It's been about a year since his last daytime gig, but Brian Gaskill is headed back to daytime for another go around on a Procter & Gamble produced soap. The actor is joining the cast of Guiding Light, as the show makes the surprising role to recast what will no doubt be a central role.
Gaskill will assume the role of Dylan Shayne Lewis from long-time Guiding Light player Morgan Englund. Englund joined the cast of GL in May 1989 and remained with the show through January 1995. He has made a handful of appearances since then whenever the show's storylines made it necessary. There were two separate visits in 1997, another in 1999 and a week-long stint in June 2002. His most recent appearance was in August 2006 when a dying Reva summoned Dylan for a family trip to New York.
The move to recast Dylan seems more about snagging some extra star power for the show than about any discontent with Englund's past performances. A setside source reminds Soap Central that shows will often recast a role when the writers plan to "take the character in a different direction." Loosely translated, Dylan might be acting a little different during this trip to Springfield.
This will not be Gaskill's first experience with a New York-based soap. From 1995 to 1997, Gaskill appeared as spoiled rich boy Bobby Warner on ABC's All My Children and in 2005, Gaskill appeared as BJ Green on As the World Turns.
While All My Children introduced Gaskill to the daytime audience, it was another ABC soap -- Port Charles -- that made him a household name. Gaskill appeared as Rafe Kovich on the 30-minute Port Charles from August 2001 through the series' cancellation in October 2003. The PC role was supposed to have been short-term, but viewers and network execs were pleased with Gaskill's work and the actor soon became a central player on the show.
A role on The Bold and the Beautiful in 2003 was supposed to be another starring role for Gaskill. However, the show ran out of storyline for Gaskill's character, Oscar Marone, and by the summer of 2004, Gaskill and the show parted ways.
Gaskill first airs on Guiding Light on Friday, March 2nd.
