Daniel Goddard Reveals The Shocking Role He Almost Played On General Hospital (Exclusive)
Back in April, former Young and Restless star Daniel Goddard (ex-Cane) joined the Port Charles ranks as Professor Henry Dalton, the shady professor whose top-secret (and seemingly highly illegal) research caught the attention of the WSB — and Emma Scorpio-Drake (Braedyn Bruner). But before he was ever cast on Y&R, he was actively auditioning for jobs on several soaps, one of which was General Hospital. And the role he nearly landed will surprise you!
Character Study
A native of Sydney, Australia, Goddard notched his first soap credit in his home country, playing Eric Phillips on Home and Away from 1995-96, and he went on to star as Dar on the syndicated action drama BeastMaster from 1999-2002, which also filmed in Australia. After making the move to Hollywood, he modeled for top brands like Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana while launching his acting career in the U.S. market. That included making the rounds at various soaps, and meeting with casting directors like Mark Teschner, who has headed up casting at GH since 1989.
It was in 2005 — a full 20 years before he wound up on the show as Dalton — that Goddard was first seriously considered to play a key character on GH. The character in question? Dr. Patrick Drake, which ultimately went to Jason Thompson. Thompson played the role for 10 years, then left the show and landed on Y&R as a recast Billy Abbott, who he still plays to this day. In fact, Goddard and Thompson worked together closely during the period of time they overlapped in Genoa City.
Patrick, a renowned surgeon and son of Noah Drake, played by Rick Springfield in the early 1980s, began as a ladies man, but found true love with Robin Scorpio. They tied the knot in 2008, shortly after the birth of their beloved daughter, Emma — and if the casting had gone a different way, Goddard would have found himself playing the father of the plucky young heroine who has been plotting to take down his character!
“Isn’t that ironic?” grins Goddard. “I read for the role, Jason got cast, and then I got cast over at Y&R within a couple of months of that. So, there’s this bizarre kind of, like, crossover moment, where I’m like, ‘That’s the girl that could have been my daughter if I had been cast in the role that Jason Thompson got!'”
The actor had no hard feelings when he didn’t get the role. “I remember when I went in and read for Mark, sitting in his office and reading the scenes with him, and I kind of felt in a way that I wasn’t right for Patrick when I read it,” he recalls. “I went back twice, but ultimately Jason got it, and to not have gotten the role, I was totally okay with it.”
Role Reversal
Patrick isn’t the only role that got away before he landed at Y&R, as he was also up for two parts on New York-based soaps. “I read for As the World Turns,” he recalls. “I went and tested for that, and it was actually the role that Austin Peck ended up getting,” Brad Snyder. “I also tested for One Life to Live, for the role Forbes March got,” Nash Brennan.
It was the audition for ATWT that led to the role of Cane. Notes Goddard, “That show being CBS, Barbara Bloom, who was running CBS Daytime at the time, then brought me in to meet Lynn Latham [who was then co-head writer and executive producer of Y&R] to read for this character of Cane, so I ended up on Y&R.”
Years later, when Thompson vacated the role of Patrick at the same time the role of Billy Abbott had become available, Goddard had a premonition of sorts. “When I heard they were recasting Billy, Jason had just left GH. I don’t know what it was, but I thought, ‘Oh, Jason is gonna come and play Billy Abbott.’ I just had this feeling about it. And when he got it and I met him in the hallway [at Y&R], I felt like I knew him because I kind of knew the character that he got Patrick Drake. And because I knew the Billy Abbott character really well, I spent a lot of time with Jason, updating him and downloading him on who Billy Abbott was going to be and the relationship that Cane and Billy Abbott had.
“I think that allowed us to kind of connect in a way that sort of just made me go, ‘Jason was meant to get Patrick Drake,'” he continues. “I was glad he got it, and I’ve always lived since that time thinking that everything happens for a reason, especially in the acting world. You get a role because you’re meant to play it, and you don’t get a role because there’s somebody else who’s meant to play it.”
That philosophy certainly seems to apply to the role of ATWT’s Brad, as Peck wound up marrying his on-screen love interest, Terri Conn (ex-Katie). “If Austin wouldn’t have gotten it, then he wouldn’t have gotten married!” Goddard marvels. “I was not meant to get As the World Turns so that Austin would be able to end up falling in love and getting married.”
Conversation
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