Scott Baldwin has been on GENERAL HOSPITAL for decades, so newer viewers might not be aware of his extensive history in Port Charles. But that’s where we come in! The character first appeared in the mid-’60s played by child actor Johnny Whitaker, and after a series of young actors was aged to an adult in 1977 when Kin Shriner took over the role. He’s come and gone from the soap multiple times over the years, even starring on the GH spinoff, PORT CHARLES for a time. In May 2023, fans worried when the actor tweeted that Scott had been written off the soap, but even though Shriner only appears now on a recurring basis, he’s always popping up!
Born Scotty Bentley, the young boy came to Port Charles with his mother, Meg Bentley, and stepsister Brooke. Eventually, Meg married Lee Baldwin, who adopted Scotty, but she developed breast cancer followed by a mental breakdown that forced Lee to have her committed. After Meg’s death, Lee raised Scotty on his own until sending him off to law school.
When Scotty returned in 1977, he got a job at the hospital and fell in love with Laura Webber. Despite the manipulations of his on-again/off-again lover, Bobbie Spencer, Scotty and Laura became man and wife. Unfortunately, Laura soon fell in love with Luke Spencer and divorced Scotty after just two years of marriage. At Luke and Laura’s wedding, Scotty caught the bouquet and declared he was contesting the divorce. His darker side came out as he married Susan Moore for her money while having an affair with Heather Webber. After Susan’s murder, Scotty left town for a while.
In 1987, Scotty returned and got involved in a relationship with Lucy Coe. Although they split up, the pair remained good friends, and when Scotty married Dominique Stanton, Lucy offered to be their surrogate mother because Dominique was dying. Unfortunately, Scotty’s wife didn’t live long enough to witness Lucy giving birth to their daughter, named Serena. After a brief engagement to Katherine Bell, Scotty took Serena and left Port Charles again.
Scotty returned in 1997 when Serena was kidnapped. At first, he blamed Lucy, but then they teamed up to find the real kidnapper, Dominique’s uncle, Rex Stanton, who was after the little girl’s trust fund. Once Serena was home safe and Rex was behind bars, Scotty began dating doctor Eve Lambert. In the end, though, he found his way back to Lucy, and they became business partners and eventually tied the knot. After their marriage fizzled out, Scotty started dating Laura again, but she was still in love with Luke, which led to her turning down Baldwin’s marriage proposal.
While Scotty was running for district attorney, Laura recalled killing her father’s mistress years ago and when she went to confront Rick about it, he ended up dead. Laura had a mental breakdown and was committed. After Scotty had won the race, Laura came out of her catatonic state to tell Lulu she didn’t kill Rick. It was then revealed that Scotty had been the one who’d accidentally killed Rick trying to protect Laura. Scotty also learned he had a son when ex-soldier Logan Hayes arrived in town, but he was killed by Lulu in self-defense when she caught him beating up Maxie. Furious, Scotty threatened Lulu in front of Laura, which brought her out of her catatonia again. He took Laura to Los Angeles to relive their honeymoon, and her family followed to bring her home. Later, Laura decided to go to France to seek further treatment and Scotty secretly joined her.
In 2013, Scott returned to Port Charles with the news that he and Laura were engaged. Fearing she would again choose Luke, Scott rushed her down the aisle, but she still ended up spending more time with her ex-husband when their daughter, Lulu, was abducted. Giving in, Scott decided it would be best if they split up. He was shocked when Heather revealed that the former serial killer, Franco, is their son, resulting from a drunken hookup many years ago.
Scott slowly got to know Franco and began an affair with Lucy. When their affair was publicly exposed at the Nurses Ball and she chose to stay with her husband, Kevin, Scott reconnected with Bobbie. But Kevin couldn’t forgive Lucy and divorced her, sending her running back to Scott only to find him with Bobbie. The two women fought over him until Scott finally made the decision and picked Bobbie. Unfortunately, that didn’t last because he insisted on pressing charges against Carly for knowing the truth about the death of A.J. Quartermaine.
Scott was devastated by the deaths of his parents, Lee and Gail Baldwin, and struck up a bit of a flirtation with Ava Jerome. Usually, he’s kept very busy in court, often defending clients who aren’t particularly innocent. And when Bobbie was diagnosed with diabetes, Scott was right there by her side to offer his support. After Franco was implanted with Drew’s memories, Scott represented Liz in court as he argued that Franco was still Franco.
When Franco was returned to normal, Nikolas returned to Port Charles and Scott warned his son about Liz’s past with the Cassadine Prince. Nikolas ended up marrying Ava and they found themselves being blackmailed with pics of them kissing Liz and Franco, respectively. In the end, it was revealed that Scott was helping Liz and Franco blackmail the couple and he was stunned when they had a change of heart and tore up the checks! Scott next found himself being brought into Laura’s latest drama as she warned him that Cyrus Renault was digging into her past murder of David Hamilton.
Scott was heartbroken when Franco was murdered, and stunned when Liesl Obrecht insisted that Peter August was the one responsible for his son’s death. A drunken one-night stand between the pair ended up becoming a legitimate relationship as Scott and Obrecht began dating. He agreed to accompany her on a business trip to St. Lucia, but they feared for their lives when it seemed the plane was going down!
After passing out and waking up to find out he’d been thrown out of the plane wearing a parachute, Scott was horrified to realize that Obrecht had been kidnapped! And while he wasn’t able to go to Greece with the others to help bring her home, he was relieved when she was brought back to Port Charles badly injured, but alive. He later tried popping the question, but she turned him down, not wanting to ruin the good thing they already had going.
Scott represented Nina Reeves in her attempt to gain visitation rights to Wiley, and dragged Michael through the mud to do it, but ultimately failed. He also took on Trina Robinson‘s case to prove she’d been framed for leaking the sex tape of Cam and Joss, but was unable to appear in court for the trial, leaving Diane to take over for him. Upon his return to Port Charles, Scott was stunned to meet Cody Bell, who punched him in the face before revealing that he was Dominique’s son! Things cooled down after Cody apologized and he even went to Scott for legal advice about claiming the diamond necklace that once belonged to his father.
When Liz asked for help, he represented her as she confessed to her involvement in the kidnapping of Esme Prince and got her immunity for her testimony against Nikolas. Unfortunately, defending Liz upset Obrecht, who blamed Liz for interfering in the investigation into the Hook killings that led to Britt’s death. Scott tried to make things right, but while Obrecht admitted she still loved him, she couldn’t be with him anymore.
When Cody asked Scott to defend him against the accusations he stole a bracelet, the attorney turned him down. But after learning that the Ice Princess necklace had been lost in the bombing that took out Victor, Scott decided that he wanted to sue the WSB for destroying Serena and Cody’s inheritance. Cody agreed, but ultimately changed his mind and backed down.
Scott supported Lucy as she dealt with Tracy Quartermaine taking away controlling interest in Deception, and continued to be one of Port Charles’ more morally flexible attornies when he represented Cyrus and got him early release from prison on medical grounds. He also accompanied Lucy, Maxie, Sasha, and Cody to the Home & Heart shopping channel studio where he warned host Haven de Havilland that if they caused any more trouble for Sasha during this appearance, he’d sue them.
At the beginning of 2024, Scott found himself roped into Lucy’s plan to take down Tracy by having him seduce her and then elope with her to marry and take her fortune. However, Tracy was no fool and caught on to their scheming pretty quickly and made Martin believe Lucy was cheating on him with Scott. After Martin dumped her, Scott offered Lucy a shoulder to cry on which led to them having sex on the Home & Heart set! Martin returned to apologize but finding them together, decided he’d made the right call.
In February, Scott was surprised to run into John “Jagger’ Cates at Karen’s graveside on her birthday and hoped the FBI agent was back in Port Charles to help take Sonny down once and for all. When Lucy found out that Scott was planning a lawsuit on Heather’s behalf because her hip replacement gave her cobalt poisoning, she urged him to leave it alone, asking how he’d feel if Franco’s killer had gotten off because of a similar diagnosis. The attorney then found himself helping Ava in her upcoming custody battle with Sonny over their daughter, Avery. He worried she didn’t have enough people to testify on her behalf and was shocked when Ava revealed that Sonny was off his meds and would explode on the stand if provoked.
