Daniel Goddard Teases General Hospital Reunion With Former Young and Restless Mom Genie Francis
This past April, Daniel Goddard joined the cast of General Hospital as Professor Henry Dalton, the shady educator of interest to the WSB. And though it’s taken some months for their paths to cross, Goddard revealed on Instagram that he has finally gotten to share the stage with Port Charles legend Genie Francis (Laura) — who actually played his mom on Young and Restless!
The Mother Lode
In his previous daytime life, Goddard originated the role of Cane Ashby on Y&R, which is now played by Billy Flynn. Goddard portrayed Cane from 2007-19, and over the course of his run, he had the privilege of playing the son of not one but two GH luminaries! Francis played Cane’s mother, Genevieve Atkinson, from 2011-12, while the late Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio on GH) played Cane’s rakish father, Colin Atkinson. Rogers, who passed away in August from lung cancer, came aboard as Colin in 2010, left in 2012, returned from 2014-17 and made more appearances in 2019 and 2025.
Last spring, several episodes into his run, Goddard shared with Digest how eager he was to bump into Francis in the GH hallways. “I still haven’t seen her!” he lamented. “Ironically, I texted her prior to getting the job, and I said, ‘Hey, I went to GH and read [for a role].’ I actually saw her on the monitor [which shows the feed from the studio floor] and I took a picture of it and I said, ‘Hey, guess who I saw while I was over at GH?’ So we had a nice little chat [over text]. I would look forward to having scenes with her! Hopefully, Frank [Valentini, GH’s executive producer] will let me just ad-lib a line when I see her, something like, ‘Hey, have we met? I feel like I know you.’ Just something, even a look between us, where if you watched Y&R, you’d get a kick out of it, and if you didn’t watch Y&R, you’d go, ‘What’s going on between the two of them?’ I think that sort of stuff makes everything more interesting.”
While we don’t know if Goddard’s desire for a wink to the Y&R audience was fulfilled, we do know that he got to spend some quality time with his one-time TV mom when Dalton and Laura share scenes together. Goddard took a selfie with Francis and posted it to his social media, cheering, “Reunited and it feels so good. 💫”
He went on to praise Francis, writing, “Genie Francis — a true TV legend — was my TV mom on The Young and the Restless, and now I have the honor and fortune of working with her again on General Hospital. Only this time… maybe she’s my nemesis? 👀”
In the current storyline, Goddard’s character, Dalton, was recently confirmed to be in cahoots with baddie Jenz Sidwell, and is working with him on a mystery project that simply cannot be good, as it appears that it’s a continuation of work begun by the late supervillain Cesar Faison. Faison was no friend of Laura’s — and neither is Sidwell. And after the recent, somewhat threatening visit Sidwell paid to Laura’s office, Mayor Collins is more determined than ever to protect her beloved city from whatever his ill intentions are. Will Dalton end up becoming an ally or a hindrance to Laura’s efforts remains to be seen!
Conversation
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