Days after the passing of John Reilly, “General Hospital” executive producer Frank Valentini has announced that the daytime drama series will acknowledge the death of the actor who portrayed the iconic Sean Donely from 1984-1995.
Speaking to Variety, Valentini said that Reilly and his character “was a huge part of the ‘GH’ history and will be honored in an upcoming episode that the writers are working on now,” meaning that the show will reveal in a future episode set to air this spring that Sean Donely has died.
According to the publication, because of COVID-19 the show has had to adjust its schedule but notes that both the writers’ room and production are still working weeks ahead and are currently prepping content for the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter of 2021.
Reilly, who passed away on Saturday, January 9, got his start in daytime with his 1974 debut on the soap opera “As The World Turns” where he played Dr. Dan “Danny” Stewart. With his 1984 debut on “GH,” soap fans knew him best for his portrayal of Sean Donely. The character, married to Tiffany Donely (Sharon Wyatt), quickly became a fan favorite during the action/adventure era of the drama series. He reprised his role as Sean on “General Hospital: Night Shift,” the primetime spinoff of “GH” that aired on SOAPnet for just one season in 2008. By 2013, the actor finally made a brief return to the mother soap where it was learned that his character was an accomplice of Jerry Jacks (Sebastian Roché) who terrorized Port Charles in 2007 during the highly-rated Metro Court Hotel hostage crisis.
In addition to “ATWT” and “GH,” Reilly played Alistar Crane on “Passions,” Del Douglas on “Sunset Beach,” Mortimer on “The Bay” and Marquis of La Cienega on “Days of our Lives.”