leave behind a story that's lame and dying and the new head writers comes in and say, "I'm not really head writing, so you have to give me six or eight months for my story to kick in." Meanwhile, [the actors and writers] have to play out the old ones. All these things were happening at the same time and it was frustrating. For me, in the end, I liked the place and the people but I didn't like the character of Tom. Not as he was. That's my fault. I should have passed, I guess, and said to myself, "Maybe something else will come down the pike, a character I can really sink my teeth into, a character who doesn't have kids, doesn't have this and that." You have to be honest about it and say, "It's a part, a job, but is it one I want to jump into and do?"

DIGEST ONLINE: Despite the tough times, do you have any humorous backstage anecdotes about working on Days or GH?
ASHFORD: On Days, my character had been labeled as being like the non-sexy part of the non-sexy couple, the bad kissers. We had carefully developed Jack, but that's the way it had played out. It was very hard for Jack to express himself sexually, but it made it much more intense when he did. It increased the sexual tension underneath. I mean, this was not an accident. But you get these general labels from magazines. One magazine we were labeled "Worst Kissers" and "Best Love Story." Go figure.

On GH, different character and new take. The show wanted to go with a much more sexually expressive relationship, so here I'm working with Kristina Wagner. The show wrote this 9 1/2 Weeks story [inspired by the movie of the same name]. I thought, "Wow, this is great." It was really intense and kind of kinky. So Tom and Felicia started having these sexual rendezvous, and some of them were hardly bad. But we ended up doing something on a couch, [something with honey dripping on each other and ice cubes] where we were both next to naked. I thought, "Well, I can show them that I can do [a sexual role]." And then I thought, "Well, Kristina knows what she's doing and General Hospital knows what they're doing." Well, we finish the scene and she looks at me and says, [rather embarrassed], "I've neeever done that before." I looked at her, [rather sheepishly], "Well, I thought you did so that's why I did." The people behind the cameras, the cameramen and the director, also said [rather embarrassed], "We've neeever done anything like that before." Everyone was assuming and putting themselves in the others' hands, like they knew what they were doing. [Laughs]

DIGEST ONLINE: Here's a question I've never asked to anyone before ... didn't you do something kinky with peanut butter?
ASHFORD: Hmm? I just remember honey. I don't know. Maybe it was a whole sandwich. The point was everybody was trusting in the other person, and going pretty far [with the sexual connotations]. The upshot was it was news for a minute. People were saying, "I can't believe what they did on daytime!" That old story of how bad soaps are and all that. And then it was over. The relationship between Tom and Felicia was over too, because there was nothing else to do with the relationship either. It just kind of goes to show, it's such a short-lived thing -- people taking their clothes off -- and then there's nothing else there as opposed to another show [Days] where the characters [Jack and Jennifer] never did that, and the characters went strong for years. It's funny people talk about the sexual things done on daytime, but from a business standpoint, it pays more not to take off the clothes.

DIGEST ONLINE: Was Tom getting harder and harder to play because it seemed like GH dropped the ball with writing for him?
ASHFORD: It was hard to play all along. [Laughs] All for the same reason: trying to find that interesting hook. I think the writers were interested in writing a vastly different character than what I was interested in doing. We were never able to come together on that. I was trying to play around with Tom, and I was never able to make the same kinds of connections that I was able to do on the other two shows [SFT and Days] to bring him around. Tom was so kind of stuck in, "You're a Hardy." Whatever that means. I wanted him to be a lot more troubling and troublesome. Hindsight is always 20/20.

DIGEST ONLINE: On a vastly different note, I know that your life after GH has been extremely focused on Emma and her care. I know readers would like to hear how Emma and Michael and Hunter Tylo's baby Katya are doing?
ASHFORD: They're doing okay. They get checked out frequently, every three to four weeks. They're both holding their own... We have another doctor's appointment soon for Emma. You never know, though, until the doctors dilate her eyes, and see what's going on inside of her eyes. You always get apprehensive beforehand. She looks great but you just don't know.

DIGEST ONLINE: What led to the diagnosis that Emma had cancer?
ASHFORD: She was diagnosed a week shy of four months old. It's spooky because it was around the same time that Hunter and Michael Tylo's baby was diagnosed. We were incredibly fortunate the diagnosis came when it did. We wanted to get Emma's four month check-up before the holidays. We were about to take off and visit family. We couldn't get a visit with our regular pediatrician, and Christina said, "No, I want to get her in [to see a doctor]." So we went to see another doctor, much younger, newer in the practice who has an infant baby of her own.

Meanwhile, we kept noticing that Emma's left eye had been turning in, crossing, for about a week which is normal for newborns. The doctor said, "Oh, she's got a lazy eye just like my baby." The doctor then told us that we might want to get this checked out by a pediatric ophthalmologist who'll put a patch on it and train the lazy eye. "The sooner you get on this, the easier it'll be to do," she added. Christina wanted to get right on this because the holidays were coming. All these pediatric ophthalmologists were all booked up for a month, but Christina kept after them and got an appointment. She went in there, just expecting to get some patches for Emma's eye. The specialist dilated Emma's eyes and immediately knew it was tumors, it was cancer.

Emma's biggest tumor was right in the middle of her left eye, right over central vision, so for that reason she's legally blind there.

DIGEST ONLINE: How did you take the news?
ASHFORD: It was incredibly shocking, out of the blue. Day turned to night. The doctor referred us to Children's Hospital in Los Angeles and Dr. [Linn] Murphree, who's a world renowned specialist. We went in there thinking that Emma's eye would be taken out that day. They were fighting against time, the cancer was in both eyes so the doctors had to determine how much chemotherapy would be needed or if one eye or both eyes would need to be taken out. They told us that the right eye was very treatable, but the left eye had to be worked on.

Through four courses of chemotherapy, eleven of the twelve tumors had flattened and scarred... For the next two years, anything [malignant] that continues to grow, they'll hit with lasers. But if a tumor is too big, a laser can't get it...

Some of these parents [of babies with Retinoblastoma] would tell their pediatrician, "There's something wrong with my baby's eyes. I can see it, it's this funny thing." And the pediatrician says, "Oh, it's nothing. You're just an over anxious new mother." This happens all the time. Some of these people, their babies' eyes are being taken out. The cancers have spread and they are totally fighting to save their baby's life. They now have to give their child radiation... Every minutes counts. It's a fast moving cancer. If undetected, it leads to havoc and death.

In certain other countries, there are no cases of Retinoblastoma because they never get to them in time, the kids just die. Here in the U.S., we're leading [the fight].... People can have the [positive] effect our daughter Emma or Hunter and Michael's daughter Katya have.

DIGEST ONLINE: Did Emma have any other symptoms other than her eye turning in?
ASHFORD: No. This is the interesting thing: When you take a cheap camera, and take a picture and the flash goes off, everyone ends up with red eyes. Dr. Murphree wishes every young parent had a cheap camera, because those pictures reflect red off your retina. Well, if there's something blocking it, it reflects white or silvery or a slight yellow but mostly white. Sure enough, after we had gone to the hospital, they asked if we ever saw a white reflection in Emma's eyes [in photographs]. Well, we go home and we looked through pictures we had taken for Christmas cards. Sure enough, Grace had two red eyes and Emma's right eye was red and her left eye was white.

That is one way lay people can possibly detect it, that is the tumors are directly in the back [of the eye] or big enough to be seen. But through a series of photographs over a period of time, you're going to catch something. We went out and sent out the Christmas cards anyway, and in a letter said what happened [to Emma] and we were fortunate to catch [the cancer] early and noticed Emma has a white reflection in her left eye. [We went on to write,] "If over time, you are exchanging Christmas cards and notice some other kid with that white reflection, call up the family and say check this out. Use our name and tell them our story. Have them go to see a pediatric to dilate their eyes and look in there. What can it hurt? The best case scenario is there's nothing wrong, they'll just think you are a wacko. How are going to feel if you had a chance and you missed it?"

DIGEST ONLINE: Grace obviously knows her little sister is sick. How has she reacted to her?
ASHFORD: She's taking it really well. She's talked to a counselor a couple of times. There was a little bit of blaming herself for it; these things are natural. You know, to have nightmares about it, to think that maybe she made mommy upset or mad when she was pregnant. That sort of thing. She couldn't get near the baby for a long time; we had to wear masks and gloves because Emma's immune system was wiped out. The slightest sniffle could put her in the hospital or fevers over 101 degrees could kill her. Kids spike over that all the time. For Grace, it's been a hard road... a new sister and a new sister with special needs. She's getting her dose of maturity, as much as a six-year-old can. She's doing well, though.

DIGEST ONLINE: How did you learn that the Tylos' baby also was sick?
ASHFORD: We had just taken our first trip [since Emma was diagnosed] to see my brother up north and we heard it on the news. "Michael and Hunter Tylo's baby has this strange disease called Retinoblastoma." We went through those same first dark days but the Tylos were having to do it in front of the cameras. I don't know how [the press] found out, but there were literally photographers waiting outside the hospital after they were coming out with the baby after surgery. Just horrendous. Somebody must have sold their phone number to the magazines, because the press got a hold of that, too.

We called [Hunter and Michael] and asked what we could do together. We said, "Hey look, any time you want to talk." We told them of the benefit we were organizing. We said, "This is an opportunity to turn this into something good." Hunter and Michael agreed to be co-chairs on the event with us. We decided to raise peoples' awareness.

[Editor's Note: The Ashfords and Tylos recently co-chaired a benefit gala with the Institute For Families of Blind Children to establish a clinic to fight the disease. ]

DIGEST ONLINE: What kind of response did you get when you put the word out about the benefit?
ASHFORD: When we [were] organizing the benefit, we had people from Madonna to Mohammed Ali calling to help out. Unfortunately, their schedules prevented them from making it. In fact, Madonna called personally and wanted to know if this was the benefit aiding Hunter Tylo's baby. She said, "I really want to be a part of this." But she had to do some location shooting that prevented her from coming.

DIGEST ONLINE: I heard that the benefit was a great success. Can you give us a bird's eye view of the night?
ASHFORD: The benefit [held at the Beverly Hilton] was very well-attended, over 800 people were there and we raised close to $300,000. A lot of people were just kind of stunned that we would be able to do that, but I just think so many good things came together. We had people from various hospital organizations involved. Celebrities from in and around Hollywood, who have been to so many benefits over the years, told us it was one of the most heartfelt events that they had every attended.

It made some people say to us, "You know, I'd really like to be a part of this in the future. Keep me in mind." I mean, Leslie Nielsen was calling the next morning and Rosie [O'Donnell] has expressed further interest. It's really encouraging that people didn't show up for the chicken. I think [because the event was moved up a month], we weren't able to get out enough information about the event in the soap press. Hopefully, in the future, we'll get the word out earlier.

DIGEST ONLINE: Why did you honor Rosie?
ASHFORD: She has done so many things for children that she doesn't publicize. But she has lent her name and support to so many children's organizations for many years. She gives unceasingly, not only of herself but monetarily, too. She just seemed an obvious person to recognize, so that's what did. She looked at our group and it was resounding to her.

DIGEST ONLINE: It must have been a proud evening for you, your wife and the Tylos.
ASHFORD: Yes, it was like a big, old wedding. For the most part, it really went well. A girl, Laurie Reuben is her name, who has been blind since birth is an opera singer. She came out and sang with such a beautiful voice. I think everyone kind of settled back and said, "Wow. This is really special." We also decided to bring out the babies, [ Emma and Katya]. We brought them to the [Beverly Hilton where the benefit was staged] and they stayed in a room until the time they [came on stage]. It just seemed special to take them up on stage, show them off to everyone and present to Rosie. That was a personal high point for me and it was important for us to say thank you to Rosie.

DIGEST ONLINE: I'm sure you are just catching your breath after this benefit, but what might you have in store for your next fundraiser?
ASHFORD: We're already trying to lock in a date for next year's [dinner benefit]. We're also discussing having a golf tournament, and perhaps more of a musical night, too. It'll be a year-round effort now but we set a goal of raising $1 million. For that effort, we set up this number 1-877-SAVE EYE because so many people are calling in not just to make a donation but they are concerned about their children's eyesight so we needed to be able to refer them [to appropriate care].

These days in this country, there's a lot of people falling through the cracks because of their HMO situation or what have you. It's made us aware of what a tremendous need there is out there for all types of care. If we can help in this one area, we're glad to do it.

DIGEST ONLINE: What advice would you give to a parent whose child is diagnosed with the disease ?
ASHFORD: Make sure you are getting the best treatment and advice possible. Before someone says that they just will take your child's eye out, remember there are other options. That may be all that can be done, but make sure the doctors know what they are talking about and consult with some of the top medical centers in the country... Some places still administer radiation and that deforms the skeletal development of the head, and kids are terribly deformed before twelve months. There are things you don't do anymore. I think the more important thing is that parents of a young child should ask their doctor to dilate their baby's eyes and look around... Make sure you are getting up-to-date information. Even on the Internet, info might be dated... Remember that every child is different, every cancer and tumor is different and everyone responds differently. No one is the same. This child responds this way and another might respond differently.

DIGEST ONLINE: Have researchers gotten so far as to identify a gene that is a carrier for Retinoblastoma?
ASHFORD: Yes, the Retinoblastoma gene has been isolated. But that's just one step. Everything is connected. There's a missing part in a chromosome and that's when it occurs. But why is there that one missing gene? We can't say. You know it's genetically transferred but why does it suddenly mutate on its own? We can't say. I don't know. One thing we can do is catch it and catch it earlier. Since the benefit, the number of people they are seeing has risen dramatically, and through Dr. Murphree, babies' eyes are being saved. People are realizing there are other ways of treating Retinoblastoma than just taking babies' eyes out.

DIGEST ONLINE: What are the odds of a baby having Retinoblastoma?
ASHFORD: Generally, 1 in 15, 000. But the numbers seem to be climbing, perhaps because of environmental causes.

DIGEST ONLINE: Has it been a time of discovering who your good friends really are?
ASHFORD: I guess you can say that. In many ways, it's a time of renewing friendships or connecting with someone who you might not have seen much in the past two, three years but they hear something [troubling] is going on and they check in. You realize that's what life is about, to refresh and remember some of the friendships you've had. There's been a lot of remembering and getting back together with people.

DIGEST ONLINE: Ultimately, how has your daughter's cancer changed your life?
ASHFORD: It's kind of been a revitalization, a rejuvenation in many ways. This is kind of what it's all about, these moments in our lives. People kind of say, "How do you deal with it?" Well, we just do. Everyone at some point in their life has to face a crucial moment. How you deal with it and go through it is going to indicate how most of the rest of your life will go. This has been our opportunity to get back together on a lot of things. Raising children and keeping them healthy and ourselves healthy is now a focus in our lives.

It's funny, I've done enough scenes with characters holding sick babies and now it's really happened. It's interesting on some shows how babies have some disease with a weird name and it's never really cancer. It's always some strange sickness, they can get out of, be cured of. But this is really serious and doesn't have an easy answer. This is part of our lives now. We'll be monitoring Emma intensely for the next three years and on up through all the time she's growing up. That's just the way it is. We're just trying to appreciate everything about her right now.

For more information on the disease, call 1-877-SAVE EYE . The address for Vistas For Blind Children Inc. is: 1300 North Vermont Avenue, Suite 305, Los Angeles, CA, 90027, Attention: Retinoblastoma or Institute For Families of Blind Children.