GL: DYLAN SHAYNE-LEWIS

News that soap vet Brian Gaskill (ATWT, AMC, B&B) had been cast as Guiding Light's Dylan, prompted several newer viewers to ask, "Who the heck is Dylan?"

Never fear!

The PGP Classic Soaps Blog is here to tell all!

Dylan, originally played by Morgan Englund (son of Oscar and Emmy winner Cloris Leachman), first appeared on screen in 1989, rowing the boat that brought Reva to wed Josh at Cross Creek. (Englund had actually dislocated his shoulder the night before and couldn't row, so he sat in the boat and pretended).

In short order, Dylan was revealed as the father of the baby girl Harley had given up for adoption (he'd been in jail and didn't know she was pregnant) and the son of Reva and Billy that she'd given up for adoption (Billy went away to college and didn't know that Reva was pregnant).

Though Dylan slept with Harley, by then he was in love with Samantha Marler. Sam and Dylan tried to elope, but her father stopped them. In the Florida Keys with a manic Reva, Dylan and Sam were in the car she was planning to drive off a bridge. Reva pushed Dylan out. Sam jumped after him, and ended up paralyzed as a result. She told Dylan she couldn't marry him like this and, frustrated, Dylan left town.

When he returned, he took up with Mallet's younger sister, Julie. On their wedding day, Bridget Reardon told Dylan that his bride-to-be had slept with Hart. Dylan dumped her.

Dylan and Bridget grew closer when he supported her in the custody battle to win her son, Peter, back from his adoptive parents, Vanessa and Billy.

Dylan and Bridget became a couple in 1994, after Bridget and Vanessa agreed to share custody of Peter. Later that year, Dylan was struck by a hit and run driver and blinded. Feeling helpless, he snuck out of town on New Year's Eve without telling Bridget, to attend a school for the blind.

When his eyesight returned, Dylan came back to Springfield and asked Bridget to marry him. She and Peter moved to Minnesota with Dylan.

Since then, the Shayne-Lewis heir has been back to town several times, including for his grandfather, HB's, funeral, and his mother's wedding to Josh. He also got the chance to meet Daisy, when she was still going by the name Susan.

Dylan most recently met with Reva in New York during her cancer treatment, where she made him promise to look after his younger brother, Jonathan, whose life had definite similarities to Dylan's.

Brian Gaskill takes over the pivotal role in March of 2007. How will his return affect Harley and Gus' marriage? (After all, the first time he showed up, it meant curtains for Harley and Alan-Michael). Tune in to GL and find out!