According to a New York Times profile of his wife, he is "the black sheep member of a family with ties" to Drexel banking and the Cowles Publishing Company.
Although he's played a wide range of characters, Cowles will probably best be remembered as the highly-entertaining "uber-pimp" Billy Clyde Tuggle, on ABC's "All My Children".
Cowles, wife, Baranski, and daughters live in Connecticut.
Daughters Lily (b.1987) and Isabel (b.1984).
He is an enthusiastic motorcyclist who met his wife Christine when he offered her a ride home one night on the back of his bike after a party .
He was nominated for a 1976 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for "Dirty Jokes" at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
Raises children without TV: Objects to violence and sexual content of programs.