General Hospital Comings and Goings: Daniel Goddard's run as Dalton comes to an end

General Hospital fans said goodbye to slimy college professor Henry Dalton on November 19, when Sidwell had had enough of his biggest liability and shot him dead in the Wyndemere living room. The on-screen murder marked the end of soap vet Daniel Goddard's run in Port Charles.

Daniel Goddard exits General Hospital

Emma was determined to get evidence against Dalton | Image: ABC

The show confirmed the exit to Soap Opera Digest with a statement saying, "We can confirm that Daniel Goddard has exited General Hospital as Professor Henry Dalton. Executive Producer Frank Valentini says, 'I really enjoyed working with Daniel. It was a short-term role from the start, and we appreciate what a good job Daniel did with it. We wish him all the best in the future.'"

The former Young and the Restless star made his GH debut on April 15th after originally auditioning for the role of a recast Jack Brennan. Former One Life to Live star Chris McKenna ultimately landed the part of Jack, but GH kept Goddard in mind when Dalton needed to be cast.

"I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I was just gobsmacked by it," Goddard told TV Insider last spring. "It wasn’t a recast. It was a new character, and I was so blown away. I really felt like the timing was right, and I felt like it was meant to be. I can’t begin to express my gratitude to Frank and everyone at General Hospital and to [manager] Michael Bruno for really believing in me and being there."

Dalton's days were clearly numbered

Sidwell shot Dalton dead at Wyndemere | Image: ABC

Dalton came to town as a professor Emma (Braedyn Bruner) had been tracking since her time at Berkeley. She was determined to nail him for animal testing, but the WSB had eyes on him for different reasons. Recently, we learned he was really working for big bad Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota), but he had other problems, as well.

Dalton really stepped in it when he fabricated evidence to have teenage Rocco Falconeri (Finn Carr) thrown in juvenile detention after Rocco, Charlotte (Bluesy Burke), and Danny (Asher Antonyzyn) broke into his lab to find the animals they were sure he was testing. While the kids did no damage, Dalton claimed they trashed the lab.

Sidwell knew the police would now have their eyes on the top-secret work they were doing and told Dalton to back off from Rocco. Dalton refused, so Sidwell decided he'd done enough damage and took a kill shot, thus ending Professor Dalton's life and Goddard's time on General Hospital.

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