Nathan Dean<\/a> will make his General Hospital<\/a><\/em> return as Ethan Lovett on April 17, six years after he last appeared in Port Charles.<\/p>\n The opportunity to revisit the role began to take shape late last year, after the passing of Anthony Geary<\/a>, who played his on-screen father, Luke Spencer. \u201cI wanted to come back for a little bit after everything with Tony, just to sort of pay my respects for everything he did for me over the course of the many years that we worked together,\u201d Dean explains. \u201cAnd I guess they had the same thought because Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and Mark [Teschner, casting director] reached out right before Christmas break and were like, \u2018Hey, would you come back?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Howard Wise\/jpistudios.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dean says Geary had a profound impact on him, both personally and professionally. \u201cTony was really one of my best friends,\u201d he relays. \u201cHe was my mentor on the show. He was like a brother to me. We were very similar people, off set as well, and I kind of always joked that it was like looking in a mirror sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Another loss since Dean\u2019s exit is Tristan Rogers<\/a>, who played Robert Scorpio, a key figure in Ethan\u2019s past. \u201cI didn\u2019t get to work with Tristan until more recently, but he was awesome as well, and I wish I\u2019d had more chance to work with him,\u201d Dean notes. \u201cBut those are two legends, and we\u2019re still talking about them today, and I imagine we\u2019ll talk about them for many, many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he has worked in prime-time on Roswell, New Mexico<\/a><\/em> and The Originals<\/a><\/em> since leaving the soap, Dean admits to some first-day jitters upon returning. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve worked in that environment, and it\u2019s a very, very different environment than other shows that I\u2019ve been doing,\u201d he points out. \u201cI was sort of like, \u2018Oh, I hope I still got it.\u2019 My first week, I definitely had some growing pains. I was very nervous. I was just tearing a hole in the floor, pacing around, but it\u2019s been great. I\u2019ve gotten to work with Maurice [Benard,<\/a> Sonny Corinthos] and Jane [Elliot<\/a>, Tracy Quartermaine], and obviously, Frank and Mark are amazing. I got to see some familiar faces and meet some of the new faces, and everyone\u2019s been very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Disney\/Christine Bartolucci<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Working with new scene partners \u2014\u00a0including Alexa Havins<\/a> as his on-screen sister Lulu Spencer \u2014 helped reestablish the rhythm of working in daytime. \u201cMy very first scenes are with Lulu, and there\u2019s a new actress playing her,\u201d Dean says. \u201cAnd she\u2019s awesome. We hadn\u2019t ever had communication, so she was sort of curious about what Ethan and Lulu\u2019s dynamic was, so it was very fun to rekindle that. And it was good for me to rehash it a little bit, because it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh yeah, I remember this happened.\u2019 It was a good way to ease back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the time away, Dean says stepping back into Ethan\u2019s shoes went smoothly. \u201cHe was still there, and I credit Tony with the fact that we were able to create our family dynamic and really establish who Luke and Ethan were, and how these characters are kind of gray area characters,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey\u2019re not good guys, they\u2019re not bad guys, they\u2019re kind of a little bit of both. And so, it is really fun to jump back into that. I\u2019ve noticed in the writing, it\u2019s definitely giving Ethan a little bit more of an edge now, which I like. It\u2019s been really fun to work with that.\u201d<\/p>\n As for whether Ethan\u2019s mother, Holly Sutton, played by Emma Samms<\/a>, will resurface, Dean is hopeful. \u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d he offers. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely been brought up as a possibility. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve written that far ahead yet, but it would be amazing to reconnect with her. She was a delight.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Smith\/jpistudios.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Story-wise, look for a slightly different version of Ethan, something Dean is eager to explore. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely changed a little bit,\u201d Dean teases. \u201cWe know that some other mysterious people have been popping up in town. As we start to learn a little bit more about them, maybe we\u2019ll reveal the real reason why he is back, as opposed to just, \u2018Oh, I miss my friends and family.\u2019 I\u2019m very excited to dive into all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Another change? His last name, from Parsons to Dean. \u201cThat was something I had wanted to do when I was 15 years old, actually,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI got my first [Screen Actors Guild] \u00a0film in high school, and you have to pick your SAG name. I said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna be Nathan Dean.\u2019 My birth name is Nathan Dean Parsons, and I just like the name Nathan Dean. It rolls off the tongue better, and it\u2019s a little shout-out to James Dean<\/a>, who\u2019s one of my favorites. And then they came back, and they said, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s already a Nathan Dean in SAG. You have to pick another name.\u2019 So I said, \u2018Fine, I\u2019ll be Nathan Parsons.\u2019 And then flash forward years later, a lot of things happened in my life, and I found out around that time that just because your name on your SAG card is one thing, you can go by whatever name you want. So, starting with Roswell<\/em>, that\u2019s when I started making the changeover. It was a big role, it was a new opportunity, and sort of a way to reinvent myself. And now, we\u2019re in the process of legally doing it, and it\u2019s going to be super official at some point, and we\u2019ll go from there. But it\u2019s cool that I get to come back and do General Hospital<\/em> with my new name.\u201d<\/p>\n And with his first episode about to air, Dean is eager to see what\u2019s next for his character. \u201cI\u2019m very excited to be back and see where they want to take Ethan and bring all the fans along with us,\u201d he concludes. \u201cThis is such a wonderful place to have as a world to dive back into when you can, and I\u2019m just very grateful that I was able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n General Hospital,<\/em> Weekdays, ABC, Check Local Listings<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Alexa](\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gh-alexa-havins-713x570.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Nathan](\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nathan-parsons-emma-samms-gh-881x570.jpg\")
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