Frank Valentini, the executive producer of General Hospital, announced the death of Leslie Charleson, who portrayed Dr. Monica Quartermaine for almost 50 years. Her age was 79.
I regret to inform you of the demise of my good friend and coworker, @lesliecharleson, who posted in a thread on X on January 12.
He added that Leslie was a cherished matriarch of the entire cast and crew, just as Monica was the center of the Quartermaine family. Her lasting legacy has lasted for almost 50 years on @GeneralHospital alone. Her sharp wit, amazing presence on set, and our daily conversations will be missed.
He ended, “My deepest sympathies are with her loved ones during this trying time, on behalf of everyone at #GeneralHospital.”
Additionally, General Hospital posted Valentini’s remarks on its Instagram page.
According to IMDb, Charleson starred in almost 2,000 episodes of the venerable daytime sudser between 1977 and 2023. For her role on the show, she was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards. She also portrayed Monica in the Port Charles spinoff of GH.
A 1966 episode of As the World Turns included one of her earliest on-screen appearances. She quickly gained popularity on television, with roles in shows including The Wild Wild West, Mannix, Adam-12, Emergency!, Medical Center, Happy Days, and The Streets of San Francisco, as well as in the cast of the CBS soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.
She took Patsy Rahn’s position as Monica at GH in 1977, but things didn’t go smoothly at first.
She told Soap Opera Digestin 2022, “I started the show the day Elvis Presley died, and I was obviously very upset driving to the studios. When I got there, they told me 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.”
The girl who played Monica before me was harshly fired, so I knew no one really liked me when I entered the building.
With Monica’s turbulent marriage to Alan, portrayed by the late Stuart Damon, frequently serving as the show’s focal point, Charleson established himself as a mainstay of General Hospital. When she received a breast cancer diagnosis in the 1990s, her character also had a well-known backstory.
We all completed our homework, so it was significant, challenging, and fulfilling. In 2023, she told Soap Opera Digest, “I really wanted to portray it in the most honest, realistic way we could.”