Shared Resources: Actors Who’ve Worked Together On DAYS And GH

During their initial stint as co-stars on DAYS in 1988, Wally Kurth and Jane Elliot portrayed Justin and Anjelica, stepson and stepmother turned lovers. The characters’ affair even produced an illegitimate son, Alex. After Elliot returned to GH as Tracy in 1989, she was reunited with Kurth, who was cast as her biological son, Ned, in 1991, and the pair’s working relationship took an abrupt turn neither saw coming. “Jane’s joke is that on DAYS she played a character that flirted with me and wanted me to want her,” Kurth recalled to Digest. “And so when I showed up on GH, it was like, ‘Okay, get that out of your mind. We don’t want to go there.’ ”

Mary Beth Evans (Kayla) and Kurth’s characters were in-laws on DAYS (Justin wed Adrienne; Kayla wed Adrienne’s brother, Steve) in the 1980s, but after both made their way to GH, him as Ned in 1991 and her as Katherine in 1993, they were in more direct story, as Katherine blackmailed Ned into marriage in 1994 back when Ned was living a double life as Eddie Maine. When both returned to DAYS, they were paired again, when their widowed characters entered into a romance during the 2019-20 time jump story. Kurth noted to Digest in 2019, “We didn’t really get to explore the romantic stuff that much [as Ned and Katherine]; on DAYS, we’re definitely doing more of a love story than what we played out. I think because we’ve known each other for so long and we’ve been friends for so long, it was fun for the two of us to really explore that for the first time.”

From 1986 to 1990 Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans rose to supercouple status as Steve and Kayla on DAYS, where they remain a beloved duo. But in the 1990s, Evans and Nichols both landed on GH (he joined the show in 1996, three years after she came aboard). While at first they were in separate story corners, that changed in 1997, when their characters’ romance kicked off with Stefan accidentally shooting Katherine. The coupling led to an engagement, but never lived up to the magic Evans and Nichols had created on DAYS. The characters ultimately went their separate ways, and both actors eventually returned to DAYS. Admitted Evans to Digest in 2016, “I don’t think [GH] capitalized on our success as Patch and Kayla enough.”

During their run as Stefan and Katherine, Evans and Nichols both worked closely with Tyler Christopher as Nikolas, who was Stefan’s nephew and, in 1998, became Katherine’s lover after her relationship with Stefan fizzled. Katherine faked a pregnancy to hold on to Nik, who proposed, but his demented grandmother, Helena, pushed Katherine off a parapet to her death in 1999. The trio of actors reunited on DAYS in 2017, when Christopher was cast as Stefan. Stefan blackmailed Kayla, who was desperate to acquire a bionic eye for Steve via a company Stefan had acquired. Kayla succumbed to Stefan’s pressure and took incriminating photos of Kate and Leo, which he used to force Kate to give him information he could use against Chad. Christopher marveled to Digest that when he joined DAYS, “walking in the makeup room and seeing Stephen and Mary Beth side by side just brought back so many memories from the ’90s, and how awesome it was to have Stephen as my first mentor and Mary Beth as one of my first on-screen relationships.”

Jason Cook and Kirsten Storms played teen sweethearts Shawn and Belle from 1999 to 2004 on DAYS, creating one of the soap’s most popular young love stories. Ultimately, Storms moved on to play GH’s Maxie in 2005, and in 2008 she was joined by Cook, who was cast as Dr. Matt Hunter. The sparks between the pair culminated with a hospital supply closet hook-up in 2010, and Cook enthused to Digest, “Kirsten and I have wanted to work together. It wasn’t the only reason for me coming to the show, but it was certainly a big part of it.” The characters wed in 2012 so that Maxie wouldn’t have to testify against Matt, who killed Lisa Niles, but they split and he went to jail, marking Cook’s exit.

Friendship has never been part of the equation for Brandon Barash and Steve Burton’s daytime characters, be it as Johnny and Jason on GH or Stefan and Harris on DAYS. When they crossed paths on GH (Barash began playing Johnny in 2007; Burton’s own GH career had begun back in 1991), the pair was connected to rival mob organizations and constantly at odds, and when Sonny shot Johnny in 2010, Jason found proof that it was in self-defense. On DAYS, Barash’s Stefan and Burton’s Harris are on opposite sides of the law: Blackmailed by Clyde, Stefan was forced to launder drugs via The Bistro and shoot cop Harris.