William Roerick; Veteran Actor

William Roerick, 83, veteran stage actor who had a continuing role on “The Guiding Light” for 15 years. Known recently as Henry Chamberlain on the popular soap opera, Roerick was a classically trained stage actor who appeared as Balthasar with Katherine Cornell in “Romeo and Juliet,” as Gilles de Rais with Cornell in “St. Joan,” and in the role of Laertes with John Gielgud in “Hamlet.” During World War II, Roerick toured the world including Broadway and London’s Palladium with an Irving Berlin fund-raising show, “This Is the Army.” In the 1960s, he toured as Jason in “Medea,” in the title role in “Macbeth” and as the Marquis de Sade in “Marat/Sade.” Among Roerick’s films were “A Separate Peace,” “The Day of the Dolphin,” “The Other Side of the Mountain,” “Not of This Earth” and the camp classic “Wasp Woman.” On Thursday in Tyringham, Mass., in a car accident.