General Hospital fans have been celebrating Maurice Benard's (Sonny Corinthos) 25th anniversary on the ABC soap opera, and the party for viewers is continuing because another of the series' beloved stars is marking a big milestone, as well. Leslie Charleson, otherwise known as Monica Quartermaine, has been part of the GH family for 41 years.
The actress first arrived in Port Charles back in August of 1977 as Monica Bard, a hopeful doctor who planned to marry David Langston. Unfortunately, he was drafted to serve in Vietnam and ended up MIA and presumed dead -- at about the same time Monica found out she was pregnant with their daughter, Dawn.
In the years that followed, Charleson's Monica had a roller coaster of adventure that included romances with Rick Webber (Chris Robinson), MacGyver -- um -- Jeff Webber (Richard Dean Anderson), and Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon), among others.
"41 years ago today, Elvis Presley died and I started on GH. Little did I know something so good could come out of such a sad day," Charleson wrote on Twitter in acknowledgement of her GH anniversary.
41 years ago today, Elvis Presley died and I started on GH. Little did I know something so good could come out of such a sad day.
— Leslie Charleson (@lesliecharleson) August 16, 2018
Charleson's longtime costar Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie Spencer) also took to Twitter to celebrate her colleague's impressive milestone. "Happy anniversary, Leslie!" she wrote. "Love you bunches."
Unfortunately, news of Charleson's anniversary was a bit overshadowed by Benard's 25th anniversary on the ABC soap opera. Part of that is because soap operas typically only commemorate the "major" anniversaries like 15, 25, 50, etc.
As fans may recall, Charleson was recently forced to step away from GH for a short time after suffering a leg injury. The Bad Seed actress Patty McCormack temporarily took over the role of Monica, but Charleson returned to the studio on July 23 and has already returned to the airwaves.
Would you like to wish Charleson a happy anniversary? What are some of your favorite Monica memories? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
