General Hospital’s Kevin Returns! Jon Lindstrom Is Back In Port Charles After Year-Long Absence
Kevin Collins is coming home on General Hospital! The preview of the Tuesday, December 2 episode that aired at the end of Monday’s episode revealed that Jon Lindstrom will be reprising the role of Laura’s (Genie Francis) psychiatrist husband, who has been MIA on-screen for the past year while the Daytime Emmy-nominated actor has been busy with his other daytime gig, portraying the nefarious Joey Armstrong on Beyond the Gates.
The Doctor Is In
It was announced back in February that Lindstrom — along with his real-life ex and fellow daytime vet, Cady McClain — had been tapped by their longtime friend, Michele Val Jean, to join the cast of BTG, Lindstrom as Joey and McClain as Pamela. Val Jean created the show and serves as its showrunner and head writer. During her time as a member of GH’s writing team, she was also pivotal to the creation of Kevin, introduced in 1993 as the twin brother of psycho serial killer/pediatrician Ryan Chamberlain, also played by Lindstrom. Lindstrom explained to Soap Opera Digest in 2021, “The character was created out of necessity to, at that time, replace Ryan with someone who looked like me and who didn’t need to be redeemed, since Ryan was unredeemable. [Then-Head Writer] Claire Labine threw Michele the reins and then she and I talked a lot about what ways Kevin could be differentiated from Ryan. Michele is an incredibly articulate, well-read person. I think Kevin’s syntax, the way he speaks, never would have developed clearly without her.”
Ryan was killed off — or so it seemed — in 1995, but Kevin continued to flourish, entering into a long-running and popular pairing with Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) that served as a foundation on Port Charles, the half-hour GH spin-off that aired on ABC from 1997-2003. Lindstrom went on to play Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns before heading back to GH in 2013, the year the show marked its 50th anniversary. Lindstrom noted to Digest in 2021, “It was presented [as] as a short-lived thing: ‘Hey, would you like to come back for the 50th? It’s no big deal, everybody’s doing it just to mark the occasion.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, why not, I’ll do it!’ [Then] one day, Frank [Valentini, executive producer] stopped me in the hallway and said, ‘Are you enjoying being here? Because we’d like to write some things for you.’ I said, ‘I’ve always enjoyed being here. I like this gig. So, if you want to use me, go right ahead!’”
Lindstrom did indeed stay for the long-term, and Kevin found lasting love with Laura, his wife since 2017. Their union even survived the resurrection of Ryan, who died again — seemingly for good — in 2023. But because BTG shoots in Atlanta, Lindstrom has not been able to pull double duty on both shows, and while Laura has mentioned her husband from time to time, he has not been on screen since December 2024.
Are you looking forward to seeing Kevin again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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