Soap star returns to town for eye surgery
By APRIL BARBE
Sentinel Staff

SOAP-OPERA STAR Brad Maule, left, gets his eyes examined Wednesday by Dr. Robert Lehmann at the Lehmann Eye Center. Maule a SFA graduate who went on to play a doctor on the show General Hospital for more than 20 years, said he returned to Nacogdoches for LASIK eye surgery after research showed Lehmann was the most qualified. Soap star returns to town for eye surgery

Why would a famous soap opera star come to Nacogdoches to have an eye procedure performed? "The reason I'm here is because just about the best doctor in the country for this (LASIK) procedure is here," Brad Maule, best known for his role as Dr. Tony Jones on General Hospital, said on Wednesday. "I can't go to Los Angeles of New York and get a better doctor and the barbecue is better here," Maule said.

Next week, Dr. Robert Lehmann will perform LASIK surgery on "Dr. Tony Jones", according to Kathy McGough, LASIK refractive surgery coordinator at Lehmann Eye Center. McGough first met Maule in 1977 through a play at the Lamplite Theater. Since that time, she has been in contact with Maule and followed his accomplishments as an actor, singer and songwriter. "I came to work here more than 10 years ago, and I kept asking him if he was ready to have LASIK done, and he finally said he was ready," McGough said.

Maule is originally from West Texas. He grew up on a farm about 20 miles from Snyder. He graduated from SFA in1974 with a bachelor's of fine arts degree in theater and English. He said he had never been to Nacogdoches before attending SFA, but he picked it on a map. He said he heard it was beautiful and green (as compared to West Texas).

After Maule moved to Los Angeles, he came back to Nacogdoches in 1977, to perform for a fund-raiser at Lamplite, and he also donates to various organizations in Nacogdoches and around the world when asked.

"It's (donating and supporting charities) an easy way to help somebody," Maule said.

Before coming to SFA, Maule performed for two summers with "Texas" in Amarillo, and while at SFA, he did plays during the summer with Casa Mañana in Fort Worth.

"I always knew what I wanted to do. It was never a question. I never looked into anything else," Maule said.

He is now an SFA distinguished alumni, which Maule jokingly said means he has gray hair.

After graduating from SFA, Maule moved to Los Angeles, where after six weeks of unsuccessful auditions, he faced the question many performers have to deal with when entering the entertainment industry.

"Everyone who goes to New York or Los Angeles is limited by how long they can last on the money that they have," Maule said. "I was at that threshold."

Then it happened. Maule got a job with The Serendipity Singers, and he was to join the group the next day in Houston. Maule said he was living in a small apartment in Los Angeles, and he threw his few pieces of furniture out a back window into a dumpster. Then he crawled through the window himself because he was breaking his lease to go to Houston.

Maule's experience with the singing group gave him his first opportunity to see the country, he said. The group's tour ended with a performance in Hawaii, where Maule was hired with his girlfriend to work on the Don Ho Show. After a year in Hawaii, Maule returned to Los Angeles.

Shortly after his return, Maule became a performer in the chorus of the first national company of "Evita," and was later offered a guest appearance on "Charlie's Angels." Maule had to choose whether to stay with "Evita" or venture into the world of television, which he had come to Los Angeles to do in the first place.

Soon Maule was making appearances in everything from "Three's Company" to a television movie called "Malibu," eventually landing the role of Jones in "General Hospital" in 1984.

While on "General Hospital," Maule was nominated twice for Emmy Awards as best actor and supporting actor, and won an award for best supporting actor from Soap Opera Digest. He also won a theater award from LA Weekly.

Maule said his favorite actors to work with on GH were Jack Wagner (Frisco), Anthony Geary (Luke) and Kin Shriner (Scotty). More recently, Maule began working on a new soap called "Passions," where he plays Dr. Abel.

"I'm still on GH, but I'm not contracted. I taped six episodes of "7th Heaven" last year, and three so far this year, 20 episodes of "Passions" and I've been on and hosted many talk shows," Maule said. "And you know you've made it in Hollywood when you become a trivia question on "the Weakest Link."

Recently, Maule visited the Nacogdoches Blockbusters' store and found himself unable to rent a movie, because he was using his friend Shirley Watterson's movie rental card. He then told the clerk who he really was, and she didn't believe him. Maule said people usually recognize him, but often don't know where they know him from. Even after he told the clerk he was George on "7th Heaven," she said that she watched the show and that he was "not George."

While at the Dallas Zoo two weeks ago with his daughter, Maule ha d a long visit with box office workers who thought he looked just like Dr. Tony Jones from GH, but when he said he really was Jones, they didn't believe him.

The last thing you want to do is tell someone that you're famous, because if you have to tell someone you're famous, then you're not famous," Maule said.

Maule said the two ingredients for his creative success are joy and making people comfortable.

"When you're performing, if you have a sense of joy that comes out of you, that makes the audience joyful. And if an audience (personal or professional) feels at ease or comfortable when they're with you, then you're successful," Maule said.

Maule is also a singer and songwriter. He has two albums, which were recorded in Texas and contain original songs. He is in the process of looking for a new home in Texas and a location for an art gallery (he's also an artist) in the Hill Country. He said that he will still work in Los Angeles, but he's ready to come home. He has two children, Lily and Hunter.

Maule will be a part of a telethon in Abilene Saturday before coming back to Nacogdoches to have LASIK surgery.

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Testimonial After 26 Years
My name is Shari Greer, but 26 years ago my name was Shari Lockett. I came to your office, with intense pain, as though someone had poured glass into my left eye. Your diagnosis was herpes of the eye. For weeks, we kept it covered, and you treated me with every available treatment that was legal at the time.

When you saw my eye starting to show signs of shrinkage, you wrote to Texas A & M and asked them if you could use an experimental drug called Vira A. They overnighted the medicine to you and I came into your office, scared, in constant pain, and not very optimistic. You put the creme in my eyes and a miracle happened.... the pain immediately subsided for the first time in weeks, and with constant treatment for several weeks, my eye healed and I recovered. That was 26 years ago, and I have never had a recurrence of the infection.

I have sang your praises for years, and the experimental option you chose to treat me with to save my left eye. I have been in the advertising business for 20 years and came across your being a client of CRM in the lasik surgery arena.

Thank you, Dr, Lehmann, it is nice to see such a quality doc in Nacogdoches. This is a true story, and one you can share anytime. My life was almost scarred by losing an eye, and your professionalism and expertise, saved me from that awful fate.

Shari Greer

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Doc Scrubs In With Rival Soap!
www.soapsindepth.com

It's double duty for Brad Maule (Tony), who will be flipping back and forth from GH to NBC's PASSIONS.

The In Depth Story: As of Friday August 1, Maule fans who miss seeing him as Dr. Jones can catch him on PASSIONS, which airs opposite GH in some major markets. Although he has a few PASSIONS shows in the can, and more are expected, Maule assures fans, "I haven't left GH forever, either. [GH executed producer] Jill Farren Phelps is a class act. And you can quote me on that. I called her {when I got this offer], because I thought it was common courtesy. She said, 'Brad, I appreciate it. It's a gig. So when your gig is up, you call me.'"

Maule was actually driving cross-country when he got the call about the new job. "My character, Dr. Able, is a work in progress. It's starting out slowly, just doctoring, basically. I think they'll see where they want to take him once they watch me a bit. I like it like that. My role on GH started out the same way. You listen to the other actors and see the spark in their eyes, then all of a sudden, that's where the character goes."

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James Buckingham

Doing this was really quite a wonderful gift to myself. It's not inexpensive, but well worth every penny.

My vision has of course changed incredibly as a result of this surgery. I went literally from being legally blind w/o correction. At the beach I couldn't find my family. I mean they just knew if I was coming out of the ocean to come find me because I would be wandering around looking for them. It was very bad. I couldn't find my way from the bed to the bathroom very well.

As it happens I know Dr. Lehmann personally. I live here in Nacogdoches and have known him for 17 years and know of his work and know that it is excellent. I would see him every week at Rotary and when RK first came out I asked him about that and if I was a candidate and he said, "no your eyes are too bad for that. Wait." So I thought, "Okay, I'll wait." Well then ALK came out. Various procedures have come out through the years. An each time I 'd approach him and he's say, "Wait." And finally he came to me saying "don't think about it yet, but there's something coming." Finally a little over a year ago, at lunch he said, "Now is the time. I am ready for you." I said, "Okay have you done 3 or 4 before me with eyes as bad?" And he said he had. So I had it done.

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Julie Pankratz

Besides getting married and having children, this was the best thing I have done for myself in my entire life.

I was really excited about having it done because I had heard a lot of wonderful things about having this surgery. Probably the only nerve-racking part of it was actually right before they got started. And I had no
discomfort when they were doing the surgery. It was very quick, very easy. I was out of there in about 5 minutes and I could see immediately when I got up off the table.

Dr. Lehmann is a personal friend of ours. We've known him a long time. Living in a small community like this, we've gone to him for different eye things before such as contacts and stuff. He is a good friend of ours and he has a very good reputation in town here of doing excellent service and we had a lot of confidence in him.

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Rodd Wayne

Choosing someone who is going to operate on your eyes - that's something very important. So naturally if I was going to do this, I only wanted the best. So I did search around and Dr. Lehmann has a lot of experience. He's been doing this for the longest time. There are other people who provide this procedure but naturally we're talking about my vision here I want to be able to see and I want the best possible procedure. So naturally you go with the best.

I am more excited than I am nervous. I was more nervous when I first found out about the procedure and actually came in to have my eyes examined and go through the prescreening. I was nervous then. I saw the video. I talked to Dr. Lehmann and I realized, hey, this guy's got it in the bag. He knows what he is doing. It's going to be a piece of cake. So I am pretty excited, but I'm not nervous at all.

It was just totally amazing. I can't believe it just happened 5 minutes ago. I'm already up walking around. I don't need any help. I can see clearly. It's a little fuzzy, which is normal, they tell me, kind of like looking through Vaseline as it heals. But I can see faces. The second I stood up I could see faces from a distance that normally I could never make out. They were giving me the peace sign and I could count how many fingers it was.

I just walked out of one of the waiting rooms and normally they give you the eye chart. Without glasses I can't see it sitting there but I was able to read the eye chart in the room sitting all the way across the hall from me. This is exciting. I think what I felt the most was probably anxiety and being a little bit nervous but there was no pressure really… just a little bit of pressure on the eyes, nothing hurt, nothing was uncomfortable. It was simple. You were in. You were out. I mean I've had haircuts that were more painful than that.

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