A soap opera star who appeared on more than 2,000 episodes of “General Hospital” is dead at age 79.
Variety reports Leslie Charleson, the actress best known for playing Dr. Monica Quartermaine on “GH,” died Sunday after a long illness. Health problems included mobility issues after falls in recent years, and she was hospitalized last week after a fall.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” the show’s executive producer Frank Valentini announced on Instagram. “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.”
Charleson first appeared on “General Hospital” in 1977 and appeared on 2,079 episodes over five decades, most recently in 2023, plus the spinoff series “General Hospital: Night Shift.” She was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards, and her Monica Quartermaine character was known for a love triangle with Rick and Alan and became legendary for her mix of comedy (famously slapping co-stars on screen) and drama (getting shot, losing three children and surviving breast cancer).
“We’d do real slaps,” Charleson told People magazine. “Stuart (Damon, who played Alan Quartermaine) was always afraid I’d take his eye out. I would fake a slap in dress rehearsal, but when we went to tape it, all that went out the window!”
Charleson, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, started acting as a child and in high school. She studied theater at Bennett College in Upstate New York; the all-women Hudson Valley school closed in 1977.
According to Variety, Charleson began her career in daytime television in 1964 when she was 19 years old on ABc’s “A Flame in the Wind.” She went on to a three-year run on CBS’ “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” and guest-starred on major TV shows like “The Rockford Files,” “The Wild West,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Mannix,” “Ironside” and “Happy Days,” becoming the first on-screen kiss for actor-director Ron Howard.
Her later credits included “Friends” (playing herself opposite Matt LeBlanc’s Joey), “Dharma & Greg,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” and the TV movie “Woman on the Ledge.”
