A Martinez says the June 7 livestream reunion with Marcy Walker is not just a fan conversation, but a fundraiser meant to help his former Santa Barbara co-star cover medical costs. Martinez said the event with fans is planned to raise money for Walker, and after questions surfaced about the $100 ticket price, he wrote that the money is needed to address “a real and urgent need.”
“As we approach June 7th, where Marcy Walker and I will LiveCast with our friend Melissa Braverman to dive into the legacy of Cruz and Eden, I wanted to clarify our thinking about the tickets,” Martinez wrote. “There is a fee to attend, and some folks have expressed disappointment over the cost.” He said he should have made it clear from the start that the event was designed to support Walker, who has been ill and is working hard to get well.
The fundraising goal gives the reunion a sharper purpose than the nostalgia angle that first drew attention. Martinez and Walker portrayed Cruz Castillo and Eden Capwell on Santa Barbara from 1984 to 1991, a pairing that helped define the show’s romantic center. Walker won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1989, and Martinez won Outstanding Lead Actor in 1990, adding to the appeal of a reunion between two actors who were once among daytime television’s best-known names.
Martinez said Walker has already run into the kind of medical expenses that can overwhelm people in the United States. “The fact is, Marcy has been ill and is working hard to get well and in the process has come face to face with the financial challenges that so often plague those of us unlucky enough to need medical care in our country. She is in that need,” he wrote. The livestream event description was also updated to say that Walker has recently been facing significant health challenges, and that 100% of the proceeds will go directly toward helping her cover rising medical bills and healthcare costs.
That update answers the biggest question hanging over the event: why a reunion between two soap opera veterans would carry a price tag that drew complaint in the first place. Martinez said he and Walker will likely do a GoFundMe later in the summer, but said the June 7 conversation will support her “in a way that’s both personal and I would imagine would end up being highly memorable for all of us.” He added, “On behalf of both of us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Walker’s career stretched well beyond Santa Barbara. After leaving the show, she starred in Palace Guard in 1991, appeared on Guiding Light as Tangie Smith from 1993 to 1995, and reprised the role of Liza on All My Children from 1995 to 2005. After leaving that series, she accepted a position as a youth minister in Connecticut and stepped out of public life. For longtime viewers, June 7 is now less a nostalgic reunion than a public show of support for an actor they had not seen in years.
