General Hospital fans were stunned on Friday when Austin Holt, the third character that Roger Howarth has played on the soap, was shot point-blank in the chest at the end of the episode. While many expected the Monday show to pick up where Friday left off, revealing Austin’s fate, it did not. But we now know it anyway. Austin is indeed very much dead.

Roger Howarth Leaves GH Behind

After more than two years of playing Austin Gatlin-Holt, a long-lost Quartermaine who lost his Q connection along the way, Howarth was told he was being let go and explained the situation to Soap Opera Digest.

“Several weeks ago, I got a phone call from somebody I’ve known for a very long time who I love very dearly [Executive Producer Frank Valentini] telling me that when my contract was up at ABC, I would not be offered a new contract and that the character of Austin would be killed, and that this was something that both wanted and needed to do to move story,” Howarth said.

“It took me a minute to kind of adjust, to kind of hear the news; it took a second for me to let that settle in. And then, immediately, I realized how lucky I was to have been able to do something I really love doing for more than a decade with people who I really enjoyed working with. I’m a lucky guy. I had a great run and this was a decision made by people who make these kinds of decisions for a living.”

Howarth’s History With GH

In 2012, Howarth joined GH soon after One Life to Live was canceled, bringing the character of Todd Manning to Port Charles. Not long after, Prospect Park, which was producing online versions of OLTL and All My Children, sued ABC, claiming they had the rights to the character.

Todd was quickly written off and Howarth was brought back soon after as a recast Franco, the serial-killing artist who terrorized Jason and Sam. It turned out that Franco’s murderous ways were caused by a brain tumor and once that was removed, he was on his way to redemption.

A popular pairing with Rebecca Herbst’s Elizabeth eventually followed, but in 2021, Franco was killed off much in the same way Austin was — via a bullet hole to the chest.

Is the last that daytime has seen of Howarth, an Emmy-winning mainstay on soaps since 1992. According to the actor, he is open to another soap role, so you never know…

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