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Charles Shaughnessy Takes Over the Role of GH’s Victor Cassadine

By Michael Fairman

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Courtesy/ABC

GH fans were in for a major surprise when on Thursday’s episode a kidnapped Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) got the shock of her life when her former lover, Victor Cassadine turned out to be alive and well and holding her hostage.

But there was another twist! DAYS favorite, Charles Shaughnessy (Shane), who previously was announced as coming to GH but in a mystery role, revealed himself to be … the new Victor Cassadine!  The former Mr. Sheffield of The Nanny has stepped into the role previously played by DAYS Thaao Penghlis (Tony).

Once the cat was out of the bag, in a tweet, Shaughnessy shared: “So excited to FINALLY be able to reveal details of my latest “gig”. 37 years on, I am back in the halls of @GeneralHospital, playing with the incredible @gatitweets. Having once been a vampire on @DisneyChannel, it’s not surprising I bring #VictorCassadine back from the dead!”

Shaughnessy is referring to the time he previously played Holly Sutton’s cousin, Alistair on the ABC daytime drama series back in 1984.

General Hospital viewers recall that Liesl shot and “killed” Victor back in 2014 then played by Penghlis.  In story, Victor believed he was the bio-dad of her son, Nathan West (Ryan Paevey). But a DNA test said that was not true, yet she shot him.  Leaving viewers wondering who is the dad? Hmmm.

So what did you think of the shocker? Shaughnessy as NuVictor Cassadine? Comment below.

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I enjoyed Charles entering the story. Maybe for the wrong reason as I said in another comment…I smiled and was half waiting for Fran (Nanny) to bring in Liesl’s dinner. Because so far I can’t see him as the baddest of the bad guys.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Charles Shaughnessy. But why couldn’t they bring back Thaao Penghlis as Victor? Wally Kurth airs on both DAYS and GH at the same time so why couldn’t Thaao too? Even though he wasn’t on the show for very long, he made a lasting impression as Victor and it’s hard to see a new actor play him.

Jimmy
You make a good point and Thaao makes a “good impression” whatever he’s on. Chas. Shaughnessy will also be on both shows but maybe Thaao held out for more money. Personally this SL bores me to death already and it’s hardly started. It was bad enough years ago watching that old goat Faisin chasing after Anna and Obrect chasing after him, now this,omg. Thanks for letting me rant Jimmy.

Wally’s a good bit younger than Thaao, and may enjoy the schedule juggling. Also, Shaughnessy is (surprisingly) on contract at GH. His role on the limited web series Beyond Salem was likely negotiated prior to GH, allowing him to do both.

It’s a bit of a jarring switch, but CS is such a fine actor, might just work out fine.

Steve,
This man is remarkable! I didn’t think too much about him when he appeared as Victor, but seeing him again as Shane on Beyond Salem, that silver fox is just looking better and better.

I totally agree,and I was ticked off when Thaao was on GH last time that he didn’t haveany scenes with Constance Towers (Helena).

Well at least maybe now Robert can confront Victor and avenge O’Reilly.

I don’t recall seeing the original Victor Cassadine so no change for me..
I do luv the Cassadines and would like to have all of them back.
Valentin was to be the one that Helena feared.
He was to be the worst of the worst.
He was pussified and turned out to be a teddy bear, shameful.
Hopefully, this Victor guy will bring on the Cassadine dark powers,
Nikolas failed as a true-blooded Cassadine, also.

Ironically, Victor was the LEAST “dark” of the original Cassadines. He thought his older brother Mikkos went way overboard in the whole “let’s try to freeze the world in the middle of August” plan, and in the end, Victor was actually working with Luke & Robert Scorpio to help bring Mikkos down. (a third brother, Tony, had already fallen victim to the deep freeze, along with his girlfriend Alexandra Quartermaine)

Victor was still sentenced to prison for his part in the Cassadine crimes though, so how he suddenly resurfaced in 2014 as the CEO of the World Security Bureau, that’s something they have never explained. Probably since that return was basically a short term plot point, needed to explain how “Jason Morgan” (actually Drew Cain) became a popsicle in his custody, and how he needed Robin Scorpio’s help to thaw out “Jason”, along with his former sister in law Helena & her son Stavros.

And then Victor’s second short return, when he stuck around long enough to find out he was NOT Nathan’s father, despite what Dr. Oooblech had told him. Again, little more than a plot point to set the stage for Faison being Nathan’s daddy, and the entrance of Faison’s other son, Whiny Heiny.

Considering this latest round of Victor Cassadine looks like it will again be a plot point to tie up various loose ends (Drew/Hayden/Heiny/possibly Holly??) maybe Thaoo Penghlis didn’t want round three of being the convenient fall guy?

Satan- you have a mind of steel to remember all of that–
I have zero knowledge of Victor, or if I had seen him, I don’t recall……
The Cassadines were awesome characters. I would like all of them back-exciting….
I have a bad feeling that the writers will also pussyfy Victor……
The writers of days past had the courage to write heavy, therefore, making stories of sitting on the edge of your seat suspense……they created emotions be it hate or love they brought it home……shame they are gone..

Su; Were you watching during the early days, when Nicolas was a teen and came to town with Stefan; lived with him and Alexis? Did you see Constance Towers at her wicked-best as the “evil” Helena when she was younger and was a threat to Laura, Alexis…always trying to get Nicolas to her side, etc. Wasn’t all that before you started watching?

As for Nicolas, I don’t think many fans back in the day, OR now, wanted him to be an evil Cassadine, so he didn’t fail at being one. I don’t think he was ever intended to be evil. The Cassadines were at war with themselves: the “good ones” vs the evil ones, and Nicolas (like Alexis and Sam; they’re Cassadines, too) was never “evil.” Nicolas’s Uncle, Stefan, was criminal at times but I don’t remember as “evil…well, not diabolical like Helena, Stavros, Mikkos. Stefan loved Nicolas like a son. (I LOVED Stefan! Thought he was such a great, intriguing character! He was played by Stephen Nichols who plays Steve/Patch over on Days.)

But back to Nicolas…each time he did anything remotely criminal or not to Laura’s liking (like most recently scaring Nicolas) she feared he’ become like his Cassadine side. That was always ridiculous to me, especially this last time when he scared Spencer; I don’t think scaring his son to teach him a hard lesson was quite Helena cray cray or “evil.” The ONLY time I thought Nicolas was written as evil and therefore out of character was when he first came back and told Ava her daughter was in hell…that was truly cruel and I think the writers really missed their mark (made for a good story but not something I would see Nicolas doing).

The “evil” Cassadines are all dead: Helena, Stavros, Mikkos. I do remember, as you said, that Valentin was “described” as the most evil before they brought the character to the show (I think he was added to the family history, don’t remember ever hearing about him until James appeared in the role) but as we know that never came to fruition… Those old Cassadine days were gold…so fun. who knows what Victor will bring. I think Spencer may know he’s alive; seems coincidental that Spencer would use the name Victor when Trina first met him…

If the show was ever to revive the true evil Cassadine legacy, Spencer would be the most likely candidate. IF this was back in the day and soaps were to go on for decades, it might have been worth the investment to see Spencer evolve to the dark side. At this point, I hope not; I like Spencer too much and hope he goes up against the evil Esme. SHE (and Nelle) would have made good next-generation evil Cassadines, in my opinion….

hi Rebeca 🙂
WHOA!! Thank you for the info-
I never knew all that background,
it was a great read :)————

That was before my time- but
it sounds to have been good storytelling..
Not knowing all that————
I’ve always seen Nikolas as a grey character———–
However- no matter what Nokolas is a Cassadine .. And he is of the bad seed–lol———–
ahhh but Spencer– he seems to have the devil in him, yup..———-
With a soap; the good turn bad the bad turn good.. the redemption factor–makes for longer stories and viewer emotions..
——–
but the writers are in charge of Spenser’s outcome.——
I luv the Cassadine — they are/where the fire!———–
I want all of them back..give me some Helena excitement.
—be well 🙂

Just to clarify, Helena’s daughter IS in Hell. But she has air-conditioning, because she’s not nearly the sinner the rest of her family is. I also don’t invite her & Helena to the same parties… or if I do, I hide all the sharp objects!!

Hast the heat gotten to you? Nicolas told Ava that Kiki’s daughter was in hell…did you mistake that for Helena’s? Had to look up Helen’s daughter because I forgot she even had a daughter…she was on just for that story arc. Remember? She was the woman in white who Nicolas fell for…turned out Helena had locked her away at one point, brainwashed her to kill Lucky? In the end Helena killed her…

Yeah, I read that earlier post too fast, on an uncaffeinated Devil brain. The memory is the first thing to go after a few thousand years.

Kiki has AC too, for all of the same reasons. She and Helena’s daughter have something else in common, and that’s the fact that neither one should have ever been written into existence. The first Kiki was just a legal fiction to rename an annoying little twit who never belonged on GH in the first place. The second version wasn’t so bad in and of herself, but she got stuck in Ava’s bubble, and it could only end badly for her because of that.

Ava started to show some signs of humanity when she was in that Russian hospital, and eventually helped Jason escape from there, not having any idea who he was. Back in Port Charles though, she pretty much reverted to form… at least until the new Nikolas showed up. And she’s been good with Trina too, surprisingly enough.

I’m glad to see that it wasn’t the heat that got to you but other than that, I beg to differ. Ava is/was a fantastic character after we got past that horrific time when she framed AJ. AJ will always be one of my favs so I hated her for that. And I blame Sonny more for killing him. But I digress…

I hated Kiki but for different reasons. It’s BECAUSE I loved/love Ava so much that I couldn’t stomach Kiki. Like the rest of the town who forgives Snarly for everything and turns their backs on their own parents while kissing the arses of Sonny and Carly, Kiki KNEW that Sonny wanted to kill Ava and that Carly hated her guts; they were her mother’s mortal enemies. And while it was true that Ava switched out Morgan’s pills, she wasn’t responsible for, nor did she want, Morgan’s death. She actually was trying to steer Kiki away from Morgan for her own good. She wanted her to date Dillon, who she thought could give her a better life. And Kiki had no leg to stand on; she AND Morgan switched “Mikey’s” pills when he had custody of Avery. My point being…she sided with the Snarlys and helped them keep Avery from Ava. Ava practically had to beg her to let her hold Avery if Kiki was taking her to the park. And later, she took Griffin from Ava within seconds of Ava “breaking up with Griffin.” And why did she break up with Griffin? For the umpteenth time Kiki had found comfort in Griffin’s arms, this time in her bra.

So, Kiki having a room in your basement apartment would be okay by me. But it tortured Ava; and it was way out of character for Nicolas to hurt someone like that.

Satan,
If anyone would know it would be you. Wasn’t Helena’s daughter the girl in white that Holly’s son fell in love with and tried to rescue from Windemere but Helena found her and ultimately shot and killed her?

I’ll tell you what happened to Victor Cassadine, Ron Carlivati happened, yep yep, the same guy who made Alexandria Devane a cartoon villain on GH, when in fact she was a heroine on AMC, one who helped Anna get back on her feet, yet the GH Alex was turn into the stereotypical cartoon characters that Ron was so infamous for at GH.

Ron was dismissed as head writer in 2015. Alex was reintroduced to GH in 2017. Jean & Shelley (and later Chris) were writing at that time.

Not Ron’s biggest fan – but on this one he’s not to blame.

Certainly true of the first Victor return in 2014. And ReRon’s take on Stavros was a complete cartoonish embarrassment.

AMC never really aired in Hell, so I’ll have to take your word on the Alex Devane stuff.

I don’t remember Victor working with Luke and Robert against Mikkos. Robert disliked Victor as I recall because his men killed O’Reilly.

I’ll always remember Charles Shaughnessy as Mr. Sheffield on The Nanny, so when I heard he was being cast as the new Victor Cassadine, I was skeptical. On paper, I don’t see him being a fit for the role. It’s really a shame that Thaao Penghlis couldn’t reprise the role. But I don’t know if he was asked or even available with the new Days project he’s working on.

So we move forward. Charles is a wonderful actor, and if anyone can pull this off, he certainly can. I’ll be interested to see what they have planned.

I just wonder what explanation they have for Victor being alive. The last time we saw him he had been shot in the chest, and was laying on the floor dying as the Crighton Clark facility blew up. I know it’s soaps, and anyone can come back from the dead, and we accept that as part of the deal. But they’re really gonna need to dig into the script bag for an explanation for this one, lol.

How about the explanation of Peter still being alive after BOTH a doctor and a nurse, two highly trained medical professionals who have been in the field for decades, pronounced Peter dead and locked him in a freezer? Soap deaths don’t mean anything anymore.

The show has gone quite a bit overboard with RFD storylines recently:

Peter
Drew
Victor

Could also count Sonny as even though viewers know he’s alive, 99% of Port Charles thinks he’s dead.

Just as long as Morgan remains dead, I can accept all of the above.

Steve,
I could stand that punk Morgan come back than for instance Nell or Peter when TPTB finally decide enough is enough.

We know Morgan isn’t dead, for the same reason we knew Drew wasn’t dead. No body, no death. This also should have applied to Sonny, obviously. Seems ridiculous that everybody jumped to conclusions and wrote him off as “dead” so soon. Or for that matter, that Jax dismissed the fact that he saw Sonny in Tricky Dick Nixon Falls as some sort of “hallucination” – from a minor flesh wound in his shoulder??? (months later, he finally seems to realize that wasn’t a hallucination after all, because of Sonny’s Magic Pasta Sauce making appearances in Port Charles)

Victor was shot and in a burning building, so that looks bad on the surface… but hey, he’s a Cassadine, and they aren’t easy to kill.

Whiny Heiny was dead. He was literally in Hell! I’ll be eternally damned if I know how he escaped.

But back to Morgan…. we’ll definitely see him eventually. But I’m guessing that’s going to be a while down the road. Sonny & Drew’s returns are going to stir up the canvas enough for the immediate future. And yeah, Nelle’s still out there somewhere too. Don’t be surprised if she and Morgan come back together. If Morgan can go BiPolar just like his dad, maybe he can get amnesia just like his dad too? And Nelle might not know who her mom actually is, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t act just like Nina… and manipulate an amnesiac Morgan for her own purposes.

I’d love to see Julian and AJ return from the dead; I wouldn’t care how they explained it. As for the others? Then, too, I usually enjoy it. Part of the soapy genre where anything can happen. There are some characters who are alive who I don’t want to see back; like Hayden. Or others I’d like to see gone, like Phyllis, Stella and Gladys. Sigh…

Julian told me he’s happy in Hell. Why? Because his crazy sisters aren’t here (yet).

Ava? Crazy? Naaaa; 😉 Still love her. Will DeVry is over on Twitter, though, and I think he’d like to see Julian return from the dead. He said he’d never come back to the show, yet he watches it and gives commentary. THAT’s dedication! I have no idea what the writers were smoking when they had the ingenious, not, idea to kill Julian off. But, hey, we got Phyllis and Gladys! How much more must-see TV can it get than that! Sigh.

I miss sexy Will, rebecca1. Huge mistake icing Julian Jerome. And don’t get me started on Gladys! What is the POINT of that character except to stir the pot at every opportunity and be as irritating as sandpaper on a wound? I liked Phyllis at first but now it seems like she just enables selfish behavior from “Mike” and, especially, Nina. And don’t forget the fabulous T. J., “mysterious” Austin, disastrous recasts of Drew and Spencer, evil Esme (Kiki’s twin?), and that ridiculous Novak family. It’s like watching a really bad ripoff of THE GODFATHER.

Well, Victor Cassadine has been heading the WSB for years now (how and why that happened, we still don’t know) so that’s familiar territory for Charles, who was playing ISA superspy Shane Donovan since the early 1980s. And of course, since he knows Thaao Penghlis from working with him on Days all of those years, it’s not much of a stretch to think he might have consulted with him on how to play the role of Victor Cassadine?

As far as explanations….. fugeddabout it….. you should know by now that Cassadines are really hard to kill. A simple gun shot in a burning building?? That’s nothing. Especially when you have much lesser characters who fell down a flight of stairs, broke their neck, were pronounced dead by a doctor and a nurse, locked in a freezer and are somehow up walking around anyway.

I love this actor and am looking forward to seeing him play Victor Cassadine. I hope they make him a grey character like Valentine and not pure evil.

General Hospital

‘General Hospital’s’ Dominic Zamprogna Shares He Was ‘Happy to Hear’ of The Triangle Storyline Developing Between Dante/Elizabeth/Ric

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Dominic Zamprogna

General Hospital’s Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri) opened up about the burgeoning love triangle forming between his Port Charles alter-go, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) and Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) after recently aired scenes, plus his hopes for the future of a Dante and Liz pairing, during his appearance on the Sunday, April 23 edition of the That’s Awesome podcast with Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli).

On last week’s episodes of GH, Ric has made the decision that he wanted to propose to his ex-wife, only when he showed up at Elizabeth’s front door, he misread the scenario he walked in with Liz tending to Dante’s injured leg from the softball game. From there, the legal eagle’s jealous streak is reemerging which may cause him to act out and do something unforgivable, or will he take the high road? Stay tuned.

Speaking with Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson about where Elizabeth stands in the annals of the long-running soap, Zamprogna said, “She’s up there with Steve and Maurice (Maurice Benard) as one of the most legacy-filled people on the show.”

Courtesy/ABC

HOW DANTE AND ELIZABETH CAME ABOUT

Dominic jokes it’s a far cry for where Dante and Elizabeth previously, recalling, “We had some scenes together years ago and we were both laughing. Becky’s like, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going be paired up anytime soon.’ I remember we laughed immediately after they yelled ‘cut,”‘and said to each other, ‘Well, so much for that!'”

Fast-forward to early 2025 and as Zamprogna remembered it, “Elizabeth Korte (co-head writer, GH) came up to me at the General Hospital Christmas party, and I think it was a year and a half ago and she said, ‘We’re going to have you in scenes with Elizabeth,’ My internal monologue is going, ‘I’m not with Lulu (Alexa Havins) anymore and Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) gone, so maybe they want to see if this works.’ I didn’t want to get scenes with Becky and try to find the chemistry. I just wanted to play whatever honestly was written and came across for both of us and hope it was what people liked, and I don’t know if it is … or not.”

Knowing how beloved Elizabeth is to the GH faithfuls, Zamprogna added, “She got a big fan base with Ric … and a big fan base with with Jason … and you know, you’re going to piss somebody off. But, didn’t Ric drug Elizabeth and put Carly in a panic room?”

Dom and Liz

Photo: ABC

DANTE AND ELIZABETH PAIRING COULD STIR UP STORY FOR OTHERS IN PORT CHARLES

In closing, Dominic felt that the wide-reaching tentacles of a Dante and Elizabeth relationship is something he is 100% down for. “The triangle thing; I was happy to hear it was with Ric and her, because I felt it’s important to have her the top of it as opposed to Dante, Lulu and Elizabeth.”

Zamprogna added, “When you get into relationships on a soap, things seem to fizzle out a little bit, The buildup is what’s the fun part, and the getting to know each other, and the people who are affected by this coming together. When with this case it’s going to affect: Ric, Sonny, Lulu. There’s so much more story here. To me, it’s going to be a fun story to play.”

You can check out Dominic’s visit to That’s Awesome with Steve and Bradford below.

Now weigh-in: Are you rooting for Dante and Liz, or Dante and Ric at this juncture of the story, or neither guy  for Elizabeth? Let us know your thoughts and picks via the comment section.

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GH and OLTL Alum Patrick J. Gibbons Reveals the Story Behind Writing Trina’s Song on ‘General Hospital’ (Exclusive)

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Patrick J. Gibbons

At the conclusion of today’s August 21 episode of General Hospital, Trina Robinson (Tabyana Ali) sings a lullaby to baby Dez, that went into a montage to close out the episode as her father Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) reports to Pentonville and winds up in his jail cell.

However, in a fun fact, the song entitled, “A Lonely Heart To Give” was actually written by none other than former One Life to Live and General Hospital actor, Patrick J. Gibbons.

Daytime fans first met Gibbons as Sam Manning on One Life to Live. At the time, when he started on the soap, he was just 5-years-old. Gibbons played the part from 2010-2013 on ABC and Prospect Park’s editions of the show. Fast-forward to 2018, Gibbons shows up on General Hospital as Wyatt Hoover, the scout who seemed always be injured, but in the thick of the drama. Patrick had appeared on GH multiple times as Wyatt including: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.

Photo: ABC

FROM HIS GRANDMOTHER’S DEATH CAME THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS SONG

Now in 2026, General Hospital fans are getting to learn about another side of Gibbons’ talent as a songwriter and guitar player after “A Lonely Heart to Give” debuted today! Michael Fairman TV caught up with Patrick, who is now a senior at Penn State entering his final year as a finance major, to get the back-story of how his song wound up on GH!

Gibbons explained he wrote the song in honor of his grandmother who passed away a few years ago with whom he was, very, very close with. “Randomly, my grandmother had a downfall and passed away during the second semester of my sophomore year. I was in my dorm a lot and I was just playing with my guitar. And at the time, I was really into finger-style playing. I wrote the lyric and music to it (with a little help from my guitar teacher Lou), and my mom showed the rough demo to Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital). He’s like an uncle to me. Frank loved it so much he said, “Finish that up. I want to hear the whole thing, and I want it on the show.”

MAKING MUSIC FOR GENERAL HOSPITAL

Gibbons and his parents took the next steps! “So now, all we needed was a female voice, because I thought that would fit the song well,” Patrick shared. “At the golf club we go to my parents were at a dinner. They liked the singer that was performing and spoke to her about the song, and she says she would like to bring it to her ‘boss’ who ended up being Eric Bazilian of the Hooters fame!” (Bazilian also wrote the smash hit song “One of Us” for Joan Osborne).

Next, “We went in the studio and recorded it and the song came together and it was beautiful. We loved it. They loved it at General Hospital and now they’re putting it the show and they are coming in with a piano, instead of a guitar. Paul Glass, the GH musical director, has been keeping us updated over the last six months of how it was coming along, and when it would air, and how GH put their own arrangement to it. I can’t wait to see and hear what they did with it.”

Photo: JPI

PATRICK’S ONE LIFE TO LIVE FAMILY

Everyone knows that the One Life to Live extended family share a very tight bond, and Patrick said he does stay in touch with a few of his former One Life to Live co-stars, especially those from the Manning family! “I stayed in touch with Kassie DePaiva (ex-Blair) and sent her little videos here and there. She was like my second mom for five years. We keep in contact with Kristen Alderson (ex-Starr) over X the most, and she can’t believe how big I’ve gotten. Like, none of them can! (laughs). I also loved working with Roger Howarth (ex-Todd) and Trevor St. John (ex-Todd and Victor Jr.), and to me since I was so young, they were just my friends, ‘Roger and Trevor,’ not Todd Manning or Victor Jr.”

It was a trip to California and a visit to Port Charles that ultimately led to Gibbons second soap role of Wyatt Hoover. Patrick explains, “In 2016, Frank Valentini invited us out to Los Angeles to visit the set of General Hospital. I think he heard me say, ‘This is so much fun. I miss being on the set.’ He goes, ‘You should come out. I’ll bring you on the show. We can make you a character.'”

A few years later, Patrick’s dream became a reality! “Then, by the summer of 2018, I was playing Wyatt, the scout, and shared scenes with Wes Ramsey (Peter August), and the best was when I shared a scene with Roger Howarth and Michael Easton (ex-John, OLTL and ex-Silas, Finn et al, GH), it was like chemistry from the old days.”

Photo: PGibbons

IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS

As to his future aspirations, it’s a career in the finance game that has piqued Gibbons’ real-life interest. But never say never to a return to acting. Patrick explained, “I’ve always enjoyed numbers. And on top of that, one of the biggest parts of finance is being personable and outgoing.”

He continued, “That’s one of the greatest skills I developed growing up. I really love the markets. I’m super interested. I’m never going to close the door to acting. I’m always open to that because I just love it so much. It’s such a great art.”

Take note! If there are any investment bankers or private equity folks among the GH faithful looking for a young analyst next year, Patrick’s DMs are open. You can find him on X at @PatrickJGibbons.

So, what did you think of the song sung by Trina on today’s GH that was written by Patrick J. Gibbons? Did you enjoy Patrick’s performances as One Life’s Sam and GH’s Wyatt? Would you like to see him back on GH at some point? Let us know via the comment section.

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‘General Hospital’ Alum Chad Duell Admits That He Didn’t Expect the Role of Michael Corinthos to be Recast, and Would Consider Working on Another Soap (Exclusive)

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Chad Duell, the Daytime Emmy-winning actor, who stepped away from the pivotal role of Michael Corinthos on General Hospital, opened up about: his previous decision to leave the series after nearly 15 years, where’s he’s at now after time away from the demands of a daytime soap opera, and took a stroll down memory lane with some of Michael’s most-acclaimed storyline during his run, during a livestream chat on August 19 on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel.

Viewers last saw Duell on-screen as Michael in January of 2025, and with his successor in the role, Rory Gibson making his debut at the GH Nurses’ Ball in episodes that aired later in May. It was clear that during the conversation, Chad was a bit surprised that the GH brass decided to recast him when he thought he was just taking some much needed time off.

Burn-out of the daily grind of being on a soap was definitely a part of Chad’s decision to take a break. Duell explained “People know when you’re doing something for so long or your character is kind of in the same place for so long or doing the same stuff over and over again, you do get a a little burnt out, you get a little stiff, stale, a little stiff at times. I didn’t want that to be any sort of lasting impression. I have 15 years of a body of work of I’ve done on that show, which is fantastic.”

Chad Duell

Photo: ABC

WHILE CHAD WAS AWAY GH RECAST MICHAEL CORINTHOS WITH RORY GIBSON

Chad shared, his mindset when leaving GH was, “I’m taking some time away, we’ll see what happens.” Then he added, “Obviously, they decided to go in a different direction with Michael when I was gone. I didn’t think they were going to bring somebody back in my place. But you know, it’s the business. You never know what can happen.”

Duell also shared he has not watched a single episode of General Hospital since he left the series, but now feels he reenergized following the loss of his father and stepping away from the GH, “I’m in a place now mentally, where I’m ready to sink my teeth into it again.”

Courtesy/ABC

Even though he is no longer Michael on GH, Chad was very happy with his final storyline where Michael was set on fire when a bomb exploded at Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) penthouse. “It was fun to put him in a dangerous situation, because I was wanting Michael to be in something scary instead of trying to be a hero character or just things happening around him, but to be the center point of tragedy happening to him. (I always saw) Michael as the heart of the (Corinthos) family.”

When Michael was badly burned the show chose not burn his face, which normally a soap does when they are recasting role and switching actors. Chad weighed-in, “They didn’t burn my face because I told Frank Valentini (EP, GH) I’m willing to come back. It was just a little bit of a break. So, I assumed that if they would have burned my face, they could have brought somebody back looking different than me… if that’s what their plan was.”

Courtesy/ABC

MEMORABLE MICHAEL STORYLINES

One of Chad’s most memorable performances was the in the storyline of Michael’s rape while he was sentenced to prison in 2010 and the confession of it in 2011. “It was so well-written and I was very nervous,” recalled Chad. “When I get really nervous about something, it ends up being really good when I do it, because it just means I care a lot about it”

“I have to put a lot of effort and work into it, and I really want it to be good.  I was working with Dominic  Zamprogna (Dante) and Steve Burton (Jason) a lot during those scenes, and Laura Wright (Carly). It was great working with Steve and Dominic, especially, during that storyline.

A NEW SOAP ROLE FOR CHAD?

As to a future soap opera role, Chad is open to the idea and would love to jump back in to a juicy role, “I know people over at The Bold and the Beautiful, and The Young and the Restless. They know that if they’re interested, I would love to come in for a screen test or something, and they can see what I’m doing.”

Meanwhile, Chad has been busy putting out new music under the moniker Duelly and during the interview he explains how he creates his EDM tracks and much more. You can stream his latest single, Static in the Quiet Room on Spotify, Apple Music and You Tube Music.

You can check out the full conversation with Chad Duell below.

Now let us know: what show would you like to see Chad cast on down the line? BTG, DAYS, B&B, Y&R, or a new role on GH? What did you think of his thoughts on the casting switch while he was away in the role of Michael? What was your favorite Michael storyline during Chad’s 15-year run on the ABC soap opera? Let us know via the comment section.

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