Exclusive Interview: General Hospital’s Wally Kurth Takes Ned Back To The Beginning

Soap fans have been seeing a whole lot of Wally Kurth on their daytime screens of late. Just on Tuesday, we had Justin Kiriakis on Days of Our Lives pull a gun on Orpheus and threaten to kill him (a very un-Justin-like thing to do). Soon after on General Hospital, Kurth revived Eddie Maine in a classic Nurses Ball episode singing Meatloaf’s You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth.

Wally Kurth On Ned’s Life Goal

However, before there was an Eddie Maine, there was a Ned Ashton who yeared to be a part of the Quartermaine family business, ELQ, and found himself in a cutthroat to get there. The more things change, the more they stay the same and that is music to Kurth’s ears.

“Thirty years ago when I joined General Hospital, I was being groomed to take over ELQ,” Kurth tells Soap Hub. “Now, of course, I am [the] temporary [CEO] of ELQ. “Now you see [the writers] getting back into ‘Like you know what, maybe it’s time for me to take over.’

“There was a big part of Ned 30 years ago that was very ambitious and he wanted to be the CEO so bad he was going after AJ. He was fighting his grandfather, and obviously his mother, so now he is kind of doing that with Michael.”

And Michael happens to be AJ’s son so Ned (who now uses the surname Quartermaine) really is back at the beginning. However, Kurth thinks his character is capable of being both good and bad in his quest for the Q throne.

“I’d say he’s a good guy, but he’s capable of being a bad guy and he can do stupid things, too. That’s kind of what I like about Ned,” Wally Kurth adds.

Indeed, Ned has done some shady things in recent General Hospital times like take advantage of Michael’s personal problems to claim that ELQ chair. He also got involved with Jim Harvey, thinking it would help boost his mayoral prospects and General Hospital fans all know how that turned out. (Ned won, but Harvey was not the man Ned though he was. When the election had to be held again, Laura came out victorious.)

So, Ned is back to his 1990s self. Of course, we’d like to see Eddie Maine peek out as well, and not just in classic episodes. Let’s see what may come when new installments of GH return. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.