From Soap Star to Great American Family Hunk, Catch Up With Cameron Mathison!

If you love a good soap opera scandal, sappy rom-com, or celebrity gossip tidbit, chances are you’re familiar with Cameron Mathison. Over the past 25 years and counting, the hardworking actor has carved out an enduring career as a soap opera star, TV correspondent and frequent leading man in Hallmark mysteries and Christmas movies.

Mathison stumbled into acting after originally pursuing a much different career path. Born and raised in Ontario, Mathison graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in civil engineering. (Fun fact: The 6’2” actor was also the captain of the Redmen basketball team.) But after graduation, he dabbled in modeling and commercial work — and a few years later, he landed his first movie role in 54.

While he’s best known for his iconic roles on All My Children and General Hospital, Mathison has starred in more than a dozen Hallmark movies and made guest appearances on shows like CSI, JAG, Castle, and Desperate Housewives. He’s also worked as a correspondent for Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight, competed on Dancing with the Stars, and hosted the Daytime Emmy Awards twice.

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In 2019, Mathison shocked fans by sharing on social media that he was battling renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer, and would be undergoing surgery to remove the tumor and part of his kidney. Luckily, his story had a happy ending — he recently celebrated four years cancer-free.

Most recently, Mathison signed a multi-picture deal with the Great American Family network. While his fans wait to see what the new collaboration will bring, we’re taking a look back at some of his defining roles over the years.

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54 (1998)

Mathison made his film debut with a small role as a club-goer in this 1998 drama about the rise and fall of the famed NYC nightclub Studio 54. Despite a star-studded cast that included Mike Myers, Ryan Phillippe and Salma Hayek, the movie was panned by critics and audiences and received a rating of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, word got out that the theatrical release had been heavily edited from the director’s original vision — and a few years later, a bootleg version of the grittier rough cut began to circulate. This “director’s cut” quickly became a cult hit with audiences, and it even aired at the Berlin Film Festival in 2014.

All My Children (1998) Cameron Mathison

Mathison was on the set of 54 when he found out he’d been cast as con man Ryan Lavery on the soap opera All My Children. He made his first appearance on the show in 1998, kicking off a 13-year run that would make him a household name and cement his status as soap opera royalty.

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Mathison won the Soap Opera Digest award for Outstanding Male Newcomer in 1999, and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2002 and 2005. He stayed with the show until its cancellation in 2011.

Ultimate Proposal (2011)

In 2011, Yahoo launched the online streaming service Yahoo Screen. Mathison hosted one of the company’s first original web series, Ultimate Proposal, a reality-style show that documented all the planning and drama behind the scenes of elaborate marriage proposals. The show was an instant hit, with more than 1.75 million viewers tuning in the first week.

Murder She Baked and Hannah Swensen Mysteries (2013)

Cameron Mathison made his first foray into Hallmark movies with the 2013 holiday romance The Christmas Ornament. But Hallmark movie aficionados know him best as Detective Mike Kingston, the love interest of baker-turned-sleuth Hannah Swensen in the TV movie series Murder She Baked, later rebranded as Hannah Swensen Mysteries.

In the first movie, which premiered in 2015, Mathison plays a strictly-by-the-book detective who clashes with Hannah Swensen, a bakery owner who sets out to solve the murder of her delivery driver. But in typical Hallmark-movie fashion, they eventually fall for each other, and Mathison and co-star Alison Sweeney went on to co-star in eight movies in the series. But true to the books, their romance ran its course, and fans were saddened to see that Mathison was missing from this year’s One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery.

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General Hospital (2021) Cameron Mathison

In 2021, Mathison joined the cast of the long-running soap General Hospital as Drew Cain, a character who had previously been portrayed by actor Billy Miller. When Miller left the show in 2019, his character was presumably killed off when his plane crashed into the ocean. But with Mathison taking over the role, it was revealed that Drew Cain was actually alive and imprisoned in an undisclosed country.

Mathison landed the role in an unconventional way — he sent a text message to executive producer Frank Valentini message saying, “I'm a huge fan of the show and would love to work with you.” And the rest was history!

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