On what would’ve been her 80th birthday, Leslie Charleson’s co-stars and friends gathered to celebrate her life.
The General Hospital star played Monica Quartermaine for four decades, becoming the longest-running star on the ABC soap.
Leslie died earlier this year after being away from the spotlight for over a year.
Her last appearance on General Hospital was in December 2023, when she appeared in scenes with Rena Sofer, who plays Lois Cerullo, at the Quartermaine mansion.
Not too long ago, Leslie’s cause of death was revealed. It seems she died from injuries sustained in a fall, though it didn’t happen recently. Long-term effects were behind her passing.
Now that her real-life celebration of life has happened, it’s up to General Hospital to honor her next.
Finola Hughes shares Leslie Charleson memorial photo
General Hospital star Finola Hughes has played Anna Devane since the 80s. She and Leslie Charleson were good friends.
On Instagram, Finola shared a photo of Leslie Charleson’s celebration of life, with her date of birth and date of death written on it. The photo chosen was one of her smiling while loving on her dog.
She captioned her share, “Beautiful celebration of this wonderful woman. The stories about Lester’s generosity and kindness and above all her fun loving way of life. Her love of animals, her horses, her joy in acting. It was touching to bring her two worlds together for an afternoon, her GH family and her equestrian friends 💕 rip sweet Lester, we love you 💫 🕊️”
Ian Buchanan, who starred as Duke Lavery on General Hospital, shared a photo from the event with Finola and Lynn Herring.
When will General Hospital pay tribute to Leslie Charleson?
There hasn’t been any formal announcement about what General Hospital plans to do to celebrate the loss of Leslie Charleson and her character, Monica Quartermaine.
She has been mentioned several times recently, but she is always upstairs in the mansion or at the hospital working.
Because of her legacy and her time on the show, we suspect an episode will be written to reflect all of her contributions.
With February sweeps nearly over and scripts written out in advance, something will likely happen with May sweeps. It would be perfect timing since sweeps typically come with a shock factor, and Monica’s death will rock Port Charles.
Leslie Charleson was one of a kind, and her friends and colleagues will miss her.
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC.