Trivia

He left acting in the early 1990s and returned to his hometown in Alabama to take care of his mother who had Alzheimers. He stayed behind to take care of other family matters. He never lost his love for acting, but since he doesn't live in Los Angeles, it has cut down his chances of landing acting roles.

After he left "Young and the Restless" in 1975, he acted in stage plays, feature films, and television guest spots on nighttime show. Nevertheless, he returned to daytime television, where he played Mitch Blake on "Another World" from 1979 to 1982 and 1986 to 1990.

In his spare time, he is devoted to preserving and reforesting land and developing a wildlife habitat for turkey, quail, and deer.

He became a TV heartthrob when he originated the role of Snapper on the daytime serial "The Young and the Restless". In fact, he was in the very first episode of Y&R when it aired in 1973. When he left two years later, David Hasselhoff nervously replaced him, fearing the wrath of Espy's female fans. Espy came back to play Snapper briefly in 2003.

He still held onto his native Alabama accent after he started working in Hollywood, because women found his deep voice and accent sexy.

He became friends with Jeanne Cooper with whom he worked twice: The first time was on the feature film Kansas City Bomber (1972), and the second time was on "The Young and the Restless" (1973).

On Kansas City Bomber (1972), he worked with star Raquel Welch, whose star treatment intimidated him, but his co-star Jeanne Cooper made him understand that since Welch was a star, accommodations had to be made to make her look as good as possible.

During the course of his Hollywood career, he worked with famous people, such as Raquel Welch, Tom Selleck, Betty White, Don Johnson, Kate Mulgrew, as well as Academy Award winners Brad Pitt, Don Ameche, Karl Malden, Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Jose Ferrer, and Martin Balsam.

He also wrote screenplays, which he had hoped would get produced, such as "Midnight Flyer".