You won’t find Salem or Port Charles on a map, but that hasn’t stopped these fan-favorite performers from upping sticks and trading General Hospital’s upstate New York burg for Days of our Lives’ nebulous Midwestern environs.
Days of our Lives Transplants
Some of them became household names, synonymous with their DAYS alter-ego. Some of them made waves and lasting impressions but eventually migrated back home. Here’s your list of stars who started their careers on General Hospital before making the switch to Days of our Lives.
Denise Alexander
What programing executive Armand Grant wanted was a daily medical anthology titled Emergency Hospital. What he got, was a continuing medical serial called General Hospital. All that remains of the initial concept is a rarely seen proto pilot featuring Denise Alexander as an injured teenager named Kathy.
Alexander briefly joined the GH cast in 1965 as Lorna Hill, but she became a household name thanks to the seven years she spent sinning and suffering as Days of our Lives’ Susan Hunter.
In 1973, amidst delicate contract negotiations with the NBC soap, Alexander chose to vacate the part and return to her old stomping grounds at GH. Just as she had at DAYS, Alexander played a pivotal leading lady and for the next 13 years, Dr. Lesley Webber would find herself the nucleus of multiple plot points.
Charles Shaughnessy
Though the dashing Brit is undoubtedly remembered for his turn as Days of our Lives Shane Donovan — soapdom’s answer to James Bond — Shaughnessy’s daytime debut came courtesy of General Hospital, where he played Alistair Durban. Unlike do-gooder Shane, who always got his man, bumbling con-man Alistair never met a man — or woman — he didn’t consider a potential mark. Now he’s back in Port Charles as Victor Cassadine.
Thaao Penghlis
Penghlis originated the role of that same Victor Cassadine, one of General Hospital’s maddest and baddest before joining the cast of Days of our Lives in the role of Gothic hero Tony DiMera. He returned briefly as Victor many years later but now is firmly back in Salem.
Jane Elliot
On GH, Elliot played acid-tongued maneater Tracy Quartermaine, and on DAYS she played Anjelica Deveraux…an acid-tongued maneater. Among Anjelica’s conquests was Wally Kurth’s Justin Kiriakis, ironic considering the two would later be reunited on GH as a mother/son duo!
Genie Francis
Like Elliot, Francis must have experienced a severe case of déjà vu during her DAYS stint. Her Diana Colville, much like Laura Spencer, had a habit of undertaking high-flying adventures in far-flung places.
Ian Buchanan
On GH, Buchanan was Duke Lavery, the debonair Scottish mobster who lost his heart to English Rose Anna Devane. His DAYS alter-ego, smarmy Ian McAllister, had zero redeeming qualities, and few tears were shed when he was carted off to prison.
Lynn Herring
Herring had a good thing going for her at GH, where she played opportunistic firecracker Lucy Coe — but she gave it all up, momentarily anyway, to join the rank and file over at DAYS where her ever-loving hubby Wayne Northrop toiled as Roman Brady. In one of their few shared scenes, he got to empty the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag on her head!
Natalia Livingston
When poor put-upon Emily Quartermaine met her maker on General Hospital, Livingston found temporary employment on Days of our Lives as Taylor Walker.
Tamara Braun
Braun was the second actress to play GH’s Carly Roberts Corinthos, and the second actress to play DAYS’ Taylor Walker. Both before and after that stint, Braun assumed the role of mob princess Ava Vitali.
Robin Mattson
Mattson raised holy hell during her tenure as General Hospital’s Heather Webber, but her Days of our Lives character was a whole other level of evil. Lee Michaels, a white-collar criminal, was the co-head of a murderous organ harvesting ring operating inside Statesville Prison. When Jennifer Rose Horton Deveraux ran afoul of the group, Lee arranged for her heart to be ripped from her chest!
Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest that’s been posted on DAYS spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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