‘General Hospital’: Who Plays Transgender Dr Terry Randolph on ‘GH’?
General Hospital fan wants to know more about transgender actress Cassandra James that plays Dr Terry Randolph on GH. Since her first appearance, viewers have been rabidly curious. For sure, when the ABC soap created this character, they broke new ground. Male and female characters dressing up to fool someone has been done to death on soaps, but hiring a trans actress to play a trans character is a very big deal. Here’s the latest on Cassandra James.
Who is the Transgender Actress on General Hospital?
Cassandra James is the trans actress that portrays Dr Terry Randolph. She started on GH almost a year ago in June, 2018. She’s strikingly beautiful and stands at an impressive 6′ tall, towering over many of the male actors on the show. She plays a childhood friend of Nurse Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst).
In fact, General Hospital had Terry Randolph as a close friend that gave Liz her first kiss way back in the day. Initially, Elizabeth’s fiance Franco Baldwin (Roger Howarth) was a bit jealous and concerned. Then, he met Terry, learned she’s transitioned and was intrigued. This set the stage for a future trans storyline with one of Liz’s kids.
It has already been a year since Dr Terry came to town revealing to Liz that she was transgender…time flies! yay or Nay on Dr Terry? pic.twitter.com/CTKAgVV2sX
— Jill Torey (@ToreyJill) May 14, 2019
Cassandra James Path to Groundbreaking GH Role
The General Hospital actress has a fascinating backstory. She is Chinese and German. Her mother’s family is from Hong Kong and Shanghai and her father’s side is German. Cassandra James says she grew up identifying male. Even during college, she said, “I male identified”. Things changed in college when she discovered drag.
In her IMDB bio, Cassandra James says she attended Ryerson University in Toronto. Then in an interview with Cory Rae, she credits college with introducing her to drag. “Cassandra James” was initially a character created for the drag scene. She says the drag scene “became an outlet” for her theatre work.
Recent Transition – Then A New Career in Soaps
Cassandra says she “was every effeminate” but did not come out to her family until 2015. Then it was a few months later in 2016 that she began her medical transition from male to female. Her close friend Gigi Gorgeous, a popular YouTuber, helped finance the costly procedures that go along with gender confirmation including surgery.
The General Hospital actress said, “Cassandra the drag queen” became her “authentic self” and “who I am today”. Some GH fans have also asked what is Cassandra James real name or birth name. However, it seems the actress doesn’t like to dwell on that and calls it her “dead name” and has wiped it from her social channels.
General Hospital Changes Soap History with Terry Randolph
On GH, they have two gay characters Brad Cooper (Parry Shen) and Lucas Jones (Ryan Carnes) both played by straight men. Then there’s Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) who once dressed as a man to get access to her child. Mac Scorpio (John J York) and Kevin Collins (Jon Linstrom) infamously went in drag and even Dillon Quartermaine (Scott Clifton) went there once.
Overall, it’s not a spectacular record for LGBTQ sensitivity on General Hospital. Particularly, since before the baby swap plot, the only gay characters were on the back burner, rarely seen. Kristina Corinthos’ (Lexi Ainsworth) fluid story was also sidelined. So, it was quite a big deal when they cast Cassandra James as Terry Randolph.
Adding this character to the canvas makes GH the first soap to have a transgender character played by a trans person. To learn more about Cassandra James, you can see the video above of some of the cosmetic procedures that came with her gender confirmation process.
Get all the General Hospital spoilers and news you want here at Soap Dirt.