General Hospital’s Leslie Charleson has died at 79

Former General Hospital star Leslie Charleson died at the age of 79.

General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini announced Charleson’s death through the officer of the issue Instagram bill on Sunday, January 12.

“I have a heavy heart to announce the passage my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” he wrote. “Her lasting legacy stretches almost 50 years later General Hospital herself and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was the beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew.”

Along with the message, Valentini shared a photo of the four-time Daytime Emmy nominee smiling. “I will miss our daily conversations, her wit and her incredible presence on set,” he continued. “On behalf of everyone in General Hospitalmy deepest sympathies to her loved ones at this difficult time.”

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Charleson began playing the role of Monica Quartermaine on the soap in 1977, making her the longest-running cast member General Hospital.

“I started the show that day Elvis Presley died, and being a huge fan, I was really upset driving to the studio, and then they told me they hoped I’d brought my own wardrobe and make-up because there was a strike going on — and that was before I even entered the building ”, Charleson recalled Soap opera summary in 2022

“Then I walked into the building and realized that no one really liked me, because the girl who played Monica before me was very rudely fired,” Charleson continued, referring to Patsy Rahnwhom she replaced.

After 30 years on the show, Charleson appeared in General Hospital in recurring status in 2010. Charleson, who has had health ups and downs, has returned to the series several times — last appearing in a wheelchair in December 2023.

While talking to Soap opera summary 2016 Charleson — who was married to Bill Demms from 1988 to 1991 — it affected her General Hospital legacy.

“It was quite a long time,” she said then. “I’m so pleased because, unlike some actors who have come and gone, and gone to other soaps or other things, this has really been my home since I started here, way back when, hundreds of years ago. I’m very grateful to have continued to work on something I love, and I’m certainly grateful that it has endured.”