Leslie Charleson, who played Dr. Monica Quartermaine on “General Hospital” for nearly half a century, has died, according to the show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini. She was 79.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, @lesliecharleson,” he wrote in a thread on X on Jan. 12.
“Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on @GeneralHospital alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaine family, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew,” he continued. “I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set.
“On behalf of everyone at #GeneralHospital, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time,” he concluded.
“General Hospital” shared Valentini’s words on its Instagram page as well.
Charleson appeared in more than 2,000 episodes of the long-running daytime sudser from 1977 until 2023, according to IMDb. She earned four Daytime Emmy Award nominations for her work on the show. She also played Monica in the “GH” spinoff “Port Charles.”
One of her first on-screen roles was on a 1966 episode of “As the World Turns.” She soon became a familiar face on the small screen, appearing in the cast of the CBS soap opera “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” and nabbing parts on shows such as “The Wild Wild West,” “Mannix,” “Adam-12,” “Emergency!,” “Medical Center,” “Happy Days” and “The Streets of San Francisco.”
She joined “GH” in 1977 to replace Patsy Rahn as Monica, but things got off to a bumpy start.
“I started the show the day Elvis Presley died, and being such a huge fan, I of course was very upset driving to the studios, and then getting there I was told that they hoped I had brought my own wardrobe and makeup because there was a strike going on — and that was before I even got in the building,” she told Soap Opera Digest in 2022.
“Then I got in the building and I realized that no one really liked me, because the girl playing Monica before me was very rudely fired.”
Charleson became a staple of “General Hospital,” with Monica’s roller-coaster marriage to Alan, played by the late Stuart Damon, often a centerpiece of the show. Her character also had a well-known storyline when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1990s.
“It was important and difficult and rewarding, because we all did our homework. I really wanted to portray it in the most honest, realistic way we could,” she said in 2023, according to Soap Opera Digest.
