Salem is saying so long to Steve Burton.
The former General Hospital star who joined Days of Our Lives at the start of 2023 has announced he’s departing the Peacock sudser. He played Harris Michaels, a role he originated on Days in 1988. He also reprised the role for the Peacock Original series spinoff Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem.
“Well, I just shot my final scenes here at Days of Our Lives,” he said in a recent video posted to Daily Drama. “I just want to say thank you so much to the cast [and] to the crew. Everybody. It’s been amazing.”
“I can’t believe it’s been a year already!” he said. “Thank you so much to the fans. It’s just, I’m always so full of gratitude. So thank you!”
Burton told fans to “stay tuned” for what’s to come.
General Hospital fans still rue the day that Burton left GH in 2021 over his refusal to comply with the production’s Covid vaccine mandate. He played Jason Morgan. “Look, the circumstance [of his GH departure] was tough, and you know, that’s just the way it is,” Burton told Deadline in July. “I’ll always be grateful for my time there. It was my family for so long. I grew up there, and the fans have always been awesome to me.”
“It was my belief and I stuck to it and I knew it was gonna be that way,” Burton continued. “I knew some people would agree with it and some people wouldn’t agree with it. It’s a personal choice, and that’s what I had to do. GH was a huge part of my life and I’m so grateful for the opportunity there and the people there. I just don’t have anything bad to say. It was a handshake — ‘Hey, it doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t work for me.’ OK, great. Awesome. That was it. And that’s OK. In life it’s perspective, right? It’s how you choose to handle it. We all have a choice in how to handle things. You could get angry and pissed off and bad-mouth people and take the low road and that’s not gonna get anyone anywhere, ever. I truly am grateful and I work from that.”