Sam Marshall (previously Nicholls) is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by former actor Ryan Clark.
Shortly after joining an actors agency when he was seven years old, Clark was sent to audition for Home and Away,[1] and he secured the role of Sam in 1991.
He returned to filming straight away and producers decided to write his ailment into the scripts; this results in Sam breaking his ankle while playing football.
[8] A columnist for MSN online described the character's tenure stating that "with basically everyone parental in his life either dying or skipping town, Sam was moved between families like a young pass-the-parcel.
"[9] When Pippa departs the series, Sam is placed in Rebecca (Belinda Emmett) and Travis Nash's (Nic Testoni) care.
Rebecca and Travis cannot cope with a "restless teenager's behaviour" and send him to live with Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn).
[11] In 1998, Jason Herbison from Inside Soap reported that Rebecca O'Dare had signed up to play Sam's new love interest Pam Edmondson.
Herbison's colleague Annette Dasey said Sam would have his "first big romance" with Daria Ellis (Tamra Williams), the hippy daughter of the new surf shop owner.
[1] Clark said it is love at first sight for Sam, explaining "She's meditating in her front yard when he rides past on his paper round.
Their relationship takes "a battering" and he turns into a "green-eyed monster" when Hayley becomes friends with Mitch McColl (Cameron Welsh).
Following Pippa's departure with her new husband, Ian Routledge (Patrick Dickson) to the Carrington ranges in 1998, Sam cannot get used to his new carers Travis and Rebecca and becomes rebellious.
Sam later leaves but returns and becomes involved with a girl called Sandy King (Renee Hodson) who has a daughter, Bella from a previous relationship.
Sam returns the following year for Summer Bay's sesquicentennial celebrations and in 2005 for Alf Stewart's (Ray Meagher) 60th birthday.
Chad Watson & Linda Barnier of The Newcastle Herald said that it was "no wonder" Clark quit the series because Sam was "the product of a broken home whose foster mother died after marrying his birth father".
[3] Glenn Wheeler of The Morning Show opined that Sam formed a part of one of Australian television's "much loved families" for a decade.