To soap fans he was the scheming Sean Cudahy of Pine Valley, but for thousands of performers who never watched a single episode he was the teacher in Nashville who told them to believe in themselves.

Alan Dysert, the actor best known for playing Sean Cudahy on “All My Children,” died Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at 75. His wife, Michele Dysert, announced his death Sunday, Oct. 25, in a tribute posted to her husband’s official Facebook page.

A cause of death was not disclosed. Her post said he had faced numerous health challenges over the years.

His wife and two sons, Cody and Cooper, survive him.

From an Illinois Farm to Pine Valley

Dysert was born June 12, 1951, and grew up on a farm in Illinois. He studied television arts at the University of Illinois.

Television found him in 1978, when he appeared on the sitcom “Soap.” Two years later he arrived in daytime, and he played Sean Cudahy across 79 episodes of “All My Children” between 1980 and 1990, in two separate stints, which made him a familiar face to a generation of afternoon viewers.

His other screen credits include “Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie,” “Two Weeks,” which starred Sally Field, and “The Legend of Van Dorn.” After the daytime run ended he kept acting and worked as a producer and director. He was also a musician, a writer and a filmmaker.

Four Surgeries and 29 CT Scans

Dysert published an autobiography in 2023, “Lights, Camera, Cancer!,” and in it he revealed that he had an incurable form of cancer, a disease described as rare and aggressive.

The book accounts for four major cancer-related surgeries, a recurrence, rounds of chemotherapy and 29 CT scans.

“He Was a Life Changer!!”

Dysert founded The Actor’s School in the Nashville area in 1991 and taught acting there, a second career that reached thousands of students who knew him as a mentor rather than a soap star.

His wife framed that split in her tribute: many knew him from the soap years, while thousands of others knew him as the man who told them to believe in themselves and chase what they wanted.

“He was a life changer!!” she wrote.

She wrote that he had more experiences and met more remarkable people than one lifetime could hold, and that he relished telling it all. She called him her partner and her best friend.

Her remembrance traced the whole arc — a small-town Illinois farm boy, a career in entertainment, then years spent teaching acting.