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Hank Cheyne, also known as Hank Cheyne Garcia, was born on August 13 in Santa Maria, California. He is an American actor best known for his role as Ricardo Torres in Aaron Spelling’s daytime drama Sunset Beach (1997-2000). He also portrayed Scott LaSalle/Love on the NBC soap opera Another World (1986-1988) and Anton Vargas on the 2007 TV series Saints & Sinners (2016).
Born Henry Edward Garcia in Santa Maria, CA, he is the youngest of three siblings. His heritage includes German and Dutch ancestry on his mother’s side, and Native American, Spanish, and Mexican descent on his father’s side. Raised Roman Catholic, he attended parochial middle and high schools before graduating from Jesuit Santa Clara University in 1980 with a BSc in Business, where he played varsity baseball. Afterward, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from UCLA Law School. His paternal grandfather was a cattle rancher on California’s central coast in the early 1900s, with roots tracing back to full-blooded Yaqui Indian ancestry, while his paternal grandmother’s lineage included Spanish and Mexican origins. His father, one of fourteen siblings, was a professional bull rider. His mother’s family hailed from Germany and the Netherlands, living in Wyoming and Pennsylvania. He adopted the stage name Cheyne, inspired by the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming—where his parents met—after discovering someone else had his birth name in the Screen Actors Guild.
Career
While attending law school, Hank was approached by artist, filmmaker, and photographer Steven Arnold to be part of a photography project. Arnold, a celebrated tableau photographer and protégé of Salvador Dalí, worked out of his Los Angeles studio and West Coast salon, Zanzibar, creating tableau-vivants for a book. This experience introduced Hank to the avant-garde creative scene of early 1980s Los Angeles, offering a contrast to his structured law curriculum.
Introduced by a friend to acting coach Vincent Chase, Hank was encouraged to audition for a GQ magazine editorial photographed by renowned fashion photographer Bruce Weber. Weber cast him and subsequently featured him in several high-profile campaigns, including British Vogue, Italian Vogue (in an editorial on Las Vegas with Christie Brinkley), and a Gianni Versace fashion campaign.
He also worked with acclaimed photographers such as Herb Ritts, Matthew Rolston, and Fabrizio Gianni.
For two years, Hank balanced law school with modeling and commercial work before graduating and passing the California Bar Exam. He received a full-time offer from the Beverly Hills law firm Ball, Hunt, Hart, Brown, and Baerwitz, where former California Governor Edmund Brown was a name partner. Seeking a break after seven years of study, he deferred the offer with an open invitation to return later. Following his commercial and print work, he traveled extensively in Europe, living in Italy and later Tokyo, Japan, before returning to the U.S. to pursue acting full-time.
In 1986, he was cast as Scott Love/Lasalle on NBC’s daytime drama Another World in New York, starring opposite John Considine and Denise Alexander. After his two-year contract ended, he declined renewal and returned to California. He continued working in low-budget films, guest-starring on television, and appearing in national commercials, including a Marlboro campaign directed by Tony Scott.
In 1996, Hank co-founded a theater company on Hollywood’s Theater Row and starred in the world premiere of Steve Monroe’s play A Kind Man and A Good Lover as Frank Mackie, earning a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination.
That same year, Aaron Spelling cast him as Detective Ricardo Torres on NBC’s Sunset Beach, which ran for three years, gaining cult status in the UK and airing in over 40 countries, including Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria.
In the early 2000s, following Sunset Beach, Hank rekindled his passion for painting. He immersed himself in the art world with a studio in mid-Los Angeles and gallery representation on Melrose Avenue, participating in solo and group exhibitions.
In 2006, he was cast as series regular and drug lord Anton Vargas in Twentieth Century Fox’s MyNetworkTV series Saints & Sinners, which was canceled in 2007 after 62 episodes.
In 2009 and 2010, he had a recurring role as Austin Buttercup in HBO’s Big Love. He also guest-starred in the FX series Sons of Anarchy and CBS’s Criminal Minds.
In 2014, he was cast in a recurring role as Sam Poteet in Netflix’s crime drama Longmire, and later appeared in the Apple TV series The Morning Show.
Personal Life
Hank Cheyne is married to actress Missy Hughes. They met in New York while both were cast members on NBC’s Another World. Hughes works as a reality television executive for Renegade 83.
