Soap Star Nathaniel Marston Dead at 40

One Life to Live fans are waking up to devastating news Thursday morning: Nathaniel Marston, the star who played Michael McBain on the long-running ABC soap opera, has died at the age of 40, People reports. Mom Elizabeth Jackson posted a heartfelt tribute to her son on Facebook Wednesday evening, informing readers that "my beloved and cherished son, Nathaniel Marston, who was putting up the good fight until last night was not able to continue due to the traumatic and devastating nature of his injuries. Nathaniel passed away peacefully as I held him in my arms."

Jackson also noted doctors had done the best they could to save her son after the Oct. 30 car crash near Reno, Nev., that threw him from the car. "Had Nathaniel lived he would have required a ventilator and would never have been able to utter one more word and would have been sentenced to life as a quadriplegic. A condition that Nate would have never have been able to tolerate," she wrote. "By Gods [sic] love and mercy Nathaniel was spared this living hell and has traveled on to be with God." Jackson noted that memorial services would be held in NYC, Hawaii, and Nevada. (More soap operas stories.)