Geary Gets Hitch-ed to the Classics
Although his alter ego, Luke, prefers to spend his time perfecting capers in outlandish costumes, GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Anthony Geary’s private pursuits tend to be of a more literary nature. “I read a wonderful biography of Alfred Hitchcock,” he told Weekly in a candid interview earlier this summer. “It was a huge book, like a college course. I got every film of his and, as I read about them, I would watch them.”
Geary explained, “I really came out feeling that I’d learned something not only about the man, but about his genius and the art of directing.” But the legendary actor revealed his tastes range beyond the acclaimed director of The Birds and Psycho. “Last summer, I read [about] Alfred Hitchcock, Errol Flynn, Alec Guinness and Noel Coward, and a couple of biographies of some of the blacklisted writers from the McCarthy era.”
Geary even has a personal connection to one of Hollywood’s darkest eras, sharing, “I worked with Dalton Trumbo, who served time for refusing to give up names of people that were accused of being Communists.”
“I’ve always admired him,” Geary said of the writer/director. “My first film was with Dalton Trumbo — Johnny Got His Gun — so I got into it, a ‘blacklisted summer’ that was a reflection of my feelings about what seemed to be an attack on the press and freedom of thought. I revisited that era by reading some of the biographies of people who have been imprisoned for refusing to play the game that [Sen. Joseph] McCarthy wanted them to play. I have great admiration for those people.”
Nor is Geary alone in his cinematic tastes. Legendary former GH executive producer Gloria Monty was a Hitchcock fan herself. “She drew inspiration,” he observed. “Her frame of reference was always literature, the stage and classic movies — classic black-and-white times.” Times perfect for a character like Luke, who is all shades of grey.
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