General Hospital’s Cassadine Family, From the Crazy to the Corrupt
General Hospital insane and incestuous royal family.
General Hospital’s Cassadine family is Port Charles’ own brand of royalty. Descended from Russian royalty they own their own private island in Greece and run the multi-national corporation Cassadine Industries. All of the male children follow the Russian tradition of a patronymic, given a name shared by a father or grandfather. The title of Prince historically passed from eldest son to eldest son. It’s long been rumored that incest among the family members to keep the bloodline pure had driven a number of them insane over the years. Get to know who’s who in the Cassadine family.
The first generation
In 1981 Prince Mikkos Ivanovich Cassadine (John Colicos), the patriarch of the family, arrived in Port Charles with his brothers Victor Cassadine (Thaao Penghlis) and Anthony “Tony” Cassadine (Andre Landzaat). Mikkos, Victor and Anthony also have a never seen sister, Sophia Cassadine-Davidovitch who was married to Alexei Davidovitch.
Mikkos and his brothers were involved in the Ice Princess storyline, a plot to freeze the world using a weather machine. It was foiled by Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), and resulted in Mikkos’ death. This launched a decades-long feud between the Cassadines and the Spencers, which began when Mikkos’ widow Helena Cassadine (Elizabeth Taylor, Dimitra Arliss, Constance Towers), put a curse on Luke and Laura (Genie Francis) on their wedding day.
The second generation
Mikkos and Helena had two legitimate sons. The heir apparent was Prince Stavros Nikolai Mikkossovich Cassadine (John Martinuzzi, Robert Kelker-Kelly) and the pride and joy of Helena’s life. Stavros was mad, obsessed with Laura, whom he kidnapped and raped. After several deaths and resurrections, he became fixated on her daughter Lulu Spencer (Julie Berman, Emme Rylan). After his last resurrection in 2014 by Victor, he was shot to death by Lulu’s husband Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna).
Stefan Darius Mikkosovich Cassadine (Stephen Nichols, Steve Johnson on Days of our Lives) was Helena and Mikkos’ younger son, who Helena thought was weak and soft. He arrived in Port Charles in 1996 with his nephew Nikolas, the secret son of Laura and Stavros. As many Cassadine men before him, Stefan grew increasingly more aggressive and deranged over the years and became obsessed with restoring the glory of the Cassadine family. He eventually met his end after being disfigured in a fire and stabbed in a fight by Luke Spencer in 2003.
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Mikkos had two illegitimate daughters from an affair with Kristin Bergman, a Swedish opera singer. The first daughter was Princess Natasha Alexandra Mikkosovna Cassadine. She had witnessed Helena murder her mother at a young age and blacked out any memory of her true identity. She was raised as Stefan’s first cousin and Sophia and Alexei Davidovitch’s child. She later arrived in Port Charles as an attorney and was going by the name Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn). Their second daughter was Kristina Cassadine (Jaime Ray Newman), who was given to the Carter family by Mikkos to foster and protect from Helena. Kristina arrived in town in 2001 to find her sister Alexis. While they were reunited, she tragically died in an explosion in 2003.
First mentioned in 2009, Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) was said to be the worst of the Cassadines. Valentin turned up in 2016 set out to take over Cassadine Industries and become Mikkos’ heir apparent. He brought with him a daughter, who was said to have been born to Claudette Beaulieu (Bree Williamson). However it was eventually revealed that Charlotte was conceived from an embryo Stavros created with Lulu Spencer’s egg, but what Stavros didn’t know was he had become infertile, so Helena used Valentin’s sperm to fertilize the embryo. In a second twist, Valentin learned he was never Mikkos’ son, but the bastard of Helena’s with a worker on Cassadine Island. She let Mikkos believe Valentin was his and orchestrated the embryo swap in order to finally unite her family line with her nemesis Luke Spencer’s.
The third generation
Prince Nikolas Mikhail Stavrosovich Cassadine (Tyler Christopher, Stephen Martines, Marcus Coloma) is the current heir to the Cassadine fortune and direct descendent of Mikkos. Originally believed to be the son of Stavros, it was later revealed that Nikolas was Laura’s son with Stefan, but that too was a lie orchestrated by Helena to strip him of his right as heir and seize the fortune for herself. For years he was regarded as the good Cassadine, however, he has lost his way and like so many Cassadine men before him, become obsessed with the family fortune.
Samantha McCall (Kelly Monaco) was born to Alexis Davis and Julian Jerome (William DeVry), but Alexis gave her up for adoption at birth. Only later as an adult was she reunited with her parents.
Kristina Davis-Corinthos is Alexis’ middle daughter with Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Alexis named her after her late sister Kristina.
Molly Lansing-Davis (Haley Pullos) is Alexis’ youngest daughter with Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst). Like her mother, she is studying to be a lawyer.
Charlotte Honor Cassadine (Scarlett Fernandez) is the youngest of the third generation, the daughter of Valentin and Lulu Spencer. Like her father, she is not of Cassadine blood, but retains the last name along with Valentin.
The fourth generation
Spencer Alexi Nikolayovich Cassadine is the upcoming Cassadine heir and next Prince. He is the son of Nikolas and Courtney Matthews (Alicia Leigh Willis). He currently attends boarding school in France.
Daniel “Danny” Edward Morgan (Porter Fasullo) is the son of Sam McCall and Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), who belongs to the Quartermaine family.
Finally, Emily Scout Cain is the youngest of the Cassadines, and Sam’s daughter with Andrew Drew Cain (Billy Miller), who is the long lost twin of Jason Morgan/Quartermaine.
