‘General Hospital’: Franco’s True Fate Revealed by Roger Howarth Following Fan Outcry
Over the years, General Hospital has changed Franco Baldwin from a reviled crime-prone antagonist to a character that now resonates with many fans. Because of this, a lot of fans were shocked to see Franco’s apparent death recently on the show. Roger Howarth, who currently plays the character, spoke about his fate in a recent interview.
Who is Franco on ‘General Hospital’ and who has portrayed him?
James Franco, joined the show in 2009 when he was one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood at the time. He specifically. sought out a soap opera role. Sharing the same agent with Steve Burton, who plays Jason Morgan on General Hospital, he decided to pursue a role on the show. He initially signed on for 20 episodes and was credited as a “special guest star.” Those 20 episodes were filmed in just three days.
The actor appeared from late 2009 to early 2010, he then returned for a summer run a few months later. He also reappeared in February 2011 for a couple of episodes to coincide with the actor’s Academy Awards hosting gig. The last time he played the character was a run on the show from September 2011 to January 2012.
The character was first introduced as an artist who was a murder and sociopath and he was created with Franco (the actor) and General Hospital‘s writers. “I wanted their full treatment, so all I said was that I wanted to be an artist and I wanted my character to be crazy,” he said to The New Yorker at the time.
The character was seemingly killed by Jason, however, he turned up alive and with a new face, portrayed by Roger Howarth, known for playing Todd Manning on One Life to Live.
Is Franco dead on ‘General Hospital’?
While Franco is still a sort of menacing character, most of his wrongdoings are retconned after Howarth is in the role.
The show reveals that Franco had a brain tumor which altered his personality and the reason why he did all of his prior atrocities. After being someone with not huge ties to the canvas, he is also revealed to be the child of legacy characters Heather Webber and Scott Baldwin.
On the show recently, Franco was shot and apparently killed by Peter August (Wes Ramsey).
While General Hospital isn’t saying anything specific about what they will do with the character after what just happened with the storyline, Howarth has confirmed that he is still with the show and is not going anywhere right now.
The actor will be off of viewers’ screens for a while but will be coming back after a period of time. He told Soap Opera Digest, “I’m really excited. I have great faith in the people who think of these things. I’ve been in good hands so far.”
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC.
