Heavy "General Hospital" actor Gregory Harrison will return to Hallmark after a four-year run on the soap opera
Longtime Hallmark star Gregory Harrison bid farewell to “General Hospital” on May 21, 2024, leaving many of the soap opera’s fans and colleagues bereft. But it turns out their loss is Hallmark fans’ gain.
After years of saying no to soap opera roles, Harrison, 73, agreed to join “General Hospital” in 2020, eager to keep working during the pandemic, according to Deadline. The “Chesapeake Shores” alum became a beloved cast member in the fictional town of Port Charles, playing Gregory Chase, the dad of Michael Easton’s character, Finn.
Nevertheless, Harrison’s exit was “storyline-dictated” by producers and writers, according to Soap Opera Digest. His character died in his sleep of ALS, resulting in a deeply emotional scene on the May 21 episode. While many “General Hospital” fans had hoped for a different outcome, Harrison’s departure has allowed him to return to Hallmark, reuniting with the “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” cast.
Gregory Harrison Has Returned to His Long-Running ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ Role
Though “General Hospital” fans are sad to see Harrison go, the seasoned actor, who first rose to fame on the 80s drama “Trapper John M.D.,” was quick to use his newfound free time to reunite with his “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” family, Hallmark’s longest-running movie franchise.
After a three-year hiatus, the cast reunited in Vancouver in early April to start filming two new movies — “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters,” to be released in 2024, and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Moon and Back,” for a 2025 release.
While it was clear that the core cast of Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe (who plays Rita Haywith Dorman), Kristin Booth (Shane McInerney O’Toole), Eric Mabius (Norman Dorman), and Geoff Gustafson (Oliver O’Toole) were on board to film the movies, written by series creator Martha Williamson, Hallmark didn’t say at the time if supporting cast members would return, too.
But on May 15, Lowe posted a photo that included Harrison, who has long played Oliver’s dad, Joe O’Toole, and captioned it, “The family was all together again @hallmarkmysteriesandmore we can’t wait to share these new movies with all of you. Our hearts are full.”
In addition to his SSD role, Harrison appeared in 16 episodes of the Hallmark series “Chesapeake Shores” between 2017 and 2022, per IMDb, and has been in multiple Hallmark rom-coms since 2014. His most recent was 2021’s “The Nine Kittens of Christmas” with Kimberley Sustad and Brandon Routh.
Gregory Harrison’s TV Granddaughter Writes, ‘I Wish You Didn’t Die’
Many of Harrison’s “General Hospital” colleagues paid tribute to the actor after his character’s final scenes aired. Child star Jophielle Love, who played his granddaughter Violet, shared a particularly heartbreaking post.
She wrote, “Oh Grand’Pa Gregory! I will miss you so very much on GH . And I know Michael@will to! @generalhospitalabc … I wish you didn’t die 😭 You were the best TV Grand Pa! Violet loved you so so much and she is so sad 😞. But as Jophielle, I just have one more Grand’Pa in my life now… ! Love you so much !”
In another tribute on Instagram, Easton called Harrison “one of the finest actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with and an even better human being.”
Josh Sickward, who played Harrison’s other son, told Soap Opera Digest, ““He really felt like a father figure to me in so many ways. Still does. He’s such a good human being. He’s been around the block in life, in Hollywood, and then some, and he’s just a wealth of knowledge. And he’s a humble human being.”
Fans shared their grief over Harrison’s last day on “General Hospital,” too, including one who shared screenshots of his final scene, when Finn found his dad in his bed, and wrote that “Gregory Harrison did a phenomenal job during his time on the show.”
Finn finding his dad today was heartbreaking and then Violet returning home after it all happened
Will miss Gregory Harrison did a phenomenal job during his time on the show
#GH
Someone else wrote on Instagram, “So so sad to see Gregory’s character being written off.😢 Couldn’t his ALS have been a misdiagnoses? He will truly be missed! Not pleased with the GH writers. 😡”
Another fan tweeted, “While I continue to maintain the decision to specifically ‘diagnose’ Gregory with ALS during the writers strike era was a mistake, Gregory Harrison was just marvelous through to the end. I’m glad it ended this way, too instead of months agonizing deterioration. Well done, #GH.”
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Hallmark Star Returning to Network After Exiting ‘General Hospital’