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Kevin Bernhardt

Kevin Bernhardt is an American screenwriter, film actor, television actor, and producer. Bernhardt is best known as a screenwriter, with over 20 screenplays produced since the mid-1990s. His dozen lead actor/film roles before that included J.P. Monroe and his Cenobitic alter-ego in the 1992 Action/Horror film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Dean in Top of the World (1997), and Billy Knox in "The Immortals" (1995). Bernhardt had had series regular roles on Dynasty as Father Tanner McBride and General Hospital (1985–1987) as lady-killer (literally) Kevin O'Connor.Bernhardt was born in Holly Hills, Florida, where he was adopted by Navy Damage Control Officer 'Red' Bernhardt and wife Beverly. His most memorable years there were spent at an African-American elementary school (Turie T. Small), as part of the integration which took place in the late 1960s. But his family relocated to a trailer park in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he completed high school and worked very hard to become an Eagle Scout.Bernhardt attended college at the State University of New York at Binghamton on a National Merit Scholarship sponsored by the Eureka tent factory, where his mother worked. He supplemented his income in the Kroehler furniture factory. After completing a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in the winter of 1984, he immediately traveled to Los Angeles, where he passed the Series 7 exam and was hired by Robert Brandt and Company, the only fourth market securities trading firm in the country. But his true passion was the theater, and after six months successfully trading stocks between institutional investors, Bernhardt left it behind for a career as a screenwriter/actor.Two weeks later he landed a contract role on General Hospital , replacing then-popular daytime actor Jack Wagner during a contract dispute – in his coveted role as singer Frisco Jones. Wagner of course returned, but ABC then took the unprecedented step of creating a second and entirely different role for Bernhardt on the same show. He was the center of attention in the newly created 'Laurelton Murders' storyline, and with it General Hospital led the ratings for two years.Though he preferred screen-writing, Bernhardt took acting seriously enough to study in the small master class taught by Stella Adler. And he continued to work steadily as an actor for several years; in TV with another contract role as a priest (with love interest Heather Locklear) on Dynasty, as well as several mostly 'bad-guy' leads in films such as Hellraiser III. His personal life also flourished with a marriage to Purple Rain star Apollonia. But once he saw his first screenplay produced – he decided to devote his undivided attention to screenwriting.Since then his writing has attracted a diverse array of well-known actors, ranging from Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, to Chris Rock and Charlie Sheen. This work also resulted in the first few breakthrough films for companies including Avi Lerner's NuImage-Millennium and Eli Samaha's Franchise Pictures. Most recently, he has been lured back to acting again, with lead roles in two films which were shot in late 2014 – HEARTLAND and PROMISE.