In 1973, Denise Alexander (l., pictured with Emily McLaughlin as Jessie Brewer) made her General Hospital debut as Lesley Webber. The actress was already a well-established celebrity in the daytime world, having played the role of Susan Martin on Days of Our Lives starting in 1966. Alexander’s move from DAYS to GH is considered the first major instance of one show “poaching” the star of another. The actress recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2015 that when GH made her a strong financial offer, she consulted with DAYS Executive Producer Betty Corday. “She said to me, ‘You have to do this. They’re offering you four times what we can give you.’ ” Alexander added, “There was a lot of stuff in the trades saying, ‘Oh, [GH offered her the] highest salary ever paid.’ They got it wrong, but there was a big press uproar.”
Photo credit: ABC /Courtesy Everett Collection
In 1992, Robert Kelker-Kelly (pictured with Patsy Pease as Kimberly Brady Donovan) made his Days of Our Lives debut as Bo Brady, succeeding daytime superstar Peter Reckell in the role. Reckell had opted to exit DAYS earlier that year, and the show took a gamble by recasting the character, who was so identified with Reckell. Kelker-Kelly, who had previously appeared on Another World as Sam Fowler, was named the Best Recast of 1992 by Soap Opera Digest, which noted that the actor “seemed born to play the role.” He remained with the show until 1995, when Reckell was lured back to DAYS.
In 2006 on General Hospital, Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) reeled from the realization that her birth mother was none other than Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn). Sam had only recently learned that she was adopted, and she had a strained relationship with Alexis already, so Sam was not initially thrilled by the discovery (and that’s putting it mildly). In time, though, Alexis and Sam forged a close mother/daughter relationship, and Sam also developed strong bonds with Alexis’s other daughters, Kristina and Molly. In 2013, Sam met her birth father, Julian Jerome, and learned that she had another half sibling, Lucas Jones, Julian’s son by the late Cheryl Stansbury, who had been adopted by Bobbie and Tony Jones.
Photo credit: ABC/DANNY FELD
In 2006 on Young and Restless, Lily (Darvetta Sherwood) was desperate to avoid going back to boarding school, insisting that she wasn’t going to go back there or stay with her parents. She begged Daniel (Michael Graziadei) to convince his mother, Phyllis, to let her bunk with them, but Daniel was skeptical that he could get Phyllis on board. Indeed, Phyllis flat-out refused. Meanwhile, Devon warned Neil that trying to make Lily go back to boarding school was only going to make Lily more determined to be with Daniel.
Photo credit: AARON MONTGOMERY/JPI
In 2012, Michael Easton (pictured with Kelly Monaco as Sam McCall) made his General Hospital debut as his former One Life to Live alter ego, John McBain. Due to a legal dispute between ABC and Prospect Park (which had acquired the creative rights to OLTL’s roster of characters), Easton was forced to cease playing McBain on GH the following year, but soon returned to the show in a new role, Silas Clay. When Silas was killed off, Easton returned yet again, this time as Hamilton Finn, who he played until 2024.
