(L to R) Actors Leslie Charleson and Jill Larson attend the Super Soap Weekend at Disneyland on May 31, 2003 in Anaheim, California. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images/TNS)
Leslie Charleson, whose Dr. Monica Quartermaine was the longest-tenured character on "General Hospital," has died. She was 79.
Charleson died of complications from a long illness, said ABC News, which broadcasts the long-running soap opera. "General Hospital" executive producer Frank Valentini announced the star's death.
"It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson," Valentini wrote on X and the "General Hospital" Instagram account. "Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on 'General Hospital' alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, 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 'General Hospital,' my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her loved ones during this difficult time."
Her exact cause of death was not made public, but Variety noted Charleson had fallen several times in recent years, hindering her mobility and forcing her to use a walker. She had been hospitalized last week after one such fall, Variety reported.
Charleson had held the role of Monica Quartermaine since joining "General Hospital" in 1977. She appeared in 2,079 episodes through 2023, according to IMDB. Switched to "recurring" status in 2010 over fan objections, she made fewer appearances on the soap but was still a regular until her last appearance in December 2023.
Born Feb. 22, 1945, in Kansas City, Missouri, Charleson caught the acting bug at an early age, according to Soap Opera Digest. In 1964, at 19, she appeared in her first soap "A Flame in the Wind," then appeared as Alice Whipple on "As The World Turns," followed by a three-year stint on CBS's "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" from 1967-70.
Charleson was subsequently cast in 1973's "The Day of the Dolphin" by Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols. Then she tried her hand at Broadway, appearing in "One Night Stand" with Tony Curtis and William Devane, but when it closed after a short run, she headed for Hollywood.
For the next several years Charleson guest-starred on more than 20 household-name television shows, including "The Rockford Files," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Mannix," "Ironside," "Adam-12" and "Emergency!" On "Happy Days," Charleson's divorced Dorothy Kimber gave actor-director Ron Howard (as Richie Cunningham) his first on-screen kiss, Variety noted.
But the soaps came knocking again, and she was cast as Monica Quartermaine -- a role she would play for the next 45-plus years. Charleson shepherded her most famous character through marriages, children, breast cancer and a host of other fictional major life events, earning four Daytime Emmy best lead actress nominations as she went.
