General Hospital Comings & Goings: Mean Girls Star Jonathan Bennett Cast as Joe Fitzpatrick
A familiar face is heading to Port Charles! Jonathan Bennett is joining the cast of General Hospital in the newly created role of Joe Fitzpatrick, and will make his debut on the show in May. Deadline was first to report the news.
The Road to Port Charles
Frank Valentini, the executive producer of GH, enthused in a statement provided to Soap Opera Digest, “We’re so excited to have Jonathan joining our cast. He’s a tremendous talent and will be a fantastic addition to GH.” No further details about the character of Joe and how he fits into the canvas are being revealed at this time.
The Ohio-born actor made his television debut in 2001 on All My Children, playing the role of J.R. Chandler, who would later be played by GH alum Jacob Young (ex-Lucky). Bennett checked out of Pine Valley in 2002, and soon landed his breakout role as Aaron Samuels in the 2004 smash hit Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan (ex-Alli, Another World). “It was the biggest blessing in the world,” he told Soap Opera Digest in 2017. “I owe everything in my career and everything in my life, pretty much, to [Writer] Tina Fey, [Producer] Lorne Michaels and [Director] Mark Waters.”
After the success of Mean Girls, Bennett continued to work steadily, most notably starring in seven movies for the Hallmark Channel and hosting and producing the network’s reality competition show Finding Mr. Christmas, as well as hosting a variety of shows for the Food Network (Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Halloween Wars). He appeared as a contestant on Season 19 of Dancing with the Stars, where he was partnered with pro Allison Holker and placed 9th, and competed on the second season of Celebrity Big Brother in 2019, where he was first houseguest to be evicted. Bennett also starred on Broadway in Spamalot.
On AMC, Bennett’s J.R. was the son of Adam Chandler, played by late daytime icon David Canary, and Dixie Cooney Martin (Cady McClain). “The first day you work with David Canary, when he is playing Adam Chandler and he yells at you for the first time, is intimidating,” Bennett admitted to Digest, praising Canary as “absolutely the best to work with. He brought up everyone in the scene around him because he was so talented. When you would be on set working with him, your level of talent would rise because he was so good.” His sister on the show, Hayley, was played by Kelly Ripa, who Bennett declared to be “the funniest person I have ever met.”
Bennett and his husband, TV personality Jaymes Vaughan, got married in March 2022 and were the first gay couple to appear on the cover of the wedding-themed magazine The Knot.
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