Charles Shaughnessy resurfaces as Days of our Lives superspy Shane Donovan on Monday, March 17, when Marlena travels to Washington, D.C., with Steve, desperate to get answers about her missing husband, John.
It’s a short stint for the actor, who originally portrayed the ISA agent from 1984-1992, and returned in 2002, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016-2017, and 2023, while occasionally popping in as Shane’s eccentric twin, Drew (1988, 2017).
A Welcome Return
Shaughnessy’s 2017 return to DAYS was a lengthier stay and one he set in motion himself. “I used to go back for a couple of days or a week, and it never felt very satisfying,” he told Soap Opera Digest at the time. “It was a bit like visiting old friends who are busy doing their thing.
You pop in and say hi, but you’re not reconnecting. I’d finish it and think that it was like leaving a meal before it was done. So I said, ‘If you’ve got a real storyline, I would love to do it.’
[The producers] came back and said, ‘We do. Would a couple of months count?’ I said, ‘Yes. That feels like it would be enough time to get my feet sunk into it.’ Indeed it was.”
What made the return even better was that he got to play both Shane and Drew. “Shane got to lead the investigation into Stefano’s [death] and actually pretend to be Stefano,” recounted Shaughnessy. “
And with Drew, who’s a bit of a loose cannon, I had permission to be more wacky. There was also substantial material to play rather than just coming in with some information or saying, ‘Be careful, Theresa.’ It was just so much fun. I got to become part of the gang again. It was as if I’d never left.”
Shaughnessy also brought both Shane and Drew to life on Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem in 2021, shortly before resurfacing on General Hospital, the show where he made his daytime debut as Holly’s cousin, Alistair Durban, in 1984.
Only this time around he was cast as the diabolical Victor Cassadine, a role previously played by Thaao Penghlis (Tony/ex-Andre, DAYS).
The actor recounted how the deal came about in a previous interview. “My agent called and said, ‘You know, I’ve been working on something for a while and it looks like it’s going to pay off. This is the deal: It’s General Hospital. This character is going to be a limited contract role for at least six months.
What do you think?’ I said, ‘Well, sure! Okay!’ It just sort of happened to coincide with this whole Beyond Salem thing, so I suddenly found myself appearing on two different shows at the same time, one network, one streaming. It was a complete coincidence.
Shane was only in that one week [of streaming episodes] and that was it; there was never any talk about it being longer than just the one story. So it seemed reasonable to go over to GH, which was kind of coming home, as well, to do this gig.”
Going from playing the heroic Shane to the nefarious Victor was an assignment Shaughnessy relished. “Victor is a classic psychopath who can get violent, can get aggressive, but a psychopath doesn’t necessarily have to be that,” he explained. “They just have to be master manipulators, and have a complete lack of empathy.
You don’t have a kind of purely evil character, you just have someone who is entirely about what they want and achieving their goals, with absolutely no compunction, no moral compass. And that’s kind of scary — and fascinating!”
Upon wrapping up his GH run in 2023, Shaughnessy shared some parting words with Digest. “We did the scenes of dead Victor in the body bag, which was just before we had a two-week break [in production],” Shaughnessy recounted.
“But that wasn’t my real good-bye, because I knew I was coming back to shoot Victor [reading his will]. So, everyone was, like, ‘Is this your last day?!’ And I was, like, ‘Well, actually, I’m coming back after the break.’ ‘Oh, good! Well, we’ll say good-bye then.’
But when I came back, my scenes were right at the end of the day, and it was just me in front of a camera reading my will. I wasn’t even called in until 6 p.m. So I got to say good-bye to a few people, but the vast majority had already left for the day.”
Yet, knowing the daytime world as he does, Shaughnessy wasn’t too concerned about not getting to say a proper farewell to his co-stars. “I say that with daytime shows, it’s like bar mitzvah good-byes,” he noted with a smile.
“It’s like you say good-bye and then everyone turns around and you’re still there two hours later! I expect I’ll be seeing everyone again before too long.”
Now that the actor is back on DAYS, once again playing the valiant Shane, Shaughnessy is doing exactly that.
