How General Hospital Plans to Honor The Late Tristan Rogers and Leslie Charleson
Over the past few years, General Hospital has been hit with a slew of devastating real-life losses behind the scenes, with the passing of veteran stars like Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie Spencer) and Sonya Eddy (Epiphany Johnson) as well as alumni like Johnny Wactor (Brando Corbin) and Ron Hale (Mike Corbin). In 2025, two more beloved actors who made an indelible mark on the course of GH history have passed away: Leslie Charleson (Monica Quartermaine), who died in January, and Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio), who died in August. Now, the show’s head writers, Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten, are speaking out about their plans to craft fitting send-offs for the legendary characters played by Charleson and Rogers.
Fond Farewell
As Charleson struggled with health issues in recent years, her GH appearances grew more scarce, and her on-screen family members have made frequent mention on-screen of Monica’s own health struggles, meant to explain her absence from the screen. Monica’s death will play out on the show this fall and create major ripple effects across the canvas, both in and out of the Quartermaine family. Previously, the scribes revealed that while the passing of Monica would be “an occasion for mourning and togetherness” for most characters, others would see it as “an opportunity to be seized,” and that the character taking her final breath would be the springboard for the arrival of One Life to Live legend Erika Slezak entering the Port Charles mix as a mystery character who has connections to the Qs.
In a new interview with TV Insider, Korte and Van Etten elaborated that in plotting out Monica’s death and its aftermath, they felt that in order to properly celebrate and honor the significance of both Charleson and the character she played, it wasn’t enough to simply pen a funeral and to look back on Monica’s rich history on the show. Rather, they explained, “We wanted Monica’s passing to kick off a new story; to create new connections on the canvas; to test her loved ones; and to grow their relationships. This way, Monica may be gone — but her legacy will be felt long into the future.”
As for Rogers, he left the canvas last year when Robert got a happy ending with on-again, off-again love Holly Sutton (Emma Samms) but made a surprise final appearance in July, just weeks before he passed away, when Robert and Holly’s daughter, Sasha (Sofia Mattsson), was wrapping her run. In theory, he could remain off camera happily ever after with Holly, but Korte and Van Etten made it clear that they do plan to acknowledge Rogers’s passing on the show. Noting that he was missed by his GH family, they said, “We aim to pay tribute to Tristan and Robert the same way that we did for Leslie and Monica.”
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