Joseph C. Phillips really was underrated as Justus Ward - and was just starting to come into meaty story again in 1998 when Justus became Jason's lawyer. Then he abruptly left. Does anyone know why?

Why Phillips is underrated in the role of Justus beats me. I love his Justus.

He was great in the role. Monti Sharp and the actor who followed him in 2003 or so (his name escapes me) may have been decent performers, but Joseph C. Phillips WAS Justus.

He was fired.

Does anyone know why he was fired?

Edited September 15, 201411 yr by Golden Duck

I seem to recall Joseph Phillips ranting about his conservative politics contributing to his downfall in Hollywood. Which, uh, probably isn't it. But there were a couple embarrassing interviews a few years back.

I absolutely loved him in the role - and I think he also played the crazy, drunk, dark Justus the character devolved into after the whole Damian thing. I don't think that was Monti Sharp. I can't remember much of anything about Sharp in the role, unless of course it was him and then I'll be really embarrassed, because I remember Dark!Justus and just thinking 'wow, Joe Phillips is amazing.' And then the character disappeared.

I never believed they'd bring him back, and I was shocked when they did. Unfortunately, Justus, who had apparently gone into a monastery or something to repent, came out played by a very mediocre young actor, whose new Justus immediately decided, 'hey, let me go back into the mob.' Because it all worked out so well before!

At that point I stopped caring about the character. I didn't like Mfundo Morrison, and I was mortified when they had him quickly segue into singing old spirituals to comfort the Quartermaines during the PC Hotel fire in 2004 - it was exactly as Tim Stickney famously said about playing R.J. on OLTL - how he had deliberately sang off-key anytime they tried to get him to perform on the show, because if he didn't sabotage it, "I knew I would be singing Negro spirituals to Bo on his deathbed sooner or later". I thought Morrison was pretty bad, and they clearly didn't care about him. I was completely done with the character when they tried to sell us on his weird romance with psycho Faith, and then when they had him pointedly reject poor, boring Lainey Winters. IIRC, he was surrounded by a gaggle of white mob molls at some bar, and he grinned at Lainey and smugly said, in the script, something like - I'm paraphrasing - 'and for the record, it's not that I don't like black women - I just don't like you.' Because there were soooo many key black characters on Guza's GH that we had room for that kind of toxic [!@#$%^&*] on the show.

After that, they found him dead and I didn't care. Justus was already dead to me. It was just such a waste of a once-wonderful character.

Yeah. I didn't like M'Fundo either. I thought he was extremely miscast (too young) and very weak as Justus. Though alot of that may have just been Guza's bad writing. And, I forgot all about him singing during the hotel fire. That was full blown racist.

And, that little tidbit about Tim Stickney just rekindled my love for him. He was so outspoken and a great actor. I miss him on my screen. Though, I cannot say I blame him for not going back to soaps. I wish he'd do primetime though.

Oh, and wasn't Justus found dead in the trunk of a car or something? I think so, right?

Edited September 16, 201411 yr by Golden Duck

Manny Ruiz put his body in a trunk after he shot him in Jason's place

Thanks.

I seem to recall Joseph Phillips ranting about his conservative politics contributing to his downfall in Hollywood. Which, uh, probably isn't it. But there were a couple embarrassing interviews a few years back.

I absolutely loved him in the role - and I think he also played the crazy, drunk, dark Justus the character devolved into after the whole Damian thing. I don't think that was Monti Sharp. I can't remember much of anything about Sharp in the role, unless of course it was him and then I'll be really embarrassed, because I remember Dark!Justus and just thinking 'wow, Joe Phillips is amazing.' And then the character disappeared.

I can't remember a lot of it, but Phillips was there during the trial, then when he was blackmailed into working for ELQ, etc. I think there was a year or a year and a half period of time between the trial and their attempt to make Justus an edgier/villainous character, and he was on the backburner and they were sort of setting up Taggert/Dara/Justus.

Early 1998 was when he was working as a mob lawyer and when he finally 'fessed up to killing Damian, I think. (I may have this wrong) I remember being excited about where the character might go when suddenly he was recast with Monti Sharp who, just like his brief ATWT run, was oily and miscast and had chemistry with no one, and the story, if you can call it a story, quickly tanked.

I was watching episodes and clips from 2004. This scene is so sad. I don't care what I think of Jason/Sonny/Carly. This scene was still one of the saddest ever on GH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSR2HeTSTUs

I miss when this show had substance. It's now all cheese and no meat.

Edited September 16, 201411 yr by Golden Duck

Just picture Killer Griller Miller smirking his way through the scene. Yep, that's what we have to look forward to........Grins and giggles!

I know. That's why I'm pretty sure I'm gonna hate him as Jason.

He's the complete opposite of Burton. I'm not saying Burton was great. But, he made Jason who he was. Miller is too hammy to be the Borg.

Edited September 17, 201411 yr by Golden Duck

The Borg is dead and should never come back. I'll take a new kind of Jason.

Edited September 17, 201411 yr by Vee

I wonder if Joseph C. Phillips was ever approached about coming back. He just had such presence and strength, even when Justus was doing some pretty unethical things.