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Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo were a supercouple on the American soap opera Santa Barbara. Eden was played by Marcy Walker and Cruz was played by A Martinez. The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A supercouple, in soap opera terms, is a couple on a program that becomes...
The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television...
Santa Barbara was an American soap opera which ran on NBC for 2137 episodes from July 30, 1984 to January 15, 1993. ...
Marcy Walker, in the role of Liza Colby on All My Children. ...
A. Martinez (born Adolph Larrue Martinez, September 27, 1948 in Glendale, California) is an American Mexican heritage. ...
In the early years, Eden and Cruz were portrayed as star-crossed lovers from different ethnicities and economic backgrounds. Both Marcy Walker and A Martinez have been quoted as saying that they pushed the Eden and Cruz angle, as it was not part of the original writer's plans to pair the two. However, eventually the actors won out and became legendary in their own right. Some of the original storylines they faced were ridiculous, but the screen was filled with the undertones of love, and a background that each actor has stated they created to make a backstory for the couple. By mid-1985, only a year after the debut of the show, Eden and Cruz were fan favorites and a great deal of the viewers were rooting for this couple. The racial issues were touched upon very intelligently by the writers, acknowledged, yet not ridiculed.
In late 1985 Cruz and Eden had been torn apart and each character was dragged into marriage, Cruz by Santana Andrade, a childhood family friend of the Castillo clan, and Eden by Kirk Cranston, a businessman who took advantage of Eden's weaker moments. Some of the best acting of the whole show is evident in the eyes of Walker and Martinez throughout this section of the storyline, as both actors are masters of portraying the torn apart lovers that they were. After a time Cruz and Eden were briefly reunited, until their love was tested, once again, by another blast from Cruz's past, Victoria Lane. This test resulted in Chip Castillo, the boy Cruz fathers with Victoria. Eventually, however, Cruz and Eden reunite only to be torn apart when Eden is assumed dead in Utah, where she is in fact held captive by Cain and the evil, long lost Capwell daughter, Elena.
Cruz mourns Eden, and this is some of A Martinez's finest acting. It was a painful time for Cruz and the fans, who were aware that Eden was alive. Unfortunately Eden is paralyzed, and after many sorrow-filled scenes, the pair are reunited. Cruz is arrested for the murder of Elena, however, which begins more torment for the star-crossed pair. Eventually, he is cleared, and fans are finally treated to a beautiful wedding filmed at the Stonepine Estate in Carmel, California, which is called the Pebble Creek Inn on the show. In turn of the century costumes, the couple says "I do" in style and a collective sigh can be heard around the world as all the fans breathe in relief that the wedding goes off without a hitch on April 1, 1988.
It is not happily ever after for the Castillos, though. Shortly after the wedding, a rapist is on the loose in Santa Barbara and Eden is one of his victims. In a storyline that leads Marcy Walker to her 1989 Daytime Emmy win, the rape of Eden is vivid, heart-breakingly real and perfectly portrayed by Walker, who shows how vast her acting ability is when it comes to raw emotion. Martinez also shines as the hero who is trying to forgive himself for not protecting his beloved Eden while also trying to catch the rapist. It is not long after the rape that the Castillos discover that Eden is pregnant. On January 1, 1989 the couple has their first child, Adriana Castillo. This joyous event is overshadowed when the baby is stolen by the rapist, Eden's obsetrician, Zach.
After Walker returns from maternity leave (she gave birth to son Taylor), she returns to Santa Barbara where Cruz and Eden search for their missing daughter. The search leaves them to the oft-visited site of Paris, France (Eden is often said to be there when Marcy Walker is off screen) where the pair are finally reunited with their bundle of joy. This Paris location filming marks another first, as the huge popularity of the show in France has made a French publication offer to help fund the production of the show filming overseas. (Ironically, these episodes will never air in France on the French channel that carries the show, as it the show was cancelled there prior to these episodes airing, but French fans were able to pick them up on satellite channels from Germany). Eden and Cruz return to Santa Barbara briefly, and then head to Mexico in search of Cruz's father.
Finally back at home, another test lies on the horizon for our supercouple, as Mr Robert Barr, played to perfection by Roscoe Born, has come to town and threatens to take over the Capwell family business. It turns out that Robert and Eden were once lovers and this walk down memory lane causes a huge strain on the marriage of Cruz and Eden. However, they do overcome this test as well, after many, many months of fighting and pain, at their wedding site in Pebble Creek. Finally together again, they do have some happiness for a while, if you forget that Cruz is "kidnapped" by a pasha hoping to take the powers of a tailsman that Cruz is in possession of and a few other wrenches in the grand design.
It is when Marcy Walker leaves the show for primetime that the great love story of Cruz and Eden comes to an end. While the show could have chosen many ways to convey this, they chose to have Eden suffer from multiple personality disorder, and to leave town, only to return as an alter-ego and leave again. Her character of Eden is last seen falling from a cliff, although her alter-egos are seen after that. Again, A Martinez shines as Cruz grieves for his love once again. Eventually the story is given closure as divorce papers are recieved by Cruz and Cruz himself leaves town.
The thing that made this the supercouple of all supercouples is the unique bond that was shared and transferred onscreen by the off-screen relationship of Marcy Walker and A Martinez. Both have conceded that they were soul-mates, best friends, confidants. Both Walker and Martinez expressed deep sorrow at not working together after Walker left the show, and they have rarely been seen together on screen or off since the show. It was the magic they put into their characters that made fans love them, and there are still websites today that celebrate this couple, even 14 years after their last scenes together aired. Martinez was quoted as saying he worked on a screenplay as a vehicle for himself and Walker, but there has never been any evidence of that. In the album cover of his CD, "Fragrance and Thorn" Martinez gives a line to Marcy Walker which says simply (following a list of others) Thanks to. . .Marcy Walker for the wonder that was Eden.
What makes the pairing of Eden and Cruz endure beyond all the other soap opera couples? It is likely the relationship off screen, but also these two actors took whatever material they were given and played it so well, so real, that there were times that it felt strange to be watching such intimate moments. There was something pure, something so great about these characters together, that made them a measure of what a couple could be. The way they loved each other, the simple emotion that was conveyed through their eyes, the things that were uttered that were likely not scripted, the gentle pushing of Walker's hair out of her face, or the wiping of lipstick from Martinez's cheek, made it feel as though fans were watching real intimacy unfold in front of them, and it was truly heartbreaking to see them apart. Both actors have commented on their love of these characters at length, and it is the opinion of many soap opera critics and fans that this is a coupole that will never be able to be duplicated or equalled. kg
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