Living with Fran was cancelled on, after two seasons. He and Drescher resumed acting together in Drescher's next sitcom, Living with Fran, wherein Shaughnessy appeared fairly frequently as her philandering but needy ex-husband, Ted. Shaughnessy is also well known for his portrayal of Maxwell Sheffield opposite Fran Drescher on CBS's The Nanny from 1993 to 1999. In 1986, he appeared with Betty White and Bert Convy on Super Password, and in January 1993, Shaughnessy appeared in an episode of Murphy Brown as the title character's date to the inaugural ball. His character's romance with Patsy Pease's character, Kimberly Brady, made the duo into a soap supercouple and revived interest in Days among teenage viewers in the 1980s. Shaughnessy first became widely known for playing Shane Donovan on the soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1984 to 1992. He moved to the United States and married the actress Susan Fallender in 1983, with whom he had two daughters, Jenny (born 1990) and Maddy (born 1995). After graduating, he decided to return to acting and enrolled in a London drama school, which led to his touring in a repertory company. While at Cambridge, he joined the Footlights club. After attending Eton College, he read for a law degree at Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge where he wrote a thesis on the House of Lords. Having been born into a show-business family, Shaughnessy started appearing in plays during primary school. Charles inherited the title when his second cousin Michael (1946–2007), the 4th Baron Shaughnessy, died without issue. His great-grandfather Thomas Shaughnessy, the 1st Baron Shaughnessy, was an American-Canadian railway administrator of Irish descent. His brother, David Shaughnessy, is also an actor and a television producer and director. Shaughnessy, born on February 9, 1955, in London, United Kingdom, is the son of Alfred Shaughnessy, a television writer who was the scriptwriter for Upstairs, Downstairs, and the actress Jean Lodge.