Anthony Geary, the actor who turned a 13-week soap gig into one of daytime TV's iconic roles, becoming half of General Hospital's Luke and Laura, has died. He was 78 and died Sunday in Amsterdam of complications following surgery last week, his husband, Claudio Gama, told TV Insider. Geary was best known as Luke Spencer on the ABC soap opera, a role in which he won a record eight Daytime Emmy Awards and his character was the groom in a wedding that made TV history. The network said his performance "helped define" both the series and the genre, People reports.
Cast on General Hospital in 1978 as a short-term character on a struggling show, Geary helped turn it into a phenomenon. The 1981 episode in which Luke married Genie Francis' Laura drew around 30 million viewers, still a daytime record. Their romance was built on a storyline that included Luke's rape of Laura, a plot that both stars later condemned. "They shouldn't have done it," Francis said in a 2020 ABC documentary, while Geary acknowledged years of criticism from victims' and feminist groups. Geary had studied theater at the University of Utah before moving to Los Angeles for a touring-stage role. He logged guest spots on series including All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, The Partridge Family, and The Young and the Restless before landing the General Hospital job.
His work as Luke made him a daytime fixture, though he wrestled for some time with being so closely identified with the character. He left the show in 1984 to pursue other roles, then returned in 1993 and stayed until his 2015 retirement, when he moved full-time to Amsterdam. "Daytime wouldn't be here if it wasn't for luke/Laura," former co-star Maurice Benard posted, per Deadline. "He spoiled me for leading men for the rest of my life," Francis wrote on X.