Casting
Characterization
The character was originated as a child in the 1960s, played by the child actor Johnny Whitaker in 1965.
He was succeeded by Teddy Quinn in 1966, next by Tony Camp from 1969 to 1972, then by Don Clarke from 1973 to 1974, and Johnny Jensen from 1974 to 1975.
The character of Scott is most commonly associated with Kin Shriner, who assumed the role beginning August 2, 1977.[7]
Shriner left the series briefly to play Jeb Hampton on Texas, returning in 1982 for a one-year contract.[8]
He returned again on November 27, 1987,[9] leaving on December 24, 1993. Shriner reprised the role in 1997 on the spinoff Port Charles.[10]
He left Port Charles in 2001, and returned to the original series,[11] until his departure in 2004. Shriner returned in 2007. He last appeared in November 2008.
With the departure of actress Rachel Ames as Audrey Hardy, Scott became the oldest character (in real time) appearing on General Hospital, having been introduced in 1965.
On January 14, 2013, it was announced that Shriner would return to General Hospital on February 19, making him the latest in a slew of returning fan favorites.[12] He has been on the show ever since.
On December 31, 2021, Shriner said he will not be seen for the foreseeable future. His last appearance was on December 30, 2021.[13]
Shriner returned as Scott on January 21, 2022.
On May 16, 2023, Shriner confirmed on Twitter that he was let go from GH.[14]
That turned out to be untrue again as he returned on July 3, 2023.
When Kin Shriner assumed the role in 1977, Scotty is a respectable young adult. He enters law school and has a promising future with his career and young love Laura. The two marry in 1979. However, when Laura is raped by Luke Spencer and subsequently falls in love with him, Scotty's devastation hardens his character.
Laura leaves him and marries Luke in 1981. Scotty leaves town as Shriner left the series to pursue other opportunities. Executive Producer at the time Gloria Monty asked him to return a year later, ready to turn his character into a "rat."[15] Scott becomes known for lying and scheming.[16]
Fans accepted the change, both because he was more interesting to watch, and because they understood the character's past and felt that the betrayal of both the love of his life (Laura) and one of his good friends (Luke) left him a broken man and in turn caused him to become bitter and jaded about the world.
Shiner explained in 1982:
- "I haven't gotten any flak for being a bad guy. People feel Scotty's behavior is justified because of his past. How would a guy feel when his woman (Laura) is raped, and then becomes involved with the rapist? No man is going to be the same after that."[15]
1960s-80s
1990s
2010s
In 1965, young Scotty Bentley came to Port Charles with his mom Meg and teenage half-sister Brooke after their father Lloyd died. Meg started dating Dr. Noel Clinton, but when Noel left Meg to marry her step-daughter Brooke, she was devastated. She turned to Lee Baldwin, and he helped her through the ordeal. Lee and Meg were married in 1966, and Lee adopted Scotty, making him a Baldwin.
In 1970, Brooke's marriage to Noel had broken up and Brooke came to live with Lee and Meg. Meg was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. She then grew insecure of her appearance and became jealous of Brooke's looks.
Meg suffered a nervous breakdown from her jealousy and depression and Lee was forced to have her committed to an institution. In 1971, Meg was released and came home, but suffered from severe hypertension. Dr. Lesley Williams was assigned to her case. Meg became jealous of Lesley and began to think that she was trying to get into Lee's bed.
During an argument with Lee, Meg died of a stroke. Scotty later left Port Charles to go to law school. When he returned, he got a job at General Hospital, where he metLaura Webber. They fell in love and eventually married. Laura then began working at The Campus Disco, where she met shady Luke Spencer.
Luke became obsessed with Laura and raped her. Even though Luke had raped her, Laura fell in love with him and ran away with him. She then divorced Scotty, fewer than two years into their marriage. At Luke and Laura's wedding in 1981, Scotty caught the bouquet and announced that he was contesting his divorce from Laura. After his breakup with Laura, Scott had several brief relationships.
While still reeling over the divorce, Scotty ran into Heather Webber, who had recently escaped from Pine Circle Sanitarium. The two shared a few drinks and had a one-night-stand at Kelly's diner, which resulted in a son, Franco. Heather never told Scotty she was pregnant and hid her pregnancy. Once their son was born, Heather sold him to a nurse Betsy Frank.
After that night Heather and Scotty went their separate ways until they resumed a sexual relationship months later, however Scotty didn't learn that Heather had given birth to his child until years later. In 1982, he married Susan Moore so that he could get her son Jason's trust fund. After Susan was murdered, and Jason went to live with his father Alan Quartermaine and step-mother Monica, Scott left town. Scott returned in 1987 when he helped destroy Bobbie Spencer's marriage to Jake Meyer and they dated briefly.
Scott then had an affair with Lucy Coe while she was married to Alan Quartermaine. After Lucy left town, Scott married Dominique Stanton, who was the love of his life. Lucy later came back to town and Dominique developed an inoperable brain tumor. Dominique and Scott desperately wanted a child, and Lucy agreed to carry their child for them. After Dominique had died, Lucy gave birth to Scott and Dominique's daughter, Serena. Then, after an ill-advised engagement to Katherine Bell, Scott took Serena and moved to Canada.
Scott returned to Port Charles in 1997 when Serena had been kidnapped. He accused Lucy of kidnapping her since she had such a strong attachment to her. He soon realized that Lucy was not the kidnapper though, and they teamed up to find who was. The real kidnapper turned out to be Dominique's uncle Rex Stanton, who wanted Serena's trust fund. The kidnappers' payment instructions were for Scott to buy five million dollars in jewels and have them sewn onto a ball gown. Lucy dropped the jeweled gown into a dumpster and Dominique's half-sister Danielle, who was Rex's unwilling accomplice, retrieved it.
Scott and Serena were then reunited. But Scott still wanted to know who had kidnapped Serena. So Rex fabricated evidence to frame Scott as the kidnapper. He then drugged Scott to make him appear to be an unfit father. Scott was arrested and Rex and Danielle moved to gain custody of Serena. Scott got out on bail and was only allowed supervised visits with his daughter. Danielle then finally told Scott the truth, but she died in a car accident soon after. So Scott's friends came up with a plan in which Kevin Collins and Lucy would pretend to break up so that Lucy could charm her way into Rex's confidence. But Lucy's plan was taking too long, so Kevin, Jake Marshak, Scott, Eve Lambert, and Lucy devised another plan. This time, they would make Rex think that Danielle wasn't dead and that they had been keeping her alive in the catacombs. Their scheme worked, and Rex was ultimately arrested.
After Serena was home safely and recovered, Scott began dating Eve Lambert. Lucy became extremely jealous of the time Eve was spending with Scott and Serena. She came up with a plan to gain back their attention by looking like a hero. She siphoned the gas out of Eve's car, so that she could rescue them when their car ran out of gas. Her plan backfired however when they were in an accident and Serena lost her eyesight. After a successful surgery, though, she regained her sight. Lucy and Scott did, however, find their way back to each other. Lucy decided to market a line of dresses, and Scott served as her business partner.
Before they got a chance to market them on television, the dresses were ruined and Scott suspected foul play. Then, a mysterious businessman named DV Bordisso came to town and offered to buy the dresses from them. They refused, and Scott started to suspect that DV was the one responsible for ruining them. After DV continued to sabotage their business, Lucy and Scott traveled to New York City to investigate his past. While there, Lucy went missing, and Scott suspected DV. Scott rescued her though, and proposed to her, which Lucy accepted.
At The Nurses' Ball that year, Julie Devlin's daughter Christina was left in Lucy and Scott's care, whom they later adopted. Later, DV started taunting Scott about his love for Scott's mother Meg. Scott and Lucy uploaded a virus and destroyed DV's evil Cobra Project. DV then kidnapped Lee, but Scott and Kevin got him back. Scott was then arrested for shooting DV, but everyone knew he was being framed. He was later cleared after Eve got a corrupt cop's confession of planting evidence to frame Scott on tape. DV was then revealed to be Scott's biological father.
Scott and Lucy later married.
Scott and Lucy's marriage fizzled, but Scott asked Lucy to adopt Serena, which she did. Lucy later married Kevin and they moved to France with Christina. Luke and Laura divorced, and Scott started dating her again. Luke, however, was still in the picture and would go to Laura for help with the ongoing Cassadine-Spencer feud. Scott remained very jealous of Luke because of this. Scott later asked Laura to remarry him, but Laura chose to go back to Luke instead. Scott was unhappy at seeing Laura's adoptive father Rick Webber back in Port Charles for Luke and Laura's wedding. It appeared that Rick and Scott shared a secret that they didn't want revealed. In an attempt to keep Scott quiet, Rick was able to get Scott on the ballot for District Attorney.
Though they tried hard to keep the secret secret, Laura remembered what had happened. She had accidentally killed Rick's mistress years before, and Rick and Scott had covered it up. Laura went to confront Rick with this memory, and Rick ended up dead. Scott questioned Laura, who had become mentally ill, about the death, and she confessed to killing him. Scott got the confession on tape, and played it for Luke, which prompted him to take the blame for the murder to protect Laura. Luke was sentenced to life in prison, but was later able to escape. Laura was then committed to a mental institution, where she went into a catatonic state. Scott eventually dropped the charges against Luke after Alexis Davis blackmailed him into doing so after she got a hold of Laura's taped confession. Alexis had been his opponent for DA, and she dropped out of the race in exchange for Scott dropping the charges, so Scott won the race by default.
In 2007, while Scott had been out of town for a while, Laura temporarily came out of her catatonia and told her daughter Lulu that she was certain she did not kill Rick Webber. Lulu vowed to find the truth and started investigating the murder. Lulu and Dillon Quartermaine intercepted a letter from Alan Quartermaine after he died. In the letter, Alan said that Scott was Rick's killer. Scott then visited Laura at Shadybrook Sanitarium and confessed to her that he killed Rick. He had gone to the house that night to see Laura and heard screaming. When he got to Rick and Laura, he saw Rick trying to inject Laura with a drug to make her forget killing his mistress years before. He grabbed a candlestick and hit Rick over the head, accidentally killing him. He left, and when Luke got there, he saw Rick dead, and Laura was so far gone that she didn't remember Scott being there. Lulu told Laura the truth, hoping that it would bring her out of her catatonic state, which didn't work. Lulu wanted to tell her father the truth, but was afraid that Luke would either kill Scott, or he'd leave town because he would feel guilty because he had pushed Laura to remember the truth about her killing Rick, which caused her to be in a catatonic state.
In November 2008, Laura woke up again from her catatonic state and Scott kidnapped her and took her to Los Angeles, in hopes of renewing their relationship. Scott later returned with Laura to Port Charles. Laura then went to France to seek further treatment, and Scott secretly boarded her plane with her, heading to Paris to presumably be close to her and live near his daughters, Serena and Christina.
In February 2013, Scott resurfaces in Port Charles, revealing to a bewildered Luke that he and Laura are engaged. Scott's return also coincides with the appearance of a replica of the infamous Ice Princess Diamond, which had been addressed to Lulu on Valentine's Day. He is seen at the Dante's and see handing out flyers in a city park in March 2012. He stays at the bedside of Nikolas Cassadine for Laura in early April 2013. He is taken back to the hotel by Bobbie Spencer after staying awake for a long time on 4-10-13.
In September 2013 Scott and Laura agree that a divorce would be best. Scott is elected DA after the former DA was found to be working with Sonny and Scott blackmailed him into withdrawing from the race.Former DA Lazaro's connection with Sonny was discovered by Julian Jerome and in return for the information, Scott had to agree to let Julian's illegal activities slide. In November 2013 during an art show, Heather finally reveals to Scott that Franco is their biological son to keep Scott from arresting them both.
In December 2013, Scott begins having an affair with Lucy Coe. Overtime he also starts to bond with Franco and get to know him more. He occasionally helped Franco out of some legal situations, including hiding him from the police when he was accused of kidnapping. Scott and Lucy's affair was revealed rather publicly in May 2014 at the Nurses' Ball. Lucy was horrified and ashamed, and ultimately chose to stay with her husband, Kevin Collins and try to work on their marriage. Scott professed his love to Lucy but she chose Kevin, so Scott moved on and reconnected with former flame, Bobbie Spencer.
Meanwhile, Kevin was unable to deal with Lucy's infidelity and he filed for divorce. Lucy was heartbroken over the divorce, but also could not get Scott off her mind. When she realized there was no more chance for her and Kevin, she talked to Felicia Scorpio, who encouraged Lucy to go to Scott and tell him how she felt. Lucy decided to tell Scott that she wanted to give them a chance, only to find Bobbie in his hotel room. Bobbie reveals to Lucy that she and Scott had been together ever since Lucy rejected him. Bobbie and Lucy fought over Scott and when he returned to the hotel room, Lucy told him that he would have to choose which one of them he wanted to be with. Scott finally makes a decision between the two women and chooses Bobbie. Scott and Bobbie attend a birthday celebration for Franco, put together by Carly. Scott is shocked when Franco proposes to Carly during the party. Scott makes the first toast to his son's engagement.
A mysterious photographer took pictures of Nikolas kissing Elizabeth and Ava kissing Franco. They then received the pictures on the phone, and in October he was revealed as the blackmailer.
Elizabeth and Franco where in on the blackmail, to teach them a lesson, as they where used as pawns in their game against each other. Ultimately Elizabeth and Franco ripped up the checks that he got from Ava and Nikolas for them.
In March of 2021, Scott son's Franco was murder by Peter August in a struggle over a gun which resulted in Franco getting shot in the chest by his heart and died instantly when his daughter-in law Liz tried give him CPR but unfortunately she was unable to save him on the scene at his art studio leaving his daughters Serena and Christina as his only living children as of 2021.
