ABC's Sunday night drama Brothers &
Sisters has picked up veteran actor Stephen Collins for a gay
role, TV Guide reported.
Collins will play Charlie, the love
interest of Uncle Saul (played by Ron Rifkin).
The sixty-two-year-old Collins is best
known for playing Protestant Reverend Eric Camden, the father of
seven, for over a decade on the Aaron Spelling-produced 7th
Heaven, and can be currently
seen on ABC's No Ordinary Family, in
which he plays Julie Benz's possibly corrupt boss.
In
last year's season finale, Uncle Saul learned that he is
HIV-positive. Charlie will help Saul come to terms with his
diagnosis.
“Even though he
didn't know his diagnosis until recently, I have a feeling Saul has
been dealing with this for years,” Producer David Marshall Grant
said. “He hasn't been frequenting gay bars.”
TV Guide is
reporting that Collins is only scheduled to appear in next season's
fourth episode.
Brothers &
Sisters will also pursue the parenting storyline of gay couple
Kevin Walker (Mathew Rhys) and Scotty Wandell (Luke Macfarlane), who
are expecting a child via surrogate, when the drama returns to ABC on
September 26.