'One Life to Live' Star Mark Lawson Makes Surprise Return to 'General Hospital'

One Life to Live star Mark Lawson recently made a surprise appearance on General Hospital, and it sounds like he'll be returning. The well-know soap opera actor turned up on the ABC series as Dustin Phillips, a potential long term love-interest for Emme Rylan's Lulu Spencer. The character is currently going through a divorce, and Lawson's Phillips is someone she's found a romantic connection with.

Lawson is most familiar to soap fans as Brody Lovett on One Life to Live, which is also an ABC daytime series. He appeared in that role from 2008 until 2012.

Following his surprise casting news, Lawson took to Instagram to share a video message with fans, adding in the caption, "Just thanking thank you for the tremendous show of support for my episode of @generalhospitalabc yesterday! "

"Thank you to everyone at GH and to all of the fans! It was a blast!!" he also said, then adding the following hashtags: #actorslife #gratitude #staysoapy #thankyou #generalhospital.

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A post shared by Mark Lawson (@themarkmlawson) on Jul 10, 2019 at 8:34am PDT

Lawson also did an interview with TV Insider wherein he was asked how him joining the show came about an how hard it was for him to keep the secret.

"It was really hard not to talk about it, but I hope the surprise was worth it! It came about from my staying in touch with Frank [Valentini, executive producer, who also helmed OLTL]. We've always had a good relationship," he explained. "I've been in the [GH casting] room a few times and it all worked out at the right time. I was offered the part of Dustin, which was really nice, after having tested for a few other things."

He then admitted to "compulsively" check social media for positive responses to the news, adding, "I jumped up some followers, too. It was so nice to feel such a warm response. The whole thing has felt like a homecoming. It's been eight years since I was on One Life. But it all feels very familiar, being back."

Finally, Lawson was asked is he had ever worked with Rylan before, to which he replied, "I had not. We talked about when she was in New York [on Guiding Light as Lizzie] and there might have been a bit of an overlap. I had met Kirsten [Storms, Maxie] at some ABC Daytime/Broadway Cares events or at the Daytime Emmys. They have both been so gracious to me and it's been great being around them. Everyone is welcoming."

Photo Credit: IMDB