EXCLUSIVE: This is the announcement that General Hospital fans have been waiting for: Lucky Spencer, aka the Emmy-winning Jonathan Jackson, is on his way back to Port Charles.
Soap viewers have been salivating over the possibility of a major star returning after GH executive producer Frank Valentini teased it on the red carpet earlier this month at the Daytime Emmys. “A former cast member is coming back,” he told ABC7. “And I think that the audience will go crazy for him.”
That him turned out to be Jackson, who hasn’t been on the soap since 2015 when he returned for a brief stint. He’s coming home to the ABC sudser later this summer in what is expected to be a long run.
More characters from GH‘s past will make appearances in the next few months, too. The sudser already confirmed that Bryan Craig will reprise his role as Morgan Corinthos for one day in August.
For those who lost track, Jackson originated the role of Lucky in 1993; he’s the beloved son of super-couple Luke and Laura Spencer (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis). Jackson played the part on and off until 2011, when he left to star as Avery Barkley in ABC’s Nashville for six seasons. But he had already started branching out beyond daytime long before that, having appeared in The Deep End of the Ocean, On the Edge, Insomnia, Tuck Everlasting and Venom. Meanwhile, actors Jacob Young and Greg Vaughan took turns playing Lucky.
During his time on GH, Jackson was nominated for nine Emmys and won five in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2011 and 2012.
As a musician, Jackson has written and recorded hundreds of songs and toured internationally with the cast of Nashville, and his band Jonathan Jackson + Enation. He’s a writer, too; he penned the theological prose The Mystery of Art, which has been translated into Greek, Romanian and Russian, and the epic poem The Harrowing of Hell.
This year, Jackson starred in Unsung Hero opposite Terry O’Quinn and Candace Cameron Bure.
In 2022, Jackson was awarded the Distinction of Excellence by Royal Literary Magazine for his “contribution to the understanding of authentic art, for literary works written with inspiration and talent, for highlighting the values of Eastern culture.”
