All My Children: James Patrick Stuart Joins General Hospital on ABC

James Patrick Stuart is returning to daytime TV after 24 years. The actor played Will “Cooney” Cortlandt/Justin Carrier from 1989 to 1992, on ABC‘s cancelled soap opera, All My Children (AMC). Soap Opera Digest reports Stuart is headed to General Hospital (GH), also on ABC. Expect Stuart’s episodes to start airing in July. No details have been released about his character. The actor’s father is Chad Stuart, one half of the 1960s English folk rock duo, Chad and Jeremy, of “Yesterday’s Gone,” fame.

All My Children was cancelled by ABC in 2011 along with the One Life to Live soap opera, when the alphabet network licensed the shows to Prospect Park. The production company launched a web channel, The Online Network (TOLN) and revived both daytime dramas briefly, beginning on April 29, 2013, with 30-minute episodes available on Hulu and iTunes. Lawsuits followed and production on both series was suspended. On November 11, 2013, cast members announced online that All My Children had again been cancelled. AMC and OLTL were the last American broadcast network soap operas shot in New York.

As a child actor, Stuart played Dr. Zee on the Galactica 1980  TV series (credited as Patrick Stuart). The short-lived spin-off to the original Battlestar Galactica TV series ran for one season of ten episodes, before being cancelled by ABC. The Galactica 1980 cast also included: Lorne Greene, Kent McCord, Barry Van Dyke, Robyn Douglass, Herb Jefferson Jr., and Fred Holliday.

In 1998, Stuart was cast in The Simple Life TV series sitcom (not the cancelled Nicole Richie/Paris Hilton reality show) starring Judith Light as Sara Lipschitz Campbell, a Martha Stewart-type. It ran for seven episodes in the summer of ’98, before being cancelled by CBS.

Stuart played Claude Bertrand in the 1998 sitcom Encore! Encore!, starring Nathan Lane as opera star Joseph Pinoni. NBC originally ordered a 13 episode season, but only 11 were produced. The peacock network pulled the show from the schedule after four episodes, then burned off the remaining episodes in December and January.

Stuart’s next series regular role was as Keith, on Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which aired from 2002 to 2003, and was cancelled by FOX after two short seasons, totaling 19 episodes. Set in Chicago, the series featured Richter as an aspiring writer. Keith was his best friend and co-worker. The cast also included: Paget Brewster, Irene Molloy, and Jonathan Slavin.

Stuart played Midas O’Shay on Emily’s Reasons Why Not (2006) starring Heather Graham, which was famously cancelled after only one heavily-promoted episode (of seven produced) aired.

Stuart’s recurring roles include Attorney Adam Matthews on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003-05); Perry on Still Standing (2004-06); Deputy D.A. Garnett on The Closer (2006-09); Charles Clark on 90210 (2008-09); Dick Roman on Supernatural (2011-12).

He has also done voice work on many animated series, most recently The Penguins of Madagascar TV show on Nickelodeon.

What do you think? Do you remember James Patrick Stuart on All My Children? Did you watch him on any of his other shows? What kind of a character should he play on General Hospital?