Yahoo Lifestyle Leslie Charleson, General Hospital’s Dr. Monica Quartermaine, Dead at 79
General Hospital has lost its longest-serving cast member: Leslie Charleson, who had played Dr. Monica Quartermaine since 1977, has died at the age of 79.
GH executive producer Frank Valentini confirmed the news of Charleson’s passing on Instagram Sunday night.
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“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” he wrote. “Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on General Hospital alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew. I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set. On behalf of everyone at General Hospital, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”
A native of Kansas City, Mo., the actress got her big break in 1964 when she scored a recurring role on the daytime drama A Flame in the Wind. Two years later, she became a regular on As the World Turns as Don Hughes’ stepdaughter, Alice Whipple. When that job came to an end, the up-and-comer moved on to Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, where she really got a chance to demonstrate her star power as good girl Iris Donnelly from 1967-70.
After leaving Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, Charleson guest-starred on everything from Mannix to Marcus Welby, M.D., from Ironside to The Rockford Files, before returning to daytime. But the welcome mat wasn’t exactly rolled out for her at General Hospital. “There was another Monica before me,” she told State of Mind in 2022, “and she had been rather, I guess, rudely fired. And so I came into a kind of hostile environment.”
Needless to say, Charleson ultimately made the role of Monica her own and formed a supercouple with the late Stuart Damon, who played her better half/sparring partner, hotheaded fellow doctor Alan Quartermaine. And the front-burner storylines just kept coming, among them Monica’s battle with breast cancer and her accidental affair with her nephew, Ned!
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Even while appearing on General Hospital, Charleson continued to guest in primetime occasionally on series such as Friends and Dharma & Greg. She also headlined the TV movie Woman On the Ledge with fellow daytimers Colleen Zenk (then Barbara on As the World Turns) and Deidre Hall (Marlena on Days of Our Lives). But, of course, she will always be most vividly remembered for her long run as Monica.
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