The reboot of Dynasty has seen a revolving door of cast members throughout its five season run. At the heart of every season is the wealthy Carrington family, including father Blake Carrington and his daughter Fallon, who is played by none other than Liz Gillies.
The cast also includes an array of supporting characters such as the house manager Anders, Sammy Jo, the nephew of Blake's second wife, and Jeff Colby, Blake's young business rival. But as the series progressed, new characters were introduced.
Just as noticeable as the characters who appear in every episode, however, have been the actors who left the show. (Interestingly, that didn't always spell the end to their characters in ways that could only happen on a juicy soap opera.) That said, here's everyone (or a version of someone) who has come and gone or who has seemingly left the show.
Updated on December 1, 2021, by Michael Chaar: Dynasty has easily become a classic TV show, especially following the remake released back in 2017 starring the incomparable Elizabeth Gillies. Throughout the series run, a number of characters have left the show, including James Mackay, who played Steven Carrington, who revealed that it was not his decision to leave. One of the biggest mysteries is the Cristal Flores/Celia Machado mix-up, which has fans wondering why Ana Brenda Contreras left Dynasty? Well, it seems as if she departed due to personal reasons, however, an explanation was never written into the show, leaving us all a little confused.
Updated On December 1, 2022, by Abigail Thomas: Sadly for die-hard fans, Dynasty was canceled by the CW network. The fifth and final season aired its last episode on September 16, 2022. The show had a strong five season run on the network, but came to an end due to the CW being in negotiations to sell the network. Before the end of the show, however, many of the original cast members jumped ship, creating a constant rotation of characters. Fans were shocked at the end of season 5 when Alan Dale, who played the loyal butler to the Carrington family, left the show.
9 Why Did Nathalie Kelley Leave 'Dynasty'?
The first of three (yes, three!) actors to play Blake Carrington's second/third wife Cristal (or a Cristal, at least), Nathalie Kelley only appeared in season one. But by the end of the season, she was murdered. Cristal Carrington is a key character who couldn't really disappear, so how could they bring her back? More on that below.
As for the reason Kelley left, she said the role was more challenging than she thought it would be. The network, recognizing that Kelley "wasn't prepared" for a nighttime soap and wasn't feeling a lot of the writing, decided to re-cast the role.
8 Why Did Nicollette Sheridan Leave 'Dynasty'?
Alexis Carrington, ex-wife to Blake and mother to Fallon, Stephen, and the long-lost Adam, was a central character on the original series, played by the iconic Joan Collins. And thus, she is a pivotal one in this version, too. So, when Sheridan left the show after the second season, they figured out an odd way to handle it. It involved her face being burned in a fire followed by two reconstructive surgeries that eventually saw the character re-emerge played by another actor altogether, Elaine Hendrix.
Why did Sheridan leave? Rumors abound online, but the actress, who played a similarly despicably scheming woman on Desperate Housewives, says she decided to leave in order to take care of her ill mother.
7 Why Did Ana Brenda Contreras Leave 'Dynasty'?
This is where the second Cristal comes in, who was written in to technically be the first. Kelley's version of Cristal was actually a woman named Celia Machado who fled Venezuela and assumed the identity of Cristal.
Learning of Celia's death, the real Cristal, last name Jennings, decided to try and insert herself into Blake's life and reveal her true identity. Surprise, surprise: Blake fell in love with her, at first as part of grieving the loss of Cristal No. 1, but then as the real thing.
But then Contreras also only lasted a single season. This time, a new actor, Daniella Alonso, took over the role with no explanation whatsoever as to why Cristal looked completely different. Contreras, arguably the favorite version of Cristal, reportedly left due to "personal reasons," with rumblings suggesting the departure had to do with her health, including increased stress and the fact that she did not want to stay in Atlanta where the series is filmed.
6 James Mackay Forced To Leave 'Dynasty'
One of the most puzzling departures, the series completely wrote out the character of Steven, Blake's second son (later revealed to actually be Anders' son) with zero regard for him once he was gone. As the story went, Steven, an addict who had spent time in and out of rehab, disappeared to Paraguay on a charitable mission, then ended up in Paris after a life-altering experience with Ayahuasca.
Mackay hinted in an Instagram post that the departure wasn't his decision. "While Steven had a choice to leave," he wrote, "unfortunately, I didn't." Sam Underwood has become the main character, playing the psychopathic prodigal son Adam. His storylines are more salacious than Steven's likely would have been, which probably contributed to the decision.
5 Alan Dale Wanted To Leave 'Dynasty'
The suspense surrounding a death was built up from the first episode of season 5 of Dynasty. A funeral was seen at the beginning of the season, but it was not until the finale that fans learned of the beloved Joseph Anders's tragic fate. Pain from a rib injury caused him to be distracted and crash his car.
Alan Dale played Joseph Anders, and the actor has a history of being killed off in television shows. His characters were killed off in the shows The O.C. and in Ugly Betty. Writers of Dynasty knew they wanted to kill off one main character in season 5, and Dale had wanted to leave the show for a while, so he seemed like the perfect fit. Dale has not stated why he left Dynasty, but fans assume it was to work on other projects.
4 Elizabeth Gillies: Alexis Carrington's Second Face
Don't fear: Gillies is still very much on the show. But her double-duty role-playing both Fallon and the post-plastic surgery version of Alexis is gone. After Adam burned Alexis' face in a fire, he sneakily provided the medical team with a photo of Fallon to use as a guide for the reconstruction, which he said Alexis was hoping would "shave a few years off." The result? An Alexis who looked 20 years younger, but also strikingly like her daughter.
Gillies did a wonderful job playing the second character, odd as the storyline was. But that version of Alexis was sent away to Sweden to get more reconstructive work done by top-notch doctors to give herself an entirely new face that wasn't already taken by someone else.
3 Taylor Black: Ashley Cunningham
It's unclear if Ashley might pop up again or not, but she is seemingly officially out of Liam's life, first as his girlfriend then as his fiancé. She only appeared in a handful of episodes, the funniest one when Kirby and Sam gave her a botched facial that took off half her eyebrow.
Since her short run on Dynasty, the actress who played Ashley, Taylor Black, has had a very exciting personal life. She welcomed a baby boy into the world in March 2022 and has been creating lots of content on social media.
2 Michael Patrick Lane: Ted Dinard
Lane didn't so much leave as his character was (sort of) killed off. A long-time friend and ex-boyfriend of Steven's, Ted was also the guy who often got him into trouble, providing him with drugs and doing them happily with him.
Ted showed up high, jealous, and upset, confronting Sam and eventually ripping his earring off and jumping from their apartment to his supposed death, hoping to frame Sam in the process. Except Ted miraculously survived. As far as viewers know, he remains alive and under the care of his father, who believed his troubled son found his faith once again. With the show now over, nothing else will come of Lane's character.
1 Jeremy Davidson: Nathan 'Mac' Macintosh
Killed off in the second season by Blake, who believed that 'Mac' killed Cristal's ex-husband Mark Jennings and Blake's unborn baby, he wasn't a main character on the show. But the discovery of Mac's body in the Carrington Lake on the property was central to a major story arc.
Blake went to jail for the murder and endured a grueling trial, only to discover that Mac actually did get his message to stand down and had nothing to do with Jennings' death, after all. The guilt of killing him for no reason put a massive strain on Blake and Cristal's marriage.