Leslie Charleson, General Hospital’s Monica Quartermaine, dies aged 79 after nearly 50 years on soap opera

Leslie Charleson, who played Dr Monica Quartermaine on the popular US soap opera General Hospital for nearly half a century, has died aged 79, according to the show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini.

Charleson appeared in more than 2000 episodes of the long-running daytime sudser from 1977 until 2023, according to IMDb.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, @lesliecharleson,” Valentini wrote in a thread on X on January 12.

“Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on @GeneralHospital alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaine family, 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 #GeneralHospital, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time.”

His words remembering Charleson were also shared on the General Hospital Instagram page.

Charleson earned four Daytime Emmy Award nominations for her work on the show. She also played Monica in the General Hospital spinoff, Port Charles.

One of her first on-screen roles was on a 1966 episode of As the World Turns.

She soon became a familiar face on the small screen, appearing in the cast of the CBS soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and nabbing parts on shows such as The Wild Wild West, Mannix, Adam-12, Emergency!, Medical Centre, Happy Days and The Streets of San Francisco.

She joined General Hospital in 1977 to replace Patsy Rahn as Monica, but things got off to a bumpy start.

“I started the show the day Elvis Presley died, and being such a huge fan, I of course was very upset driving to the studios,” she told Soap Opera Digest in 2022.

“Then getting there I was told that they hoped I had brought my own wardrobe and makeup because there was a strike going on — and that was before I even got in the building.”

“Then I got in the building and I realised that no one really liked me, because the girl playing Monica before me was very rudely fired.”

Charleson became a staple of General Hospital, with Monica’s rollercoaster marriage to Alan, played by the late Stuart Damon, often a centrepiece of the show.

Her character also had a well-known storyline when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1990s.

“It was important and difficult and rewarding, because we all did our homework. I really wanted to portray it in the most honest, realistic way we could,” she told Soap Opera Digest in 2023.