Young And Restless Alum Daniel Goddard Joins General Hospital!
Daniel Goddard, who is best known to daytime fans for playing Cane Ashby on Young and Restless, on which he aired from 2007-2019 (with a brief break in 2011), is joining General Hospital in the role of Professor Henry Dalton, the mysterious environmental physics professor the WSB is investigating. TV Insider, which was the first to report the news of the actor’s hiring, also shared that viewers can first expect to see the actor on GH on Tuesday, April 15.
Coming Around Again
In an interview with the outlet, Goddard explained that he hadn’t been focusing on acting in the years since his Genoa City departure, but late last year, he was contacted out of the blue by his former talent manager, Michael Bruno, who thought the Australian actor would be a good fit for the newly vacant role of Jack Brennan, originally played by Charles Mesure. Goddard agreed to let Bruno submit him for the part, but confessed that with so much time having passed since his last audition, “It was a bizarre experience for me. You feel like, in a way, you’re going back to ground zero, back to the beginning of it all, even though you’ve been on a different soap opera for, like, 15 years. It was humbling, but it was more of an awakening, and in that moment, I felt extraordinarily vulnerable.”
Goddard didn’t land the role — Chris McKenna did — but a few weeks after getting the news that GH had decided to go in a different direction, Bruno called Goddard again — this time with even better news: the show had created a new character, Professor Dalton, and wanted Goddard to play him. “I was just gobsmacked by it,” the actor gushed. “I felt like it was meant to be.”
By design, Goddard doesn’t know much about Professor Dalton’s background, or what fate GH has in store for him. He explained, “I said to Frank [Valentini, executive producer], ‘Don’t tell me anything about the character.’ ” As for why, the actor said, “I’m allowing myself to go on the journey of who Dalton is from the audience’s perspective, and from my perspective of what is the growth and evolution of him. I will allow it to unfold as the bits and pieces present themselves to me.”
Goddard noted that thus far, he’d worked with both Eden McCoy (Josslyn) and Finola Hughes (Anna), two characters with ties to the WSB — but this is not his first brush with GH royalty. On Y&R, his character, Cane, was the son of not one but two Port Charles A-listers: Colin, played by Tristan Rogers (Robert), and Genevieve, played by Genie Francis (Laura). “I’ve been waiting for my moment to see Genie and give her a big hello and a big hug,” he enthused.
Cane was also in a popular and long-running pairing with Christel Khalil’s Lily, and when the show wrote Cane out in 2019, the actor made it clear that it was not his choice to exit Genoa City. He confirmed the news of his departure online, writing, “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that I will no longer be part of the cast of the Young and the Restless. I am as shocked and gutted as you are… I almost didn’t post but I felt that the most loyal & loving fans an actor could wish for deserved to know and watch the last story arc knowing the rich meaning behind it. I am forever grateful for the 13 years I have been a part of the Y&R family… but sadly it seems that without Neil [whose portrayer, Kristoff St. John, had passed away that yea] and Lily [Khalil was on a break from the show] there just is no Cane.”
On November 13 of that year, the actor posted the Soap Opera Digest cover featuring the news of his exit on Facebook and wrote, “I still can’t believe it… 
I loved that show with every ounce of my being. Thank you to each and every fan who has reached out to me and shared their love, support and disbelief… I love you like family. And to all the cast and crew from #yr who have called and texted their support… you are so very loved. 
#Respect.”
Now that he’s getting another crack at soaps, Goddard is nothing but appreciative. “It’s been an extraordinary, wonderful experience so far,” he smiled. “I couldn’t be more grateful to be back in what I think is probably the most beloved genre in all of entertainment.”
The Way We Were: On Y&R, Goddard’s Cane was the son of Genie Francis’s (Laura, GH) Genevieve.
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