Five Things That Happened On January 30 In Soap History

In 1970, Maree Cheatham (r.) returned to Days of Our Lives as Marie Horton. She had previously played the role from 1965-68. Marie — the daughter of Tom and Alice Horton (Frances Reid, c.) and sister to Addie (Patricia Barry), Tommy, Bill and Mickey — had left Salem after discovering that she had fallen in love with her own brother, Tommy, who had been presumed dead in the Korean War and returned to Salem with amnesia after undergoing extensive plastic surgery and had been going by the name Mark. When Marie came back to town, she shocked her relatives with the news that she had become a nun.

In 2009, Nathan Parsons made his General Hospital debut in the role of Ethan Lovett, who would ultimately be revealed to be the secret son of Holly Sutton and Luke Spencer. The Australian actor enthused about Anthony Geay (Luke) to Soaps In Depth the year of his hiring, "It’s been incredible to work with one of the great actors in daytime." Parsons remained with GH until 2012, and visited in 2013, 2015 and 2020.

In 2013, Jon Lindstrom (c., pictured with John J. York as Mac and Kristina Wagner as Felicia) returned to General Hospital as Kevin Collins. The actor had last appeared in the role in 2004, when Kevin attended Lila's funeral. Lindstrom began playing Kevin in 1993 and exited the show in 1997 to become a core cast member of the GH spin-off Port Charles, which ended in 2003. In 2023, he joked to Digest about his return (which was part of a slew of high-profile comebacks timed to the show's 50th anniversary) that when he heard Jack Wagner (Frisco) calling out to him in the halls, "I was thinking to myself, ‘My God, it’s like they just threw us all into a dump truck and pulled into the parking lot and rolled us out in front of General Hospital!’ "

In 2003, Jasper "Jax" Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) and Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) got engaged on General Hospital. Brenda was all smiles when Jax told her he had a surprise for her — in the form of a diamond ring. "Will you marry me?" he asked. "You agreed to be my girlfriend, but I was wondering if you'd agree to something a little more permanent, like spending the rest of your life with me." "Oh, Jax," she beamed. "Yes. Of course I'll marry you!"

In 2014, Billy Miller (l.) and Adam Muhney exited Young and Restless as Billy Abbott and Adam Newman, respectively. Miller had been with the show since 2008 and won three Daytime Emmys (two for Outstanding Supporting Actor, one for Outstanding Lead Actor) for his work as Billy, while Muhney had joined the Genoa City ranks in 2009. Adam was recast with Justin Hartley later in the year, while Burgess Jenkins assumed the role of Billy a few months after Miller's departure.