Santa Barbara icons A Martinez and Marcy Walker thrill fans with a once-in-a-lifetime reunion experience

Soap couples come and soap couples go, which is the nature of the beast, but few pairings captured fans' hearts in the 1980s like Santa Barbara's Cruz and Eden. Played by A Martinez and Marcy Walker, their love was legendary, their reunions were even more legendary, and their wedding was something right out of the 19th century (attire and all).

An afternoon to remember

On June 7, Martinez and Walker sat down in their homes, laptops and webcams on, to spend two-and-a-half hours talking all things Cruz and Eden, giving lifelong fans an experience they will never forget.

Dubbed A Martinez and Marcy Walker: In Conversation, the virtual event raised more than $30,000 to help Walker pay mounting medical bills, resulting from a "significant health challenges" Martinez made reference to in a video last month. Organized by author Melissa Braverman, whose book Santa Barbara: The Complete Story debuts in the Fall, a recording of the event is available on demand for $50, with proceeds from the sale also going to benefit Walker.

Martinez and Walker walk down memory lane

While it's been decades since Martinez and Walker have worked together, the affection and admiration they feel for each other seemed palpable through the computer screen as they reminisced about bringing these two incredible characters to life.

When Santa Barbara first premiered in 1984, Walker, who had spent three years as All My Children's Liza Colby, and Martinez, who had a serious Hollywood pedigree, but who had never done a soap, were not slated to be paired. That didn't mean that Walker didn't have Martinez on her radar right away. In fact, she knew right away that she wanted to be paired with him.

"I was like, 'I want to work with him,'" Walker, who left All My Children and the soap world behind in 2005, laughed. "First of all, he was this really cool dude, but he was also really handsome."

But it was the actors who chose to take what could have been a throwaway line about Cruz and Eden having met one another in Europe and turning it into a legendary soap opera love story fans remember more than four decades later. Together, Martinez and Walker created a backstory for their characters and played that subtext in their scenes.

"My memory is that Marcy figured out what it was that had happened between Cruz and Eden in Euripe when they had a thing," Martinez explained. "But it didn't turn into the right thing because Cruz couldn't be honest and forthcoming about what he was about and that kind of wrecked it."

For the next seven years, the connection between Martinez and Walker turned Cruz and Eden into one of the most popular couples in soap opera history. From a shark tank rescue (literally) and a turn as Santa and Mrs. Claus to a southern antelbellum wedding and an adventure in Paris to find their baby, Cruz and Eden did it all. And it was the affection and connection the actors felt toward each other that made it happen.

"There was so much trust and so much respect that I didn't ever feel like I had to save myself or protect myself as an actor or as a person A," Walker said. "I was willing to go wherever he wanted to go. Working with A has been one of the greatest romantic relationships I've had in my life."

A legendary Santa Barbara love story

Although Santa Barbara didn't leave the airwaves until 1993, Cruz and Eden's love story came to an end on screen in 1991 when Walker left the soap to stat in the primetime series Palace Guard. Cruz and Eden's ending did not sit well with Martinez and Walker, nor did it sit well with fans. In fact, Walker said that it didn't give her the closure she had hoped for.

Walker's exit story involved Cruz learning Eden had multiple personalities that developed when she was a child and remained mostly dormant. In Walker's last scene on the soap that earned her a 1989 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress, Lisa, one of Eden's personalities, fell from a cliff into the sea never to be seen again.

As the story played out, Cruz even danced with one of Eden's other personalities, Suzanne, but because she was wearing a wig and glassses, Cruz didn't recognize her, something that Martinez said did not feel right to him.

Trending

Fans across the globe, including France, where Santa Barbara was a mega primetime hit, have longed to see Cruz and Eden's happy ending play out. In 2026, anything is possible, with both Walker and Martinez would love to work together again one day.

"There are more avenues to pursue than there have ever been," Martinez, who went on to play Roy DeLuca on General Hospital and Eduardo Hernandez on Days of our Lives, said. "I've been holding it for decades. And I fully intend to do whatever I can to make it happen. We're engaged on trying to make it happen. All we can do is our best. I know we both want to do it."

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback