General Hospital’s Charles Mesure Exits; replaced by Chris McKenna

Jack Brennan is about to look a lot different on General Hospital.

Deadline has confirmed that Charles Mesure, who joined the ABC sudser in December of 2023, is walking away from his role as Brennan and will be replaced by Chris McKenna, who is best known in the soap world for playing Joey Buchanan on One Life to Live and Det. Mark Harding on The Young and the Restless.

Mesure’s last air date was Jan. 30; McKenna will show up starting Feb. 4.

“Charles Mesure opted to exit the role of Brennan,” according to a GH statement. “We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. General Hospital looks forward to continuing Brennan’s exciting storyline with Chris McKenna in the role.”

Brennan has worked as a journeyman actor in TV for decades, with credits that include Gotham Nights, Blue Bloods, Desperate Housewives, Ghost Whisperer, Bones and Without a Trace. He told Soap Opera Digest last year that he was a bit nervous about working in daytime.

“I’ll be honest about it, I thought, ‘I’m an old dog. I’m not sure if I can learn any new tricks! I’m not sure if I can adapt to the huge amount of dialogue that these fantastic actors on shows like General Hospital can learn,” he told Digest, which was first to report the news about Mesure’s departure. “I’m not sure if I can suddenly be a leading man again at the age of 53! For 28 years, I came from a single camera film background where you can only do eight, nine, 10 pages a day, [while at GH] it’s no secret that they do 10 times that every day!”

McKenna was only 12 when he was cast on One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan, son of Clint and Viki Buchanan, from 1990-93. He most recently appeared on NCIS, The Blacklist and Chicago Fire.