chad duell gallery michael GENERAL HOSPITAL - ABC's "General Hospital" stars Chad Duell as Michael Corinthos. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)
Credit: ABC

As soap fans, we’re used to seeing familiar faces pop up in unexpected places. For example, Wally Kurth routinely bops back and forth between Salem and Port Charles so he can play Justin on Days of Our Lives and Ned on General Hospital. Sometimes, however, we’re caught off guard, especially when a temporary recast is involved.

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That was certainly the case when viewers turned on the June 1 episode of General Hospital and found out that Robert Adamson — best known to daytime fans as The Young and the Restless‘ former Noah — playing the role of Michael instead of Chad Duell.

It’s easy to see why General Hospital would need to hire someone to walk in Michael’s shoes in Duell’s absence. After all, the character is in major story right now thanks to the fact that Michael and Willow are fighting to prevent Nina from having visitation rights with her grandson, Wiley. And while we’ve often complained about the fact that some storylines seem to vanish for weeks at a time, that’s a bit different from a situation where an actor is unavailable for a currently-being-taped set of scenes, which appears to be the case here.

GH robert adamson YR Michael Willow carly

More: Big changes ahead for Michael and Willow?

Adamson first took on the part of Noah, son of Nick and Sharon Newman, back in 2012 and remained in the role until the character left Genoa City in 2018. Adamson would later return to play Noah for a brief time in 2020. More recently, the part was taken over by Rory Gibson, who began airing in the role last October.

Duell stepped into the role of Michael back in 2010, taking over after the departure of previous portrayer Drew Garrett. Ironically, Garrett and Duell had both auditioned for the role in 2009. At that time, it went to Garrett, with Duell stepping in a year later.

No word as of yet on why Adamson was called upon to step in, although a rep for General Hospital indicates that he will be appearing for several days. UPDATE: Duell has shared why he sat out for a week’s worth of episodes and sent a message to his replacement. Hear what both he and Adamson have to say about the switcheroo here.

Take a quick look at our list of stars who’ve left General Hospital recently.