Yes, the Franco Baldwin who was tragically killed in 2021, leaving a wife and three stepsons who adored him behind, was the same crazed artist that James Franco first brought to life in 2009. In 2012 and for part of 2013, Roger Howarth appeared on “General Hospital” as his “One Life to Live” character Todd Manning after that soap was canceled, per IMDb.
However, ABC was forced to write Todd off the canvas along with three other actors when a dispute between the network and Prospect Park Studios, which was producing online versions of both “All My Children” and “OLTL” went to court saying ABC had no rights to the characters. In 2016, the case was dismissed and ABC once again had the rights to its defunct soap characters, per Soap Central, but by then Howarth was settled in playing another version of Franco, whose crazy deeds when James Franco was playing the part was explained away by a brain tumor. Once the tumor was removed, Franco, who took on the last name Baldwin when he learned his biological father was Scott Baldwin (Kin Shriner), tried to live a normal life, per Soaps In Depth.
