The General Hospital Actors Who Have Played Twins

Seeing double on daytime television is nothing new, as evil twins and even not-so-evil twins are a typical soap trope, where one actor takes on two roles at a time. To pull off these complicated scenes, a double is usually used in order for the actor to portray both parts, and footage is then seamlessly edited to make it seem as if two performers are playing two different characters. These stars often win Daytime Emmys for their work, including Ellen Wheeler for playing Victoria and Marley Hudson on NBC's "Another World" and the late David Canary for portraying Adam and Stuart Chandler on ABC's "All My Children." 

As of this writing, "General Hospital" currently has two actors on the soap who have played or are playing twins, while an additional screen star made a brief return to his original role several years ago as the never-before-heard-of twin brother of a menacing villain fans never expected to see again.

ABC soap fans had known Anna Devane for years on "General Hospital," yet never knew the character had a twin sister until she showed up in Pine Valley, the fictional town where "All My Children" took place. As an "AMC" character, Alex Devane Marick was not yet a sadistic villainess, but rather nursed Anna back to health after she had been presumed dead for years. In 2000, actor Finola Hughes (who previously won for her portrayal of Anna) earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for playing Alex, according to Gold Derby.

For a time, Hughes played both Anna and Alex on "AMC," but in 2001, Alex left town to live in Europe, and Anna eventually made her way back to Port Charles and "GH." By the time Alex returned to the "GH" scene in 2017, she was no longer the loving sister: Hughes played Alex as a pure evil woman who would hurt her sister any chance she got in order to get whatever she wanted. In the fall of 2020, Alex returned one last time and kidnapped Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms). While Anna rescued Maxie, she ended up shooting her sister dead.

It's a good thing the character of Alex existed, because it allowed the show to rewrite a story in which Anna confessed that she'd given birth to her stalker's child years ago. When fans were outraged, the soap decided that Alex was really Peter August's (Wes Ramsey) mother. In 2021, Hughes earned another Daytime Emmy nomination for bringing both characters to life.

When Jon Lindstrom first joined "General Hospital" in 1992, he was hired to play mild-mannered pediatrician Ryan Chamberlain, who soon turned out to be a mild-mannered serial killer who was obsessed with Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner). When Ryan was allegedly killed, Lindstrom returned to the show a year later as Kevin Collins, a mild-mannered psychiatrist and also Ryan's brother, who has remained one of the "GH" good guys off and on ever since.

However, in 2018, fans learned that Kevin had a big secret. He knew his brother, Ryan, had actually been alive for years and kept him in various prisons and mental health facilities. Keeping that secret turned out to be a mistake for Kevin, however, because Ryan managed to overtake him one day, putting Kevin in a straitjacket while he took over his life and went on another killing spree through town. Lindstrom earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2019 for playing both roles, per Gold Derby.

At the time of this writing, Kevin is thankfully back to going about his life in Port Charles and checking in on his once-again locked-up twin, who is supposedly faking a rare ailment called Locked In Syndrome. Ryan's ready to break out again any day with the help of a cunningly evil young woman named Esme Prince (Avery Pohl) ... who may or may not be his long-lost daughter.

Carlos Rivera was definitely one of the bad guys when he first arrived in Port Charles as a hitman for the Jerome crime family. It also happened to be where his childhood sweetheart, Sabrina Santiago (Teresa Castillo), lived and worked as a sweet nurse. Carlos did his best to win Sabrina back, but she rejected him at every turn until the night he knew he would go to jail for killing Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan). He and Sabrina had a one-night stand before Finola Hughes' Anna Devane put a bullet in his chest for killing the man she loved.

It turned out Carlos never died that night. It also turned out that Sabrina got pregnant that night. In 2016, Carlos took Sabrina and the baby back to Puerto Rico and returned to Port Charles to finish a job. That's when Julian Jerome (William deVry) killed Carlos for real. However, actor Jeffrey Vincent Parise wasn't quite done with the role. 

A few months after Carlos was killed, his brother — the mild-mannered Dr. Joe Rivera — turned up in town. After Sabrina died, leaving her baby an orphan, Joe got custody of him, left Port Charles, and was never heard from again. In 2017, Parise earned a Daytime Emmy nod for playing both Carlos and Joe (via Gold Derby).