When Steve Burton left the role of General Hospital’s Jason Morgan in 2021 over the network’s COVID vaccine mandate, he was open to whatever came next. “One of the biggest lessons that anyone can learn, I feel, is control what you can control and let go of the things that you can’t,” he explains. “I don’t let a lot of external things dictate my emotional state. I’m just trying to be a better man, a better dad, just better.”
As it turns out, Burton wasn’t unemployed long. After he exited GH, Days of Our Lives, where he started his daytime career in 1988, reached out to him to play Harris Michaels again.
“I do believe that when one door closes, other doors do open,” Burton offers. “And it was true. Beyond Salem [the Days of our Lives spin-off] came around, Days came around, I started my [fitness] coaching business; all these great things happened when that door closed. Now other doors closed and the GH door opens again, so it worked out.”
This isn’t the first time Burton has left and come back to Port Charles. From 2013 to 2017, he played Dylan McAvoy on The Young and the Restless, and from 2022 to 2024, he starred as Days’ Harris, experiences he says made his GH returns even sweeter.
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“Any time I’ve left, I’ve been able to grow so much as a human being and do other things in my life that it’s only a value when I go back,” he reflects. “Look, if you work somewhere for 20 years, you can get burned out. You’re doing the same thing day in and day out, especially when there was a stretch there where I was working every day, pretty much for eight years, memorizing 40 pages at night. It’s not easy for sure. So I think both breaks, going to Y&R and going to Days, were good for me artistically because I got to do other things. It taught me a lot about myself, and it reinvigorated my passion for acting. I dove in and it was amazing.”
But GH holds a special place in Burton’s heart, so when he went back to film a segment for the primetime special, General Hospital: 60 Years of Stars & Storytelling, he was touched by the warm welcome. “I went to the gate and it was so sweet — the guards there rushed out and gave me a big hug,” he relays. “It really made me emotional. I obviously had to see hair and makeup and wardrobe and everybody was so excited. And then I went upstairs and the crew were like, ‘Wait, what, what are you doing here?’ Because they didn’t know. It was fun seeing everybody.”
Now he’s just waiting to see what a presumed-dead Jason will be up to when he makes his way back to town. “When you’ve been in daytime a long time, it’s like, ‘How many stories can we do? What else can happen that’s different, that’s new?’” he points out. “I want to have fun with what I’m doing. Obviously, I want to work with everybody there and get back in the saddle with Maurice [Benard, Sonny]. I think that’s going to be awesome because he and I have been working together [for] a long time. He taught me so much and it’s just going to be exciting.”
Burton shares that he’s humbled by the fact that 36 years after he made his daytime debut, he’s one of the genre’s most recognizable faces. “It’s hard to believe,” he marvels. “What a career, you know? I just feel blessed. It’s hard to really put into words because I’m so super-grateful that as an actor that people even pick up the phone and call you. I always say I’m not the smartest guy but I work hard and I’ll continue to work hard. That goes back to my blue-collar roots growing up in the Midwest. I’m a worker. I just work.”
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This story originally appeared on TV Insider
