Roger Howarth Exits General Hospital After 11 Years: ‘I Had a Great Run’

The doctor is out. Roger Howarth’s time as General Hospital‘s Austin Gatlin-Holt has come to an end, the actor confirms in a new interview with Soap Opera Digest, following his character’s fatal shooting in the daytime drama’s Nov. 17 episode.

Howarth learned his fate from General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini, his old boss from One Life to Live. “[He told me] that when my contract was up at [GH], I would not be offered a new [one] and that the character of Austin would be killed, and that this was something that both wanted and needed to do to move story,” Howarth tells the magazine. “And it took me a minute to kind of adjust, to kind of hear the news; it took a second for me to let that settle in. And then, immediately, I realized how lucky I was to have been able to do something I really love doing for more than a decade with people who I really enjoyed working with.”

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Austin was the third character Howarth played on General Hospital, following the roles of Franco Baldwin and Todd Manning, the latter of whom was carried over from Howarth’s days on One Life to Live.

Will you miss seeing Howarth on General Hospital? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.

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