Ingo Rademacher, best known for playing Jax on General Hospital, is continuing his lawsuit against ABC over his firing.
The 53-year-old actor was fired from the daytime soap opera series back in November 2021 and it was reported at the time that it was over a transphobic meme that he re-shared on social media.
Ingo later sued ABC and claimed that the show fired him after he refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, which was mandated for cast and crew who were returning to work amid the pandemic. Steve Burton was fired from the show over the vaccine mandate and now he was since rehired to be back on the show.
ABC won the lawsuit in June 2023, but Ingo appealed the decision and now he’s demanding a trial. He’s also dragging Steve‘s name into the lawsuit over his rehiring.
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“ABC’s re-hiring of Mr. Burton undermines its argument that Ingo’s political beliefs did not play any role in its decision to fire him—to ‘recast’ his role—in 2021,” the new legal documents state (via In Touch).
“Judge Goorvitch credited ABC’s evidence that the political animus that the General Hospital producers showed toward Ingo was irrelevant because, like other people, including GH actor Steve Burton, it simply could not accommodate Ingo’s objection to COVID-19 vaccination and fired him only for that reason,” his lawyer wrote. “That argument was always specious. But it carries even less weight now, given the newly discovered evidence that ABC re-hired [Steve] for General Hospital but did not re-hire Ingo.”
“This new evidence is compelling. It undermines ABC’s argument that the political animus the GH producers showed toward Ingo did not matter. It confirms Ingo’s argument that ABC intended to get rid of him—to recast his character—which preceded the Covid vaccination policy. It is additional evidence from which a jury could disbelieve ABC’s explanation and rule in Ingo’s favor,” the lawyer added. “As the new year dawns, the Court should take this opportunity to grant a new trial based on the newly discovered evidence regarding ABC’s re-hiring of [Steve] and set the case for a jury trial on the wrongful termination claim.”
Here are 30 actors who appeared on General Hospital before they became super famous stars.
