Charles Shaughnessy. Photo source: ABC/Christine Bartolucci
Veteran British actor Charles Shaughnessy (“The Nanny,” “Days of Our Lives” and “General Hospital”) chats about his career and latest endeavors.
He also discussed being in “The Bay” and the holiday movie “The Magic.”
Walt Disney once said: “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Charles Shaughnessy is living proof of this wise saying from the animation legend.
‘Nanny’
Worldwide, he is known for his role as Mr. “Maxwell” Sheffield in the hit sitcom “The Nanny,” starring Fran Drescher. “That show was amazing,” he said. “It’s a very different animal playing a sitcom. You practice all week to perform on Friday. You have to do 22 minutes of material over and over all week, and you do it on Friday like it’s a play.”
“In a soap opera, you have to do material for an hour a day, so the difficulty with ‘The Nanny’ was to keep things interesting and engaging. What you see on the screen is the end of a long, repetitive week of rehearsals. It’s a different way of working. The fun thing is the success, it’s great to be on a primetime show that started slow and picked up speed and became a worldwide success. We had a lot of fun doing it,” he elaborated.
He had wonderful words about Madeline Zima, who plays his youngest on-screen daughter Grace. “Madeline is just a lovely person, she is the sweetest person and a very good actress,” he said. “That movie was not an easy time for any child actor. They were treated as plot points rather than developed as characters, which I thought was sad because all three of the actors who played my children in ‘The Nanny’ were great actors.”
“‘The Nanny’ has gone international and has a wide reach,” he added.
Most recently, he finished filming “General Hospital,” where he played villain Victor Cassadine. “I really enjoyed playing Victor,” he admitted. “I was a little surprised at how sad I was to leave it. I really enjoyed it, the character was so funny, he was so bad but also funny.”
“Then finally Victor went off the rails, he was so evil that they had to kill him. No way out. I hope that one day I can return to the show in some way,” he said.
“As Victor, I get to do scenes with a lot of actors so that’s very exciting,” he added.
“40 years ago, I played Holly’s (Emma Samms) criminal artist cousin Alistair Durban on the show. So who knows? Alistair Durban can reappear at any time,” he said with a sweet smile.
On April 29, he attended a Coastal Entertainment “General Hospital” virtual fan event alongside James Patrick Stuart, who plays his on-screen son Valentin Cassadine .
“That Zoom went great and was very successful,” Shaughnessy said. “They started doing these Zooms during the pandemic but everyone realized they were effective anyway because you could see people without having to travel across the country. Fans don’t have to spend a lot of money to travel, and these Zoom sessions are very intimate, and James Patrick Stuart is amazing.”
‘Days of our lives’
He got his start in the world of soap operas, playing Shane Donovan on Days of Our Lives, as well as his twin brother, Drew. “The people on ‘Days of Our Lives’ are amazing. All the actors there were fun to play with. I loved my eight years on that show,” he admitted.
‘Days in Our Lives: Beyond Salem’
A few years ago, he also played Shane and Drew Donovan in the Peacock limited series “Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.” “It was fun, especially playing two brothers. You want to make them different but also realistically different,” he said. “Drew breaks the rules and rebels while Shane follows the rules and is in Charge.”
“Working with Victoria Konefal and Robert Scott Wilson was amazing, they are great people,” he added.
