Grey’s Anatomy Taps Peter Gallagher for Recurring Season 18 Role — What’s His Connection to [Spoiler]?
A TV veteran is scrubbing in to Grey Sloan: Peter Gallagher is joining the cast of Grey’s Anatomy for its upcoming Season 18 in a recurring role, our sister site Deadline reports.
Gallagher will play Dr. Alan Hamilton, who knew Meredith’s mother Ellis Grey (played by Kate Burton) back in the day and meets Meredith in the season premiere. Burton is also set to reprise her role as Meredith’s mom in multiple episodes next season — even though Ellis passed away in Season 3 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Grey’s Anatomy began filming Season 18 earlier this month, with the season premiere set for Thursday, Sept. 30 at 9/8c on ABC. Last season saw the return of several Grey’s fan favorites as Meredith spent time on a “dream beach” while she was unconscious in a hospital bed after contracting COVID. Former stars Patrick Dempsey (Derek), Chyler Leigh (Lexie), Eric Dane (Mark) and T.R. Knight (George) all returned to reconnect with Meredith — on the spiritual plane, at least.
Gallagher has been a familiar face to TV fans for decades, perhaps best known as dad Sandy Cohen on the Fox teen soap The O.C., which ran from 2003 to 2007. He recently played Zoey’s dad Mitch on the NBC musical comedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and Nick on the Netflix sitcom Grace and Frankie. His other TV credits include Covert Affairs, Law & Order: SVU, The Gifted and New Girl.
Great casting choice. I love his work.
Meredith’s bio father ……bc we know Ellis wasn’t a stranger to cheating!
That would mean her and Lexie weren’t actually sisters (biologically). That would be terrible.
I say he’s going to be Ellis’ brother! They don’t talk about that side of the family, so it could be an easy way in for him.
I know it happens, but Meredith donated part of her liver to Thatcher Grey. Again, I know strangers can match, but would they really go there? I’m going with a poster below – He’s Ellis’ Brother … did we ever learn her maiden name? I don’t recall it ever being mentioned.
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If they DO go with him being her bio dad, I hope to god this is the last season. It has REALLY jumped the shark.
Knowing Grey’s and how they are running out of stories. I am gonna take a wild guess and he ends up being her biological father
Except they’ve already run through that particular plotline with Maggie and Richard. I’m guessing it will be something different.
Lol cause they’ve never recycled similar storylines before
The OP was implying that they’d go that route because it was one of the few remaining places they hadn’t gone.
I was merely pointing out that they have indeed gone there already, and I’m betting they can come up with another option.
I bet he knew Ellis when she had her first signs of Alzheimer and he will recognize the signs in Meredith. Great casting btw!
Ooooo!! That would be interesting! Great thinking!
Great casting. I loved when they had a storyline centered on Ellis’ friend in season 14 so I’m interested to see what this is.
He’s probably a father of another new sister cause we haven’t had any of those for a few seasons lol.
I, like others, thought that maybe he would be Mer’s bio dad. But unless they ignore the previous storylines, I think we would have found out that Thatcher wasn’t her dad when she donated an organ to him. But then again, it is TV, so anything is possible.
Just because she was a match that doesn’t mean they were related
That’s one of their best casting decisions in a really long time!! He is excellent in everything! Hope they use him wisely.
I liked him in SVU
Let’s just admit that Peter Gallagher can do it all! Comedy, drama, musical theater, voiceovers…I bet he’d even be a great Jeopardy Host! 😛
Hoping this means we get Adam Brody as another one of Mer’s long-lost siblings haha
BTW, I bet Shonda & Co regret killing Mer’s parents off so early in the series—feel like we missed years of storylines with them (and someone else easily could have played their parts on Scandal)
Shonda & co. seem to delight in killing off members of Meredith’s family (her mother, her father, her father’s wife, her half-sister, her other half-sister’s mother, her other half-sister’s father’s wife, and, oh yeah, her husband…). It’s almost as dangerous to be even distantly related to Mer as it is to spend time in her hospital.
Does this guy have to show up on every series?? He was a snooze on SVU as well as every other show he’s on.
So, Ellis’ flackbacks are with him… Ellis is not back cos of Alzheimer ! I was a bit worried when I first read Ellis’ back !