For almost 10 years, viewers followed the adventures of Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo! Over the years, American actor A. Martinez, whose real name is Adolfo Larrue Martinez III, has become one of the most popular faces of Santa Barbara. And for good reason: the police officer of Mexican origin formed with Eden Capwell, played by Marcy Walker, one of the most emblematic couples in the history of American soap operas.
The success was immense and propelled A. Martinez to the rank of television sex symbol. He even won the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1990 thanks to this role. But what happened to him after the end of the series? If Marcy Walker decided to leave film sets behind to devote herself to religion by becoming a pastor, this is far from being the case for A. Martinez.
What has happened to A. Martinez since the end of Santa Barbara ?
In 1992, when the adventure Santa Barbara ends for him, the actor immediately bounces back into the legal series Los Angeles Lawwhere he played lawyer Daniel Morales until 1994. A few years later, he also joined the cast of the police series Profilerbefore returning to the daily soap operas with General Hospital, One Life to Live, Love, Glory and Beautyet Days of Our Lives.
Now aged 77, A. Martinez continues to tour! Since 2023, he appears in the police series Dark Windsadapted from the novels by Tony Hillerman, where he plays sheriff Gordo Sena. The police series, available on Polar+, takes place in the 1970s on a Native American reservation in the southwest of the United States. Two Navajo police officers investigate crimes linked to community tensions, old cases and more mysterious elements. In 2022, the actor was also chosen to play Master Pakku in Avatar: The Last Airbendersigned Netflix. Even more recently, he joined the series Blue Ridgelaunching in 2025.
A. Martinez: a marriage that has lasted more than 40 years with Leslie Bryans
In terms of his private life, the actor displays a rare stability in Hollywood. After a brief marriage to actress Mare Winningham in 1981, he married Leslie Bryans the following year. The couple is still together more than forty years later and has three children: Dakota Lee Martinez (born 1986), Devon Makena Martinez (born around 1989) and Ren Farren Martinez (born 1993). A fulfilling family life for the actor!
“My wife Leslie and I have done a good job of bringing people into the world who are truly good citizens,” he declared in 2020 in the columns of Digital Journal. Thus, behind the legendary seducer Cruz Castillo hides a man faithful to the same woman for more than forty years.
