All My Children star Paul Avery and wife killed in house fire

Actor Paul Avery, 81, and his wife, Sheila, died in a house fire at their Blairstown, New Jersey, home in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Firefighters arrived before 1 a.m. and pulled the couple from the flame-engulfed house, but both were in critical condition and died shortly after.

Avery starred on All My Children for 12 years in the 1980s, playing a bartender at Foxy’s named Hughie. His credits also included a cameraman in the 1978 film Superman and appearances on Soap and Three’s Company. As a teen he was a skydiver and later served as a helicopter crew chief in the Vietnam War; he continued to fly planes as a hobby.

After retiring from acting he worked at the New York Times and went on to found the Ridge View Echo, where he was executive editor at the time of his death. He became his wife’s full-time caregiver after she suffered a stroke in 2018.

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