How General Hospital's Valentin gave a silent nod to Pine Valley and All My Children

General Hospital
General Hospital's Valentin Cassadine | Image: ABC

For some reason, General Hospital's Valentin left two fake passports in his old Port Charles home when he skipped town in a flash last summer. Somehow, Sonny didn't find these passports when he did a sweep of the place before moving in. However, fans were delighted to see the documents when Valentin removed them from a lock box on the March 17 GH episode.

Who are Will and Melanie Cortlandt?

A shadowy Valentin broke into his old house | Image: ABC
A shadowy Valentin broke into his old house | Image: ABC

When the camera zoomed in on the passports in Valentin's hands, we saw photos of Valentin (James Patrick Stuart) and Charlotte (Scarlett Fernandez), but their names were Will Cortlandt and Melanie Cortlandt, respectively.

Longtime ABC soap fans will remember that James Patrick Stuart got his soap opera start on All My Children in 1989 where he played Will Cortlandt, aka Will Cooney, nephew of Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell) and brother to Dixie Cooney and Melanie Cortlandt.

In fact, Dixie was married to Tad Martin, played by none other than Michael E. Knight, who brings Valentin's lawyer buddy Martin Grey. While Valentin was lurking around Sonny's (Maurice Benard) new house and his old house, a US Marshall was arresting Marty thanks to the money he made selling Valentin's place.

Melanie was played by Paige Turco, best known for her role as April O'Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies.

General Hospital star's All My Children lesson

Valentin and Charlotte are now All My Children characters | Image: ABC
Valentin and Charlotte are now All My Children characters | Image: ABC

Stuart's time on All My Children was such a pivotal point in his life that his pinned post on X (formerly Twitter) talks of his Pine Valley days and how they humbled him.

"I was Will Cortlandt on All My Children as a young man," Stuart tweeted. "Getting killed off at arguably the apex of his popularity was a real gut check, but I wouldn’t change it. Who you are & what you do when you’re not getting what you want? That’s character…and it will set your destiny."

On the day the passport scenes aired, Stuart shared a snap of himself and Cady McClain, who played Dixie and now appears as Pamela Curtis on the new CBS soap Beyond the Gates.

"Found this picture deep in the archives," the actor wrote. "Here I am with All My Children co-star, @CadyMcClain, in Saratoga back in 1993. I look like I play keyboards for the Doobie Brothers because I was gearing up for a Civil War film. Cady has always been a ridiculously gifted actress and writer with eyes that could put a grown man on his knees. She is also the definition of grace, the kind of friend you’re lucky to have once in a lifetime."

With GH and All My Children existing in the same universe, we are sure we'll see more references to the old classic soap sometime soon.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

Quick Links

Edited by Hope Campbell
Loading Comments...