He is an enthusiastic motorcyclist who met his wife, Christine Baranski, 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 Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for "Dirty Jokes," at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
Although he 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 (1970).
He and his wife, Christine Baranski, raised their children without TV because they objected to violence and sexual content of programs.
Lived with his wife and their daughters in Connecticut.
According to a New York Times profile of his wife, Christine Baranski, he is "the black sheep member of a family with ties" to Drexel banking and the Cowles Publishing Company.