Maura West Pays Tribute to Roger Howarth

Roger Howarth already said his goodbye to GENERAL HOSPITAL after his most recent character, Austin, was shot in the chest, and now his longtime co-star, Maura West (Ava), is saying farewell to her good friend.

“Grateful for this man,” she shared on X (the social media platform better known as Twitter). “Expert actor. So funny, smart as hell. Gentle. Creative and collaborative… supportive. Life-giving. What’s better?” She also included hashtags for “#frava” (Franco/Ava) and “#jolt” (Jerome/Holt), their two pairings on GH.

Howarth originally played his ONE LIFE TO LIVE character of Todd Manning on GH but a legal dispute forced the soap to cast him in another role so he was playing Franco Baldwin when West first appeared on GH as Ava Jerome in 2013. She was looking for her share of the ELQ empire as Franco was the father of her daughter, Kiki (which turned out to be a lie).

West and Howarth weren’t paired romantically on GH until 2023 when his third character, Austin Gatlin-Holt, helped Ava cover up her presumed murder of Nikolas Cassasine and they fell into bed together. Of course, that also turned out to be a lie and he had been working for Cyrus all along.

The two Emmy-winning actors have known each other for years as they both worked together on CBS sudser AS THE WORLD TURNS. West had been playing vixen Carly Tenney since 1995 when Howarth took over the role of Paul Ryan in 2003. Both remained with ATWT until its final episode in 2010.

While this may be the end of Austin and Ava’s storyline on GH, perhaps West will once again be able to work with Howarth if the soap brings him back again as yet another character? Hey, in the world of daytime, anything is possible!

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