‘One Life to Live’: Michael Easton Shares Heartfelt Tribute to Late Costar Kamar De Los Reyes

Michael Easton has spoken for the first time publicly about the death of his best friend and former One Life to Live co-star, Kamar de los Reyes, who died on December 24, 2024, at 56 years old.

De los Reyes passed away in Los Angeles, California, following a brief battle with cancer. He is survived by his parents, wife Sherri Saum, three sons, two brothers, and two sisters.

Easton, who worked alongside De los Reyes for many years on One Life to Live, shared his tribute this past Thursday (May 16) at the live virtual event, Daytime Stands Up – A Benefit for Stand Up To Cancer… We All Have a Story.

“It was a 30-year friendship with Kamar. We did our first movie together in 1990. I was scared and I was quiet and I was instantly drawn to his bravado and his sense of himself,” Easton said, per MichaelFairmanTV. “Kamar was larger than life. He was the best man at my wedding, and I am the godfather to his son, Michael. His loss was profound on all of us.”

He continued, “There hasn’t been a day gone by that I haven’t thought of him and his family and what he brought to this world, and the contributions he made, not only to this acting community. He loved being an actor and he was a great actor.”

Easton joked, “I always like to say Kamar was such a good actor that they cast him as a priest, not just once, not twice, like seven times. I mean, he was often shirtless. But, if you needed a shirtless priest, Kamar was your guy.”

The General Hospital star also touched on De los Reyes’ final days, revealing he “was holding his hand when he passed.”

“There was so much love around him,” he added, noting how, at the memorial, they had to turn people away because they couldn’t fit everybody in. “There was people stretched out all the way to outside. People showed that hadn’t seen him in 20 years. That was the effect. So many of the One Life cast members came and cast from All American.”

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Easton also described De los Reyes’ incredible work ethic and how “he went to work two weeks before he passed at All American.”

“He was fierce to the end,” the actor stated. “He never talked about being sick. Even though the odds were stacked from the very beginning, and it’s still really hard for me to talk about, but I was in awe of his strength and his resolve. I would’ve shut down long before he did.”

In addition to his role as Antonio Vega on One Life to Live and Coach Montes in All American, De los Reyes’ other TV credits included Four Corners, Sleepy Hollow, ER, Promised Land, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, The Mentalist, Blue Bloods, Seal TEAM, The Rookie, and more.

He will also be seen in the yet-to-be-released Hulu limited series Washington Black and the new adaptation of Daredevil.

You can watch the full Daytime Stands Up event below.