Michael Lowry's early days in daytime consisted of playing the upright good guy Dr. Jake Martin on ALL MY CHILDREN. Now he's back on daytime, portraying ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Ross, someone whose past behavior isn't letting him return to the States. However, in between, he played the nastiest of the nasties — AS THE WORLD TURNS' Les Sweeney.

"You don't kill your wife, burn down the oldest set, beat your son and get away with it," laughs the actor. "They shoot you for that on daytime. But that was a lot of fun, because it was no more Dr. Jake. A character like that was really specific to the story, and I was happy. It was only supposed to last a couple of weeks, but it went a lot longer.

"That's why I like this character, because Ross is kind of revisited as a bad guy, but he has a heart. He has a relationship with people on the show," Lowry explains.

Lowry hasn't quite finished creating Ross' persona in his mind. "I'm still trying to fashion the role so I don't paint myself into the corner as a bad guy," adds the actor. "I'm still trying to find it a little bit. I haven't gotten feedback saying, 'You need to do this and this.' So I'm just going to stick with how it's going, and I'm still getting familiar with the pace of the show."

Getting familiar with the show also means getting to know one's co-stars. Lowry quickly credits any success he may have on daytime to playing opposite some of the genre's most talented leading ladies. Right now, it's Kassie DePaiva (Blair). "Kassie is fantastic. I was lucky with Marcy Walker (ex-Liza) when I first started on ALL MY CHILDREN. She was right on the money. [Kassie is] great. She has her system that works well with me, so I'm lucky. And I was lucky to have that with Sarah Brown (ex-Julia; now GENERAL HOSPITAL's Claudia) on AS THE WORLD TURNS," smiles Lowry.