1.  Congratulations on another Pre-Emmy nomination, do you have a personal favorite storyline for which you have won the Emmy?

TG: A difficult question to answer because, first of all, I honestly don't remember all of them, or what years correspond with which awards. Secondly, I'd have to say they were all favorites because the Academy deemed them worthy of the award.

I suppose my most favorite wins have included the last one (2007-2008) which was affectionately called "Luke Goes To Hell."  In this story, Luke was under the knife having bypass surgery.  He saw himself as an old, weak, ineffectual man stuck in the dreaded Spencer house, the place he hates the most, with a continually pregnant Lulu, her dim husband, and their obnoxious kids.  He was doomed to forever play 'Grandpa,' tending kids he couldn't stand, changing dirty diapers, and caring for Lulu's weak bladdered poodle.  Lucky was Chief of Police; Tracy was having a hot affair with Scott Baldwin; Mac Scorpio was his only pal, dropping by to take the old geezer golfing; and, life was the epitome of dull.  Worst of all, the hell house was full of alcohol that couldn't be opened and cigars that couldn't be lit.  It was flat-out comedy, something the Academy doesn't usually go for, and everyone involved had really a good time shooting it.  The script, penned by Michele Val Jean from an outline by Garin Wolf, was exceptionally good and our most fun and outrageous director, Bill Ludel, provided inspired lunacy.  I took a big risk by submitting this episode because I've never known anyone to win for a farcical performance before.  Carrying the statue home that night was most gratifying.

I also was very happy to win the award for the episode where Luke 'unplugged' Lucky from life-support.  I worked hard with my partner, Irene Suver, on the script, re-writing, making major script changes, filling in the blanks, and inventing a time in the Spencer lives when a young Lucky found his way across Europe alone.  I requested that Luke sing "Don't Fence Me In" to the unconscious Lucky, a song I decided they used to sing together when he was a kid.  The lyrics took on a powerful meaning with Luke facing the decision to 'let his son go' by unplugging the life support machines.  It was a very emotional show and one that really demonstrated how much creative freedom the writers and directors on G. H. have given me through the years.  This show was also directed by the wonderful Bill Ludel.  For various reasons I won't go into, we were under extreme time constraints to get these scenes done quickly.  I had only one shot to make each scene work.  It was made clear to me there would be no re-takes.   Working under that pressure and making a success of the scenes made the award all the sweeter.  It remains one of my most favorite performances of my long and, at times, tedious career.

I would have to say the last win that is worthy of mention would have to be the show when Luke told a 14 year old Lucky about raping Laura.  It was beautifully directed by Alan Pulse who had directed the rape nearly 20 years before. Alan used flashbacks to the original footage beautifully to punch up the monologue.   I was heavily invested in giving it a deeply personal and emotional truth, hoping to put to rest once and for all the speculation that it had not been rape, but a 'seduction gone wrong.'  Young Jonathan Jackson was nothing short of brilliant in the scenes, and, I believe, also won the Emmy that year.

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2.  Tell us about working with Nathan (Ethan Lovett) Parsons:

TG: When I returned to work after the 2009 New Year break, my executive producer, Jill Farren Phelps, called me to her office to say they had hired a young actor on a trial basis and wanted to try him out with me.  Our extremely talented casting director, Mark Techner, had found him in an audition for another role and brought him to her and Bob Guza's attention because he thought the young man 'had something,' and he somehow reminded Mark of me.  Jill and Bob read him and agreed we were eerily similar on some undetectable level.  So, they devised a character who was a con  and a drifter who Luke would find robbing his casino one night. They didn't know where the character of Ethan was going to go, or even if he'd be around for more than a couple of weeks, they just wanted to put me with Nathan and see what developed.  I agreed reluctantly because being stuck with a 20 year old actor without much experience (even for a brief period of time) didn't exactly seem like the ideal way to spend my old age.

On Nathan's first day, Jill walked me to the green room where this lanky, rough-hewn kid waited nervously.  She introduced us and left us to work on the scenes together.  It became clear to me in the first half hour with Nathan that he was extraordinarily talented.  Almost immediately we connected on a deep level.  In his first day of work, he proved himself to cast and crew alike, no easy feat.  Each day that followed he got better and better, more comfortable, more natural, more authentic.  By the end of his first week I went to Jill and asked her to put him on contract.  She and Bob Guza agreed.  They approached the network with a risky storyline about Ethan Lovett being Luke's long lost son from an affair with Holly Sutton. ABC was soon on board and Nathan was signedto a three year contract with options.

In the weeks that followed, Nathan and I grew closer as friends  and colleagues.  We found we had a lot in common -- we both started as hoofers in musical comedy, we're both Gemini, and our middle names are both Dean to name a few of the more obvious similarities.  The Dutch have a saying that translates to, "I met myself coming through the door."  There are times when I'm working with Nathan that I feel like I'm seeing myself 40 years ago.  It's a bit creepy, actually.  He's like the younger brother I never had,the son that got away. 

3.  You and Jane Elliot have worked on GH for a long time.  What is your working relationship like?

TG: Ah, Janie ...  What can I say about the talented and amazing Ms. Elliot? She challenges me every day.  She makes me a better actor and a better person by refusing to accept anything less than my best.  She is brutally honest, as direct and powerful as a bolt of lightning, and the last person you want to get on the wrong side of.  Jane is one tough cookie and a dear, dear friend.

My introduction to General Hospital was sometime in October of 1978 when I auditioned for a role called Mitch Williams.  He was to be a crooked senator who was involved romantically with Tracy Quartermaine.  My audition was put on tape for the producer, Gloria Monty, and ABC to compare with the other actors they were considering.  The audition was with Jane Elliot, who was already a cast member.  I remember the scene was in an office and started with me sitting at a desk with Jane entering. The cameras rolled and she didn't come in right away.  As I sat waiting for her entrance and the beginning of the dialogue (she had the first line), I began to doodle on a piece of paper.  I drew a tic-tac-toe grid and started playing with myself (pardon the expression).  I had placed a couple of X's and 0's in place when 'Tracy' entered.  She walked behind me, leaned over my shoulder, drew a bold X then struck a line through the grid, 'winning the game.'  I immediately knew I was in for a challenge with a strong and willful woman.  The audition went well, but the 'Powers That Be' decided I was too young for the role. 

About three weeks later Gloria Monty broke protocol, didn't go through an agent, and called me at home directly (I still don't know how she got my phone number).  She asked me to come in to her office to discuss a role they wanted to create for me.  That role was Luke Spencer.  It took almost thirty years before Jane and I were finally teamed up.  It was worth the wait.  I'm having the time of my life working with this spectacular actress. Jane Elliot is the consummate professional.  She always knows her lines, is the first one to insist everyone in the scene together before going up to the stage to rehearse, and invariably delivers a strong and interesting performance.  She consistently manages to make an acting feast from scraps.  If she is even one minute late to the set (which is never) she is unduly annoyed with herself and apologizes to everyone.  She asks the same of anyone who works with her, and no one escapes her wrath if he doesn't give his all -- that goes for cast, crew, writers, and producers.  I call her my Little Martinet and I wouldn't have it any other way.  No one gets a free pass in a scene with Ms Elliot, and no one puts one over on her ... ever! She takes no prisoners.  At the same time, Jane is kind, thoughtful, and can be a delightfully naughty little girl who loves to laugh at herself and others and stick her finger in the eye of self-important 'authority.'  Jane Elliot is one of kind, a true original.  She is my oldest and most consistent friend and ally in the Business we call Show.  I'm crazy about her. 

4.  How has Luke changed and how has he stayed the same?

TG: Obviously, he's gotten older.  He's still an anarchist, still hates cops, still lives life on his own terms.  He doesn't need to seek out damsels in distress to untie from the railroad tracks anymore, but he still considers life one big delicious adventure to be lived on the edge.  He may not be as impulsive and volatile as he used to be, but he continues to crave excitement above all.  He still lives for the thrill of courting disaster, cheating death, and surviving catastrophe.  He's never been afraid of being an outsider, he continues to embrace his rebel status and does not suffer fools gladly. Some think he's a cynic.  I think he's a romantic who has seen the world.


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5.  Recently you have been doing some singing- why did you not do more of this before?

TG: I started my professional career in the Musical Theater 45 years ago.  It remains my favorite way to express myself.  As a younger man, for years I made a living on stage as a dancer/singer/actor.  I worked in musical comedy logging over 50 productions in summer stock, on tour, and even as a showboy in Las Vegas.  (I was the tall guy in the tuxedo escorting topless beauties in ornate, feathered head gear down the staircase and across the stage.)  For many years I didn't pursue my desire to sing because I was determined to be considered a "Serious Actor."  That was a foolish mistake. Whether I'm a 'serious' or a 'frivolous' actor, and what people think of me in general, does not concern me anymore.  I now take voice lessons regularly and am always working on something musical.  I have no desire to record, I'm not a singer singer, I'm an actor singer.  I need a character to express the music.  I'd like to get back to the Musical Theater one day soon and bring my career full circle.  I've learned in my half century of professional work that if you prepare yourself, stay focused, and work hard, the opportunities come. 
Stay tuned ...

6.  What kind of woman was Gloria Monty?  What does she mean to you both personally and professionally?

TG: It is difficult to express what Gloria meant to me.  She was the guardian angel of my career.  She taught me to believe in myself as an actor in a profound way.  She expanded my limited vision of myself as a supporting player, by giving me a role that embodied all the elements of the outsider that I identified with while employing elements of the classic leading man that I thought were beyond me.  She created a true anti-hero and placed him at the center of her show.  She literally handed me a lifetime of work in the form of one character. 

In the mid 1970's, ABC had a series they called 'Late Night Mystery Movies' that aired at 11:00 PM.  They were shot on video tape.  I was cast in one called SORORITY KILL.  Gloria Monty directed.  She rehearsed it like a play for a week before going before the cameras.  I came from the stage and had been a regular on two soap operas, BRIGHT PROMISE and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, so I was in my element.  Ms Monty and I were comfortable with each other immediately.  To say we 'hit if off' would be a gross understatement.  She really GOT me like no one ever had before.  She understood me as an actor and knew how to talk to me be as a director.  My performance in the movie was not good.  It was pushed, angst-ridden, and immature.  I was trying too hard.  But, Gloria saw beyond all that to an untapped ability that I didn't realize was there.  She liked what she saw and she liked my passion for the work.  She remembered me.  Six months later, she hired me to play the role of a lifetime.  When we began to work together on G. H., we had a communication that was almost psychic.  We could complete each other's sentences.  She could give me a look that spoke volumes.  A sigh or gesture from her would somehow magically communicate what she wanted from me in a scene. I've never known anyone who could cut to the core of a scene quicker.  She used to give notes between dress rehearsal and taping that were sheer genius.  She had the ability to completely rethink and reshape a scene with a minimum of talk.  She gave me a solid grasp of the character of Luke Spencer and made it clear he had been created for me, for the unique, as yet untapped acting qualities she saw in me.  She taught me that all the answers to an actor's questions lay in finding the character's motivation -- "What does he want, and what stands in his way of getting it?"  She taught me to find a clear logic by cutting extraneous lines and adding others that serviced that logic.  She established from day one that I was to have the freedom to put the script into my own words, to change lines and add thoughts that occurred to me as the scenes developed through the rehearsal process.  My authentic 'voice,' my personal rhythm, was what she was interested in.  She never required that I fit into the character on the page, rather that the page fit my character's logic and motivation.   For her, what the actor brought to the character apart from the demands of the script, was the key.  She depended on the actor to completed the picture.  We worked with a lot of improvisation to find the direction of scenes and to discover the heart and emotion behind plot points.  Story, for Gloria, was always motivated by character.  Her storylines came from her characters, their hopes, their dreams, their ambitions, their flaws.  The integrity of character was never sacrificed for the sake of story.  All too often in our medium the storyline drags characters around, providing little motivation for their behavior.  With Ms Monty, character guided story.  Her show was never about a series of events, it was always about characters and relationships.  Her genius and mastery of the medium sustains me to this day. For that, I'll always be grateful to her.

Gloria was a petite woman, but when she was working, she was a force of nature.  She was one of the most dynamic presences I have ever known. She knew exactly what she wanted and how to communicate it to the people around her.  If you worked for Gloria you soon learned that she expected a lot of you.  Mostly, she expected you to have the same amount of passion and commitment to whatever the project was that she brought to it.  If you didn't have it, or didn't appreciate her demand for excellence, you didn't last long with her.  She could be very difficult.  She was not always the kindest of people, but she was always the most committed.  She took enormous creative risks because she believed utterly in herself and the people she hired.  She drove people mercilessly, but I never saw her ask more of her cast and crew than she was willing to give herself.  And, she was the rarest of producers in that she truly loved actors.  She understood and honored our process better and more completely than any director or producer I have ever worked with.  Gloria Monty was an authentic genius. She re-defined the medium.  We're still walking around in her footprints.

7.  What has been your Favorite Luke Spencer storyline and what has been your least favorite?

TG: I have always had a fondness for the original Luke and Laura runaway. When Luke was being hunted by Frank Smith and Laura was running away from husband Scotty Baldwin.  They were falling in love while trying to solve the mystery of the 'Left Handed Boy.'  And, they were being stalked by a series of hit men that included a deceptively friendly guy who befriended them named Hutch, and a cross dressing assassin.  I also loved 'The Return Of Luke And Laura' in 1993 which brought Jonathan Jackson on as Lucky Spencer.  The way the story opened  in Canada (shot on location) brought the audience up to date about what had been going on with Luke and Laura for the 12 years they were off the air. The action sequences as the story developed that included an exploding truck, parachuting out of an airplane, riding river rapids, and hanging from a helicopter over Niagra Falls, culminating in L & L returning to Port Charles has to be considered a favorite storyline of mine primarily because it was written by me and my partner Irene Suver. 

More recently, the story of Luke's series of heart attacks and how he was forced to face his mortality for the first time was challenging.  I enjoyed it's complexity, the fantasies he experienced during surgery, and the fact that it allowed me to sing on the show for the first time.  A Frank Sinatra song yet! And, because of the way it has re-defined Luke Spencer  and his family, I like very much the story of Ethan Lovett, Luke's bastard son. Least favorites are legion, but the years Luke spent in the Spencer house as a 'regular guy' -- good husband, good father, good neighbor were just God awful.  Luke spent more time feeding the damn dog than anything else. During that period, I felt the character disintegrating through bad writing and our then producer's lack of interest in him.  Luke fell through the cushions of the sofa and I was so bloody miserable I almost quit the show.  Fortunately, said producer left before I did. 

Finally, on my least favorite list is the infamous story about Stavros Cassadine returning from the dead.  It was a decent idea gone very wrong, poorly executed, dim witted, and massively confusing.  Talk about characters being dragged around by story!  When Luke finally killed Stavros for the second time, I was ready to kill myself.  This was a real low point for the show.  I thought I'd lose my mind.

8.  Can you tell us what you will be doing for your Broadway Cares 2010 performance:

TG: I'll be performing 'American Dream' from MISS SAIGON and Nathan Parsons, Brandon Barash and I are singing 'Dirty Rotten' from DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS.

9.  Seeing you together with Jonathan Jackson has been magical! How is it working with Jonathan again?

TG: Jonathan has matured and grown into his talent beyond expectations.  He has surpassed the promise he showed at age 12, when he first began on G. H., and he continues to refine his work like the true artist he is.   His years away from Daytime have focused and expanded his abilities and given him a confidence that will sustain him for years to come.  He now brings a depth of heart and soul to his work that is stunning.  To have him back on the show playing my son is an incredible gift to me.  I love J. J.  He is a wonderful man and quite simply one of the finest actors I've ever known.

          THANK YOU TONY FROM ALL YOUR FANS FOR A GREAT INTERVIEW!