Soap Opera icon, Leslie Charleson, known as Monica Quartermaine on “General Hospital,” died Sunday morning after a long illness. She was 79.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson,” “General Hospital” executive producer Frank Valentini announced.
“Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on ‘General Hospital’ alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew.
I will miss our daily chats, her quick wit and incredible presence on set. On behalf of everyone at ‘General Hospital,’ my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”
The beloved actress who joined the soap in 1977, has had some health ups and downs over the past few years, which has limited her time on the ABC soap, where she hasn’t appeared since December 2023.
In recent years, she has suffered several falls that prevented her from getting around. Although it impeded her mobility and resulted in her need for a walker, it never got her spirit down. She was hospitalized last week after one such fall.
The Kansas City native began her long career on daytime television in 1964 when she was just 19 in the short-lived ABC soap opera “A Flame in the Wind.” A few years later she began a 3-year-run on CBS’s “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” where she played Iris Donnelly Garrison, who was in a popular love triangle with characters played by Donna Mills and David Birney.
