When Leslie Charleson was hired by General Hospital in 1977, she was already a showbiz vet, having starred on daytime’s Love Is Many a Splendored Thing (in a love triangle with David Birney and Donna Mills) and guest-starred on a zillion primetime series (including Happy Days, where she gave Ron Howard his first on-screen kiss).
A year before Charleson made her General Hospital debut, her complicated character made hers. So it was actually Patsy Rahn who began the steamy story of Monica’s doomed marriage to Jeff Webber (future MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson) and her all-consuming passion for his back-from-the-dead older brother, Rick.
In no time, Charleson fit in on screen as if she’d been making the rounds at the hospital for years. And Monica turned out to be as good an actress as her portrayer. You’d never guess from looking at this photo, would you, that the doctor’s heart was being torn to tatters by a love triangle from which she couldn’t seem to find an easy way out.
After Rick married Lesley Faulkner, Monica threw in the towel and… Oh, who are we kidding? Monica didn’t throw in any damn towel, she continued to try every trick in the book to get him between the sheets even as sparks were starting to fly between her and new doctor in town Alan Quartermaine, with whom she agreed to tie the knot.
When son A.J. was born, both Monica and Alan were convinced that the tot was the result of her one-night stand with Rick. Alan, taking the whole green-eyed monster thing to the extreme, went so far as to plot the lovers’ murders before discovering that he had an heir after all and instead strong-arming Monica into staying on as his “better half.”
Over the years, Monica and Alan came to realize that they were really were soulmates. But along the way, Lord, there were affairs galore — like hers with Sean Donley and surprise nephew Ned, and Alan’s with Jason Morgan’s mother, Susan Moore, and Lucy Coe. “New” kids kept turning up, too, like Monica’s ill-fated daughter, Dawn, and Skye Chandler, who turned out not to be Alan’s (though he loved her as if she was).
Being diagnosed with breast cancer sent Monica into a downward spiral in the mid-1990s. Alan fought to give her the support that she needed, and even joined her in adopting Emily Bowen, the daughter of a fellow cancer patient who didn’t make it. But Monica still drifted, disastrously, into the arms of the villainous Dr. Pierce Dorman.
Considering the way that Rick had once “died,” maybe Monica shouldn’t have been surprised when A.J. and Jason rose from the grave, metaphorically speaking. As it is, we’re kinda stunned that she hasn’t taken the guys’ latest demises with a bigger grain of salt. And isn’t the late Emily about due for a comeback?
Throughout much of their relationship, Monica and sister-in-law Tracy were likelier to trade insults than compliments. But time had a funny effect on them, allowing them ultimately to see one another in a new light. Sure, they’d always enjoy a good squabble. Underneath, though, they became as close as siblings.
Throughout her life, Monica has had a dance card that is, if anything, overfull. After Alan’s death, though, she more or less hung up her dancing shoes. They’d hated each other at times so mightily that it shook the rafters of the Quartermaine mansion. But in the end, they loved one another more than they ever had — or would — anyone else.
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