Matthew Ashford

Matthew Nile Ashford (born January 29, 1960) is an American actor best known for the long running role of Jack Deveraux on the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives. Ashford, the sixth of eight children, was born in Davenport, Iowa, the son of Patricia, an executive secretary, and Cecil Ashford, a civil engineer. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Theater from the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Ashford has been married to singer-actress Christina Saffran Ashford since June 6, 1987. They have two daughters, Grace (born in 1992) and Emma (born in 1997). In 1997, four-month old Emma was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood eye cancer, Retinoblastoma. The disease was treated with surgeries to remove the maligant tumors in her...