7 General Hospital Stars Who Appeared in Guiding Light

General Hospital has been on the air for sixty-three years and counting. Guiding Light, which also ran for many years (fifty-seven, to be exact), featured several GH actors in the cast. Here are seven GH stars who appeared in GL.

Laura Wright

Years before Laura Wright joined GH, she played Cassie Layne Winslow on GL, from 1997 to 2005. Cassie had a wild backstory as an exotic dancer whose stage name was Shady Lane. Eventually, she discovered that Reva (played by legendary soap actress Kim Zimmer) was her half-sister. This is the fun stuff that soaps are made of!

Wright left GL in 2005 to play Carly on GH. We've seen many Carlys come and go over the years, but we're glad that we haven't had any more recasts since Wright took over the part. She always does a fabulous job playing the firecracker that Carly has been since Sarah Joy Brown originated the role in 1996.

Rick Hearst

Rick Hearst was one of four actors who played Alan Michael Spaulding on GL. He was the second one, taking over the part from actor Carl Tye Evans, who was the first young adult/teen actor to play the Spaulding heir. The Spauldings were one of the largest and most influential families on the show, spanning across five generations of family members.

We've seen our share of recasts on GH as well, but we're thankful that Hearst has been the only actor to play Ric Lansing. We can't imagine anyone else in the role. Hearst has also appeared in The Young and the Restless as Matt Clark and The Bold and the Beautiful as Whip Jones, but we're glad that he returned to GH two years ago. We love seeing him and his half-brother, Sonny, finally getting along. He's even confiding in Sonny about his fear of losing Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst). Ric talking to Sonny about his love life as though they're longtime pals? Who thought that would ever happen?

Cynthia Watros

Many GH fans remember Cynthia Watros as villain Annie Dutton on GL, a role she played from 1994 until 998. Annie started as a heroine, a nurse at Cedars Hospital. She fell in love with and married Josh Lewis (Robert Newman) just as Josh discovered that his "late" wife, Reva Shayne Lewis (Kim Zimmer) was alive!

Annie lied about being pregnant and tried to frame Reva for her miscarriage. Later, she drugged Reva, kidnapped her, and tried to kill her -- and that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Annie's crimes. In 1998, Watros won a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her portrayal of Annie.

Thankfully, Watros' version of GH's Nina hasn't been quite as diabolical, although she and Portia (Brook Kerr) did hire Jacinda (Paige Herschell) to drug Drew (Cameron Mathison), and recently, she pushed the wheelchair-bound former congressman into the lake on the Quartermaine estate. She also kept Sonny's (Maurice Benard) family in the dark about the fact that he was alive and living in Nixon Falls, struggling with amnesia. She tried to tell Carly that she'd found Sonny, but Carly yelled at her and hung up the phone, preventing Nina from sharing the good news.

But everyone knows that Nina's worst crime (when she was played by Michelle Stafford) was when she induced a pregnant Ava (Maura West) into labor and stole her child. Yikes!

Daniel Cosgrove

Long before Daniel Cosgrove joined GH as shady Councilman Ezra Boyle, he played Harlan Billy Lewis III (Billy and Vanessa's son) on GL from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2007 to 2009. Known first as "Little Bill," the character later went by "Bill." Cosgrove was the third actor in the role.

Cosgrove has appeared in numerous other soaps throughout the years, including All My Children (as Scott Chandler), As the World Turns (as Christopher Hughes II), and Days of Our Lives (as Aiden Jennings). But many of us fondly remember him as lawyer Matt Durning on Beverly Hills, 90210. He played Kelly Taylor's (Jennie Garth) boyfriend.

Emme Rylan

We all know Emme Rylan as the second actress to play a grown-up Lulu Spencer. But from 2006 to 2009, she played Elizabeth "Lizzie" Spaulding on GL. She was one of several recasts, and she remained in the role until the series finale. The late Hayden Panettiere portrayed Lizzie as a child starting in late 1996.

Lizzie was romantically involved with various men on the show. Coincidentally, one of them was Cosgrove's character, Bill Lewis! Shortly before GL came to a close, she married Bill; they share a son, Harlan Billy Lewis IV. We love happy endings!

Wes Ramsey

Before Wes Ramsey became villain Peter August on GH, he played the recurring character Sam Spencer on GL from 2000 to 2008. Even though the role spanned a period of eight years, he only appeared in nine episodes. He played the brother of Olivia Spencer, who was portrayed by Daytime Emmy-winning actress Crystal Chappell.

Speaking of Peter, we hope that GH's Anna will get the help she so badly needs so that she can overcome her hallucinations of him. We want our old Anna back! Will Sonny or Valentin (James Patrick Stuart) be able to help her? We hope so.

Jane Elliot

It's hard to imagine Jane Elliot in any other soap but GH. Tracy Quartermaine is truly one of a kind. After Elliot left GH in 1980, she made a brief stop on Knots Landing, where she played Judy Trent. Then, it was back to daytime. Elliot moved 3000 miles away from Los Angeles to join the cast of the New York-based serial, Guiding Light, as Carrie Todd (formerly Carrie Anderson).

The move to GL reunited Elliot with the show's head writer, Douglas Marland, who created the role of Tracy on GH. Carrie had a tragic backstory, which included giving her son, Todd, up for adoption. Her traumas led to Carrie developing two alter-egos, known as "Carrie 2" and "Carrie 3."

Carrie accidentally murdered both Diane Ballard (Sophia Landon Geier) and Joe Bradley (Michael J. Stark). She was acquitted of both killings. Carrie's marriage to attorney Ross Marler (Jerry verDorn) was cut short after she moved to England to regain her mental health. She asked Ross for a divorce so that he could move on with his life.

Elliot has also appeared on All My Children as Cynthia and Days of Our Lives as Anjelica, but the role she is best known for is Tracy on GH. Any longtime GH fan knows that Tracy is a force to be reckoned with. We are pleased, though, that we've been seeing her softer side emerge over the past year or so.

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