“God called my dad home today,” wrote his son, Jackson Bryce. “This evening my father lost his long-fought battle with cancer. What began as stage three esophageal cancer eventually spread and became brain tumors that took his life away from him.”
Bryce died on July 12 at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut with his wife and son by his side.
Jackson shared in an Instagram post that his father was first diagnosed with stage 3 esophageal cancer before the disease spread to his brain.
Jackson wrote that his father underwent radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy and never stopped believing he could recover.
"Even just a week before he passed, while battling brain tumors, slurred speech, and blurry vision, he looked me in the eyes as clear as he could and told me he still believed he had a chance."
“May his strength and relentless belief forever live within me. He fought the hardest and most honorable fight I have ever witnessed,” he said.
Bryce's acting career spanned decades and earned two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. Jackson said Bryce wanted to be remembered as "a one-take actor. Two takes, max.”
“My dad also made sure I knew his greatest accomplishment that came at 48 years old, becoming a Dad,” he said.
“He supported me as far as a father possibly could. He was the loudest voice in the stands at every basketball game. He took me across the country to chase my dreams and would have done anything to see me succeed. Being my father was always his top priority,” Jackson said.
Bryce was born in New York to actors Ed Bryce and Dorothy Bryce. His father was best known for playing Bill Bauer on the soap opera "Guiding Light" for more than two decades, while his mother appeared on daytime shows such as "The Doctors."
He became a familiar face to daytime television audiences as Craig Montgomery on CBS’s "As the World Turns," appearing on the soap from 1982 to 2008. His early storylines included an onscreen romance with Betsy Stewart, played by Meg Ryan.