The darkly handsome, square-jawed Michael T. Weiss found small screen fame as the star of "The Pretender" (NBC, 1996-2000), playing Jarod, a character who takes on the guise of various professionals as a vigilante for justice. A native of Chicago who studied at the Second City workshop while in high school, he first found success landing the role of Dr. Mike Horton on the long-running NBC soap "Days of Our Lives" soon after his 1984 graduation from USC. While appearing on the daytime drama, Weiss moonlighted in primetime as a potential son-in-law hand-picked by Rue McClanahan in "Take My
