MY BOY BILL

Daniel Cosgrove will be returning to the role of Guiding Light's Bill Lewis, which the actor last played almost two years ago, in October of 2005.

Harlan Billy Lewis III was born in November of 1984. At the time, he was believed to be the first child of Vanessa Chamberlain (she would later reveal having given birth to Dinah at 17 and surrendered her up for adoption) and her husband, Billy Lewis (who already had a grown daughter, Mindy, and would later learn he also had an almost-grown son with Reva, Dylan). The baby was called Little Billy.

Unlike most soap tots, Little Billy was neither kidnapped, nor suffered from a bone-marrow requiring disease. Perhaps this was because Vanessa became obsessed with her child and, also unlike most soap mothers, actually hovered over and took care of him, instead of leaving her son perennially "upstairs." However, no good deed goes unpunished, and Vanessa's diligent parenting was rewarded with an addiction to tranquilizers (taking care of an infant is stressful; especially if you're someone who cares about doing it correctly) that caused a strung-out Vanessa to mow down a pregnant Reva with her car. Reva lost the baby and Vanessa got some help.

When next we saw Little Bill, he was around eight years old (four years after he was born) and so pissed off about Billy and Vanessa's divorce and Billy's drinking that he insisted on being called "Bill," to differentiate himself from his father.

Growing up in Springfield, Bill's best friends in the world were Michelle Bauer and Ben Reade. When Michelle ran away from home, it was all the way to Bill's closet. Later, the pre-teens went on their first date together and shared their first kiss. Both Michelle and Ben were there for Bill when he dealt with his father's marriage to Nadine, his mother's relationship with Matt, and his own accidental setting of a fire on 5th Street which caused major damage.

Bryan Buffinton played the role from 1989 to 1998 and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995. He won a Young Artist Award in 1993.

Ryan Brown (son of best-selling novelist Sandra Brown) took Bill through his late teen years, complete with a doomed crush on Michelle and a relationship with her sister-in-law, Pilar, that ended soon after the pair left Springfield together.

Bill returned to town in 2002 for his uncle Josh's third wedding to Reva and decided to stick around when he saw Beth -- whom he'd had an affair with during her amnesia, Lorelei Hills period. That relationship went nowhere due to Beth's jealousy of Bill's friendship with Michelle (and, one presumes, because a relationship began when one person isn't themselves is kind of hard to maintain when they... are again).

Though Bill and Michelle did attempt to revive their childish flirtation, her heart was with Danny. Together, the old friends mourned the death of a seriously emotionally disturbed Ben, who'd turned into a serial killer before committing suicide.

A relationship with Gus' sister, Eden, ended when she entered the witness protection program, but a business partnership with Olivia to bring down the Spauldings turned to romance. They wed and he even adopted her daughter, Emma.

But when Olivia pushed Billy off the wagon in order to advance her husband's career (which he didn't even want in the first place), Bill told his wife he was leaving town and, later, sent divorce papers.

This Fall, Bill returns to Springfield in a much darker place than the usually happy go lucky Lewis is used to. He'll cross paths with his parents and, of course, with his ex-wife, but another woman (already on the canvas) will also enter his life in a surprising way, and lead to a confrontation Bill never expected.

Watch to see what this son of Springfield does next, only on Guiding Light!