Five Things That Happened On January 21 In Soap History

In 1983 on General Hospital, Lila (Anna Lee) was in for an enormous shock when she discovered she was not legally married to Edward Quartermaine (David Lewis). The unpleasant news came courtesy of Susan Moore, who took great pleasure in revealing that Lila was (however accidentally) a bigamist! As it turned out, she had never legally divorced her first husband, Crane Tolliver, who had recently shown up in Port Charles.

In 1997, Beth Ehlers returned to Guiding Light as Harley Cooper. The actress had originally portrayed Harley from 1987-93. When Ehlers exited, Harley and her new husband, AC Mallet, moved out of town. Ehlers's return was timed to the show's 60th anniversary celebration, and took place two days before the show (which had premiered on radio in 1937) hit that remarkable milestone. This time around, Ehlers remained with the show until 2008, and went on to play Taylor Thompson on All My Children from 2008-09.

In 2004, Jackson Montgomery (Walt Willey) and Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) got engaged on All My Children. The proposal began with Jack telling Erica, "The one way to guarantee that you and I have a rich, wonderful life is if we share it." As he got on bended knee, Erica gasped, "Oh, my God, Jack. Are you proposing?" He teased, "No, I got down on my knees so you and I could finally see eye to eye about something." Getting serious, he told her, "I love you, Erica. And I want to spend the rest of my life waking up next to you and saying those three words to you. Please, please, will you marry me?" Her answer wasn't immediate, but once he allayed her fears and doubts, it was certainly enthusiastic: "Yes! Yes, Jack, I'll marry you!"

In 2005, John Reilly made his Passions debut as Alistair Crane. The actor, who passed away in 2021, was beloved to soap fans for his long run on General Hospital as Sean Donely, a role he played from 1984-1995 and reprised on GH: Night Shift in 2008 and on GH in 2013. Reilly succeeded David Bailey, who played Alistair from 2004-05, in the role, and remained with the show until 2008.

In 2022, the friends, family and even a foe or two of General Hospital's Luke Spencer gathered to say a final good-bye to him at his memorial service after he was killed in what at first appeared to be a cable car accident in Austria (later, it was proven that Victor Cassadine had ordered the cable car's sabotage to kill Luke). The iconic character had been played by Anthony Geary beginning in 1978, and he had retired from the role in 2015 (but returned for a brief cameo in 2017 when Jane Elliot exited the show as Tracy). Luke's memorial was held on The Haunted Star, and Tracy arrived with an urn containing her late love's ashes. The late Helena Cassadine crashed the event via a video message, but Laura unplugged the monitor before her gloating speech was completed.