On November 12, 2018, in a special episode celebrating Maurice Benard's 25th anniversary as Sonny, his son Joshua James Benard portrayed a young Sonny. In December 2014, Benard confirmed he had re-signed with the series, for an undisclosed amount of time. On December 6, 2011, Aramis Knight portrayed a young Sonny. Īfter four years with the series, Benard vacated the role on September 24, 1997.Īfter a brief return on May 15 to July 8, 1998, Benard returned to the role full-time on December 18, 1998. The role of Sonny Corinthos originated in the final weeks of Bill Levinson's tenure as head writer, in August 1993, prior to Levinson's replacement by Claire Labine. At one point he had stopped coming in to work but expressed his gratitude to the network for keeping faith in him instead of firing him immediately. īenard revealed that just two weeks after starting work, he suffered a manic depressive breakdown. In addition the role being short term, Benard also chose the role because he liked the character's name. The producers offered him two separate roles, that of mobster Damian Smith, with a two year contract, and that of Sonny.
He joined the cast of General Hospital because he had gone broke and acting was all he knew at the time. Benard revealed that after his stint on All My Children, he was not interested in doing another soap.
Initially, the character was only supposed to last for six months as Benard was not interested in anything more than a year. It was only a matter of how long it would take to get Benard on screen. Benard came in for a meeting with Wendy Riche, and the two immediately clicked.
According to General Hospital casting director, Mark Teschner, Benard was one of the few actors being considered for the role.