Zaslow was born in Inglewood, California. He played Dick Hart on the CBS soap opera
Search for Tomorrow and Dr. Peter Chernak on
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. He also played
David Renaldi on
ABC's
One Life to Live from 1983 to 1986. Zaslow guest-starred on a number of other television shows and
soap operas, including
Barnaby Jones,
The Love Boat, and
Law & Order. In the episode "
The Man Trap," the series' September 8, 1966 premiere of
Star Trek, he played Crewman Darnell, the first
Starship Enterprise crew member
to be killed off. The incident sparked the first diagnosis of the now-famous line: "He's dead, Jim," by
Enterprise crew-member Dr.
Leonard McCoy (
DeForest Kelley). He also appeared as Jordan in the episode "
I, Mudd". He costarred in the 1977 feature film
You Light Up My Life, and appeared in the 1979 sci-fi movie
Meteor. Zaslow's
Broadway theatre credits included
Fiddler on the Roof,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and
Onward Victoria. Zaslow was also the godfather of actor
Christian Slater.). Zaslow did not return to
Guiding Light, and his role was briefly recast before being written off. (In 2004, Zaslow's character on
Guiding Light died off-screen.) Zaslow was hired at
One Life to Live in 1998 to play David Renaldi again, appearing first in May of that year, his condition being written into the storyline. He made numerous appearances over the next seven months before he was too ill to continue working. Zaslow died from a heart attack on December 6, 1998, at his New York City home. He was survived by his wife, psychologist/writer
Susan Hufford; and two daughters, Helena and Marika. His final appearance on
One Life to Live was televised December 1. The character of David Renaldi was soon referred to as living off-screen, with mentions of him eventually dropped. ==Legacy==