Scott Baldwin
Scott Baldwin | |
---|---|
First appearance | 1965 |
Portrayed by | Kin Shriner |
In-universe information | |
Nickname | Scotty |
Occupation | Attorney |
Scott Baldwin is a fictional character from the ABC daytime drama General Hospital and its now-defunct spinoff Port Charles. He is often remembered as the "odd man out" in General Hospital's well-known love story of Luke and Laura Spencer. Baldwin's character started on the show as a child in the 1960s, grew up to be an upstanding young attorney, and then fell in love with and married the young Laura Webber. However, soon after their marriage, she began her legendary romance with Luke Spencer. Scott was devastated by Laura's betrayal, and this led to a drastic personality change in the character, who became one of General Hospital's most memorable and longest running villains. This portrayal stands in stark contrast to his depiction on Port Charles, where he was always considered one of the series' heroic characters.
Actors
The character was originated as a child in the 1960s, played by the famous child actor Johnny Whitaker. Several other actors have played the role over the years, though the most commonly associated name is that of Kin Shriner, who played the character both on General Hospital and its spinoff Port Charles.
- Johnnie Whittaker (1965)
- Teddy Quinn (1966)
- Tony Camp (1969 to 1972)
- Don Clarke (1973 to 1974)
- Johnny Jensen (1974 to 1975)
- Kin Shriner
- 1977 to 1980, 1981 to 1984, 1988 to December 1993
- June 1, 1997 to September 2000 - (on Port Charles)
- September 22, 2000 to February 23, 2004; January 30, 2007 to present
Storyline highlights
The young Scotty Baldwin first came to Port Charles with his mother Meg Bentley and half-sister Brooke, after the death of his father Lloyd. There was a lot of family strife in the first couple of years as Meg became engaged to the dashing Dr. Noel Clinton, sending Brooke into a tail-spin. Brooke never liked her step-mother Meg and felt that the engagement to Noel was a slap in the face to her dead father. In retailiation, Brooke seduced Noel and the two left town and wed. Meg was devastated. A short time later, she met and married Lee Baldwin. Lee adopted Scotty and the three became a family. Unfortunately, Meg developed breast cancer and had to have a radical mastectomy. The illness cause Meg to have a mental breakdown and Lee had no choice but to put her in a sanitarium where she soon after died. Lee now had to raise Scotty on his own. Scotty eventually left the show (went away to law school) for a time. When he returned, he obtained a job at the hospital, where he met the young Laura Webber. They married, but then she fell in love with Luke Spencer and she divorced Scotty after less than two years of marriage.
In 1981 at Luke and Laura's wedding, Scotty showed a darker side, as he caught the bridal bouquet and announced he was contesting his divorce from Laura. Since then, while Scott's more scrupulous side has re-emerged more than once, he always returned to engaging in underhanded and often illegal activities, even as district attorney of Port Charles. He has had several brief relationships, and in 1982 married Susan Moore, supposedly for financial reasons. Susan was the mistress of the wealthy Alan Quartermaine and they had had a son, Jason Morgan, with a considerable trust fund. Susan died under mysterious circumstances, and Jason was then raised by Alan and his wife Monica.
Scotty has a seat on the board of General Hospital, which he received after negotiating a solution to a nurses strike. He was also Luke's attorney during the murder trial of Stefan Cassadine, though they fought constantly about how to handle the case, and as a result of Felicia's testimony, the case caused great strain in Luke and Laura's relationship. Scotty used this as an opportunity to continue manipulation of all things Laura, and they eventually started dating again. Luke was still in the picture though, which caused extreme jealousy on Scott's part. He pushed Laura to finalize her divorce with Luke, and then Scotty and Laura traveled to Hollywood together. Much of the storyline revolved around Scotty's struggle to suppress his jealousy of Luke, out of his genuine desire that Laura return to him willingly. Scotty did eventually blurt out a marriage proposal to Laura, but she ended up choosing Luke instead of him. Scotty couldn't talk her out of it, and eventually turned to his ex-girlfriend, Bobbie Spencer.
When Luke and Laura were planning their new wedding, Laura's adopted father, Dr. Rick Webber, returned to town. Scott and Rick had some kind of shared secret, and Rick pulled strings to help Scott get elected to a position as District Attorney. It seemed that Laura was starting to remember something, and Scott and Rick went to the Scorpio's yard, where they dug up the human skeleton of Rick's old mistress, who had been killed (accidentally) by Laura. When Laura remembered and tried to confront Rick, he died under mysterious circumstances. Scott tried to pin the blame on Luke (supposedly because he feared that Laura had done it), and played on Luke's guilt that he may have caused Laura's mental breakdown by pushing her to remember. Luke was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped and left town.
Bobbie eventually broke up with Scott, because of his dirty tactics against Alexis in the run for D.A. Later, Luke returned to town and was arrested again. But Nikolas Cassadine had obtained tapes of Laura confessing to Rick Webber's murder, and Alexis used the tapes to force Scott to drop the charges against Luke, in return for Alexis dropping out of the election. Scotty then had Luke committed to an asylum, for what he had done to Laura.
Scott was an extremely corrupt DA, frequently using his position to take action against his enemies, at one point even ordering Luke arrested by his own son, Lucky.
During the storyline with the Port Charles Hotel fire, Scotty faked his own death in order to steal a treasure from Skye. He was faced with an investigation by Internal Affairs, but took his daughter Serena and fled the city.
In 2007, Scott returned, and it was revealed that he had frequently been visiting the comatose Laura in the hospital. On March 5, Luke's daughter Lulu and stepson Dillon Quartermaine intercepted a letter that Alan Quartermaine had sent to Luke in the event of his death. In the letter, Alan identifies Scott as Rick's killer. Soon afterwards, Scott visited Laura at Shadybrook again and confessed to her himself that he indeed killed Rick Webber. He had gone to the Scorpio's that night to see Laura and heard screaming and noize coming from the attic. When he got there he saw Rick trying to inject Laura with a mysterious drug so that she would again forget that she had killed Theresa Carter, Rick's old mistress. He stopped Rick by grabbing a candlestick and hitting him over the head, unintentionally killing him. He left and by the time Luke got there he saw Rick dead on the floor, the candlestick on the floor, Laura was so far gone that she didn't remember Scott being there. Dillion Quartermaine, Lulu Spencer, and Damian Spinelli now know the truth, along with Monica and Tracy Quartermaine. Lulu has since told her mother the truth, part of her hoping that it would bring Laura out of her catatonic state, but of course it didn't work. Lulu wants to tell her father the truth, but she knows that if she does then Luke will either kill Scott and be arrested for it, or he'll leave town because he would feel so guilty because he pushed Laura to remember the truth about her killing her step-father which caused her to be in a catatonic state.
Family and relationships
Parents
- David Bordisso (father)
- Meg Bentley (mother; deceased)
- Lee Baldwin (adoptive father)
- Gail Adamson Baldwin (step-mother)
Siblings
- Brooke Bentley (half-sister)
Children
- Karen Wexler (daughter, with Rhonda Wexler; deceased)
- Serena Baldwin (daughter, with Dominique Stanton)
- Christina Baldwin (adoptive daughter, with Lucy Coe)
- Logan Hayes (Son with unknown mother)
Aunts and uncles
- Thomas Baldwin, Sr. (adoptive uncle)
- Audrey March Baldwin Hardy (aunt by marriage)
Cousins
- Thomas Hardy, Sr., a.k.a. Thomas Baldwin, Jr. (adoptive cousin)
- Thomas Hardy, Jr. (first cousin once removed)
Romantic Entanglements
- Rhonda Wexler (affair)
- Bobbie Spencer (broken engagement)
- Heather Webber (lovers)
- Laura Templeton (lovers)
- Lucy Coe (affair)
- Tracy Quartermaine (lovers)
- Jessica Holmes (lovers; deceased)
- Katherine Bell (dated; deceased)
- Eve Lambert (lovers; deceased)
Past marriages
- Laura Webber (divorced)
- Susan Moore (widowed)
- Dominique Stanton (widowed)
- Lucy Coe (divorced)
References
- Scotty Baldwin profile at soapcentral.com