Although fans were hopeful they were just misinterpreting the scene at the end of the May 20 episode of General Hospital when Gregory went to bed and remembered his entire life before drifting away. In the following show, it was confirmed that the character had died in this sleep from heart failure.
This brings an end to Gregory Harrison’s run on the soap, which began back in November 2020 when he took over the role of Gregory Chase from previous portrayer James Read (Clyde, Days of Our Lives). Numerous fans were hoping that there would be an upcoming twist to the storyline that would reveal Gregory had been misdiagnosed with ALS, but sadly, that was not the plan.
With an extensive career across film and television, Harrison had never appeared in a daytime soap before GH. Though that wasn’t for lack of trying! “Maybe half a dozen times I was offered arcs with Susan Lucci (Erica, All My Children),” he revealed to Soap Opera Digest, “you know, to play the man of her moment of whatever that year was, and I always said, ‘Oh no, no, no.’ It scared me so bad.”
However, when his agent called with the offer for GH, he was eager to get back to work after the global pandemic shut down Hollywood productions for months. “After I hung up the phone, I went, ‘Oh my God, what did I just agree to?’” Harrison admitted.
Thankfully, he settled right in alongside his new family and friends in Port Charles, and Harrison continued to play the role as Gregory found himself wondering if he was really Chase’s father (thankfully, he was), resolving his issues with Finn for sleeping with Jackie right before they were married, and forming relationships with Alexis and Tracy. Sadly, once he revealed that his health problems were due to his being diagnosed with ALS, the writing was on the wall. Watching his son, Chase, get married was the last thing on Gregory’s bucket list, and having achieved that goal, he could rest peacefully.
