After 30 years portraying Luke Spencer on ABC's daytime soap opera "General Hospital," actor Anthony Geary bid farewell to the fictional city of Port Charles. Geary's final episode aired yesterday, TVLine reported.
Geary, 68, spent his final scenes as Luke on the docks with character Sonny, played by co-star Maurice Benard. While waiting for a boat, Luke and Sonny reminisced about the demons that make Luke such a complex character.
"I'm leaving Port Charles, Sonny," Spencer said, according to TVLine. "For good."
Events that spanned more than three decades' worth of Luke's storyline include killing a mob boss, burning down a police station, marrying and divorcing Laura, and dealing with suicidal thoughts. But it's the romance between Geary's character Luke and his co-star Genie Francis' Laura that made "General Hospital" so successful, the Los Angeles Times reported. The episode of the fictional couple's wedding ceremony in November of 1981 set the daytime drama record with 30 million viewers who couldn't get enough of the roller-coaster love affair.
"When he started, soap operas were custom-made for stay-at-home housewives," Ed Martin, editor and TV critic of MediaVillage.com, told the L.A. Times. "It was the home for very pretty people. Tony wasn't the typical leading man - he looked like an ordinary guy."
The Emmy Award-winning actor filmed his final episode last month, and both current and former co-stars showed up to the set to say goodbye, as previously reported by HNGN. Francis expressed her gratitude to Geary and credited him with helping jumpstart both of their careers.
"Thank you for putting up with me as a petulant teenager," she said, according to Entertainment Weekly. "Thank you for the best acting partnership I've ever known."
