Sean Kanan, GENERAL HOSPITAL's A.J. Quartermaine, is a risk-taker. This has been evident from the earliest days of his performing career. According to many who have tried it, there's nothing more terrifying for a performer than doing stand-up comedy. Courageous Kanan got his first onstage experience at comedy clubs in Pittsburgh and Ohio, not far from his hometown, New Castle, Pa. "My parents told me I had to get a summer job, so I worked at McDonald's for two weeks, then I left that job but told my parents I was still working. Meanwhile, I'd go with my friend to do stand-up," he explains.

The risk-taking didn't stop when Kanan began to get steady work. In fact, his fondness for danger increased. While working on the film Karate Kid III (he played Mike Barnes, the foe of Ralph Macchio's character), Kanan made a bad call during one of his own stunts, was injured and collapsed on the set. He suffered massive internal bleeding, and the prognosis was not good. "It was a pretty serious situation; they didn't think I was going to make it," he says. Five days after his collapse, Kanan checked himself out of the hospital and returned to the set. He worked tirelessly with a trainer from the Los Angeles Rams football team and was able to make a quick recovery and continue shooting the movie. "I'm really proud of that film, more because I was able to get myself physically well than for actually landing the part and finishing the movie," he says.

Kanan's determination continues to pay off on GH, where the assignment provides more of an internal challenge: to pick up the complex pieces of the life of A.J. Quartermaine, recoverig alcoholic and bad boy. "A.J. is a cunning, smart, driven, powerful guy who operates on emotion rather than on intellect. But he's mostly a misunderstood guy," Kanan explains. "Sometimes what A.J. does is not always fair or right, but it definitely comes from the heart. In the scenes with his mother and brother, he shows a soft side. That's what makes him interesting and shows where his pain comes from."

Kanan had originally auditioned when a grown-up A.J. was being brought back into the story in July 1991 (the character aged about 10 years in boarding school). Gerald Hopkins got the role, however, but when he was let go last January the producers remembered Kanan and offered it to him. Although this is his first soap, "I watched the show every now and then because Steve Burton (Jason) is a friend of mine. But when I got the part, I watched every day until I started," he says.

Kanan, who is in his early 20s, has always wanted to be an actor. "It's just something you know you want to do, although it changes as you grow," he explains. "My perception of an actor when I was younger was to be a movie star, but then you get older and discover the love of acting in theater and film."

His parents wanted him to go to college, so he went to Boston University, as a political science major. While at BU, he landed a small part in Spenser: For Hire, which was shot in Beantown. Ultimately, Kanan realized that in order to pursue an acting career seriously, he would have to move to Los Angeles, so he transferred to UCLA. He got an agent and began to land roles, primarily in television, in such shows as Werewolf and Baby Boom. Then there was the Karate Kid III role, which he won at an open call of more than 2,000 actors, as well as a starring role in the Fox Television series The Outsiders (based on the novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton).

Of that role the actor says, "Even though the series only lasted one season, it was a lot of fun to be involved in a television manifestation of a book that I had read as a kid and loved so much." The Outsiders led to a leading role as a villain in the feature film Rich Girl and, later, a part in Oliver Stone's TV mini-series, Wild Palms. He was recently on location in Denver to film his second Perry Mason TV-movie, The Case of the Killer Kiss, which boasts a roster of daytime actors, including GH cast mates Stuart Damon and Genie Francis (Alan and Laura).

Shortly before he started on GH, Kanan appeared as a "low-rent English anarchist in a play called Irish Coffee." That whetted his appetite to do more theater, although his soap schedule right now would make that pretty difficult.

In the spare time he does have, Kanan works on expanding himself physically and creatively. His boxing storyline with Jagger (Antonio Sabato Jr.) led him to the gym, where he trained in kick boxing three times a week with a trainer who has worked with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster. "I don't study kick boxing to fight, but more for the conditioning," he says. He also has an extensive background in the martial arts, which he began studying at 13. "My parents wouldn't let me box, so I immediately took up karate instead."

A more intellectual pursuit, and one scarcely less risky in terms of the slender chance for success, is screenwriting, and Kanan already has two completed film scripts to his credit. According to Kanan, one of them, Beyond the Edge, has been optioned by Hollywood Pictures. His first screenplay, The Hero Within, is currently being circulated to the American film market, and he's at work on his third project. "As an actor, I'd like to move into feature films, and when it's right it will happen. I like what I'm doing right now. Acting is a more active thing. But I would like acting in projects that I've written." Kanan will get his chance when Edge goes into production; he's slated to play the leading role in this "Rocky-goes-to-the-ski-slopes" movie about a farm boy from Montana who dreams about becoming an Olympic skier.

It's hard to imagine when Kanan finds time to sit down and write. He spends much of his spare time in acting classes, working out at the gym, promoting GH and traveling for other acting projects. He also squeezed in a photo shoot with Burton, among others, for Playgirl's October "Men of General Hospital" issue; he appears on the cover.

But the great part about acting on daytime television is a flexible schedule and steady work. Kanan also savors the challenge of probing a single character. "From week to week I get to explore the different facets of A.J. When I leave the show, I'll know him inside and out. A soap is the evolution and progression of characters," he says.

So what's on tap for the troubled recovering alcoholic? "A.J. wants to concentrate more on making a power base with ELQ for Ned to deal with and Edward to recognize. A.J. is going to be a force to be reckoned with," he says. What about romance? Kanan has taken care of that area in his own life, although he prefers not to discuss it. As for A.J., it appears he is finally healed from the rejection of Nikki Langton, and has moved on to a hot and heavy affair with his boss (and cousin Ned's ex-girlfriend) Julia. Kanan says to stay tuned for "some good - no...great - sex!"