Kin Shriner Reflects On the ‘Giant Blunder’ That Ended Scotty
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
After three years on General Hospital, Kin Shriner was the biggest of big daytime stars. As such, he was in demand — so much so that he was poached to headline a spinoff of Another World starring the late, great Beverlee McKinskey as superbitch Iris Wheeler.
It didn’t go well. Both McKinsey and Shriner, who played Jeb Hampton — yes, Jeb! — left in 1981 after only a year. But the adventure did leave the erstwhile Scotty Baldwin with some amazing memories — and at least one photo that could’ve been a Yellowstone cast portrait. See below.
Sharing a picture of himself doing his best Kayce Dutton, Shriner explained on X that the image was from “when NBC network tapped me to kick off the new soap Texas in NYC in 1980, and [I] traded in Scotty’s pea coat for a cowboy hat. I knew [it was a] giant blunder, but NYC was the scene, so I jumped” at the chance to be a part of it.”
When one of Shriner’s followers suggested that NBC must have backed up the Brinks truck to his house to get him to leave Port Charles, he admitted that, basically, it had. “It was lucrative,” he replied, “but still a mistake.”
At the time, General Hospital fans feared that that was the end of Scotty. But of course Shriner returned — and left (appearing on the syndicated soap Rituals) and returned and left (appearing on The Bold and the Beautiful) and returned and left (appearing on As the World Turns) and returned and left (appearing on Young & Restless).
Hopefully, at this point, we get to keep the actor and his iconic character for good. Speaking of Scotty, check out the below photo gallery to review his incredible (and incredibly tragic!) life story.