It’s Only My Opinion: Why GH, DAYS And Other Soaps Should Honor Beloved Stars When They Die
Soap characters are in our living rooms every day, which makes them family. We also know their portrayers from soap magazines, talk shows, and personal appearances. Consequently, the death of a soap character is tough to deal with — but the loss of a beloved actor is worse.
General Hospital has been hit hard in recent years, leaving viewers raw with both reel and real emotion. Most viewers have the strongest connection to when they first started watching the show, which for OG watchers was when GH caught fire in the late 1970s-1980s. The young Laura/Scotty/Bobbie triangle, the messy Lesley/Rick/Monica/Alan quadrangle, the introduction of Robert Scorpio and his complicated backstory with Anna and Robin… those stories dominated the screen and took the soap to number one (where it stayed from 1979-1988).
You could never explain to a young person today how 30 million people tuned into Luke and Laura’s afternoon wedding on ABC which aired once… or that Academy Award-winner Elizabeth Taylor called the soap and asked if she could play a guest at their nuptials (her Helena Cassadine put a curse on the newlyweds)… or that Princess Diana — the only bride more famous than Laura Spencer in 1981 — sent champagne to portrayer Genie Francis at the studio when her character got married. (“They didn’t give me the champagne because I was underage,” Francis revealed years later.)
In the last two years, we’ve lost almost every big player from that storyline. Jacklyn Zeman was first, passing away in 2023 after playing the role of Luke’s sister, Bobbie Spencer, for 45 years. Making a sudden change in a soap storyline is like turning an ocean liner around in the middle of the Atlantic, so a tribute to Bobbie (and Jackie) had to wait eight months so GH could adjust its storylines and do her justice. Their salute included Kelly’s being renamed Bobbie’s and our dear BJ Jones making an appearance (IYKYK).
GH continues to honor Bobbie today, giving her nods just this week after Maxie suffered a heart attack. Lucy hugged Felicia and said Maxie has a strong heart (which used to belong to Bobbie’s daughter, BJ), Lucas told Elizabeth his mom would be proud of her (Bobbie preceded Liz as head nurse), and Felicia credited Barbara Jean’s heart for making Maxie’s life possible. “She grew up,” said Felicia, choking back tears.
The next hard loss came in early 2025 when Leslie Charleson passed away. Her portrayal of Monica Quartermaine stretched five decades; her most notable ongoing tale was her volatile and riotously entertaining marriage to Alan, which propelled their popular quadrangle with Rick and Lesley Webber (Laura’s mother).
Lesley’s portrayer, Denise Alexander, died in March.
Rick’s portrayer, Chris Robinson, died in June.
That entire quadrangle is now gone.
Which brings us to Tristan Rogers, who passed away on August 15 at age 79. This loss hits especially hard because GH recently retconned Sasha into Robert Scorpio’s daughter, and they had just shared scenes in July when Sasha took her new baby, Daisy, to go live with Robert and his true love, Holly, in Europe. That moving episode came 44 years after Scorpio debuted with Luke, Laura, and the Ice Princess on Cassadine Island. His character grew in popularity when Robert met his ex-wife Anna’s 6-year-old daughter Robin and did the math on her birth. “Robin Soltini should be Scorpio, shouldn’t it?” he asked Anna. Yes, she admitted, claiming she hid Robin’s identity to keep their daughter safe from their enemies. That sparked the famous “Asian Quarter” storyline during which Robin got kidnapped and Robert and Anna had to work together to save her.
It remains to be seen if GH will deal with Tristan/Robert’s death onscreen the way the show paid tribute to Jackie Zeman. Bobbie was a fixture in Port Charles and worked at G.H., so they had to explain her absence. In Robert’s case, he could technically live happily ever after offscreen with Holly, Sasha, and baby Daisy in Europe.
Leaving a cherished character out there in the world can work, but it’s important to mention them periodically as a wink to the audience that the actor lives on in our hearts. I like the thought of Bold and Beautiful’s original Sally Spectra on an island somewhere being fed Mai Tais by hunky cabana boys (her portrayer, Darlene Conley, died in 2007), and the speculation that Stefano DiMera could still be alive on Days of Our Lives looms large despite his many deaths (we lost Joseph Mascolo in 2016).
Monica’s loss will be addressed soon since “Grandma Monica” remains such a big presence on GH, and her ownership of the Quartermaine mansion has been a running gag since Alan gave it to her back in the golden age. (Will Monica leave the house to Tracy?!) I look forward to the fitting tribute GH is crafting to this treasured matriarch and her revered portrayer.
I’m sure it will rival the tribute DAYS offered for Drake Hogestyn and his esteemed character, John Black. That was a tough pill for fans who had watched the heroic ISA agent come through so many illnesses and deaths (!) to always find his way back to his true love, “Doc.” John’s long good-bye to family and friends after being burned while helping to save Bo (so DAYS could hide the face of the actor who played him at the end) gave voice to viewers’s feelings of loss, too. His memorial cited the creative ways John (and Drake) used one eyebrow to convey his thoughts, as well as his love of baseball (which Drake had played with the NY Yankees farm team). Win/win.
John was later remembered when his son, Paul, married Andrew (Marlena offered John’s watch as Paul’s “something old”), and Brady stood up as best man in John’s place. In another episode, Steve’s late sister, Adrienne, appeared to him in a dream with the message that John was healed, and she was watching out for him in heaven (sniff!). DAYS even brought Alison Sweeney back later as Sami to console her mom and pay tribute to her stepdad in an important beat as they closed the door on his valuable presence in Salem.
It’s important to keep valued characters alive after they’ve passed away in the same way we keep loved ones alive in real life. In addition to mentioning them, soaps give us the occasional flashback (but should use more) and do a good job with photos on the mantel: Think Young and Restless’s John Abbott, B&B’s Stephanie Forrester, DAYS’s Victor Kiriakis, and GH’s Edward and Lila. The great value in long-running actors in long-running roles is the attachment we have to them and all the amazing ways the show has to remind us of that connection long after they’re gone.
It’s not just being nostalgic for soaps’s heyday — it’s honoring family.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
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