Remembering Tyler Christopher’s Debut as One of General Hospital’s Greatest Twists Ever

I cannot speak to anything that Tyler Christopher, who died on Tuesday, did following his initial run as General Hospital‘s Nikolas Cassadine. But I do want to take a moment to reflect on, and celebrate, how he — in his first acting role ever, I believe? — rose to the occasion after being dropped into one of GH‘s best twists ever.

Christopher, lore tells us, first auditioned for the GH role of Stone Cates (which instead went to Michael Sutton). Years later, though, he successfully made a run at the role of Nikolas, another brand-new character that was inserted into one of daytime-TV’s biggest family feuds ever.

We all remember how Laura Spencer (played by Genie Francis) mysteriously disappeared into the Port Charles fog in 1982. It was eventually revealed that she had been kidnapped by the Greek and powerful Cassadine clan, who were still quite irked about the whole weather machine/Mikkos death thing. Laura resurfaced in Port Charles in 1983 — cue Christopher Cross tune that will always give us chills — mainly to usher longtime leading man Tony Geary (and thus a reunited Luke/Laura) off the ABC sudser.

A decade later (and after Geary had already returned as Luke-alike cousin Bill Eckert), Luke and Laura returned in earnest, with a young son, Lucky (played by Jonathan Jackson), in tow. All was pretty much fine and dandy with the Spencers until the bombshell was dropped that during Laura’s captivity on the Cassadine’s island, she bore Mikkos’ son Stavros a child. In July 1996, that secret scion, Nikolas, arrived in Port Charles unannounced, at his uncle Stefan’s (Stephen Nichols) side.

It was a fantastic twist, the reveal that Laura had a secret son — and by a frickin’ Cassadine no less. The explosive storyline that followed deposited newcomer Christopher, as Nikolas, smack dab into the thick of things, in meaty scenes opposite fan-favorites Francis and Jackson, as well as with daytime-TV vet Nichols (of Days of Our Lives/Patch fame).

Christopher brought a youthful, slightly “regal” swagger to the Cassadine heir. Nikolas was cocksure, just a bit snotty, but also quietly wounded by his perceived abandonment by his mother. In the scene below, Nikolas meets Lucky for the first time — and mind you, Luke and Laura’s son has no idea he has a brother. The insta-sibling rivalry that Jackson and Christopher entertainingly dove into would set the bar, high, for all iterations of Lucky and Nikolas to come (and there would be many; soaps are not shy to recast).

Christopher was handed a lot during his initial run as Nikolas. In addition to Nikolas’ clashes with Lucky and his begrudging reconnection with mom Laura, there were reoccurring conflicts with his uncle (father?), a December-May crush on Katherine Bell, and of course the requisite young romances with Sarah Webber, Gia Campbell, and Emily Quartermaine.

And yet while Nikolas, as a Cassadine, arrived on the scene ostensibly a villain by blood, Christopher always had you rooting for his character to overcome his dark legacy and find his own path, and happiness. All eyes were on Christopher in this front-and-center role, and he did not disappoint.