Leslie Charleson, who for nearly five decades played a dedicated cardiologist and passionate matriarch of a wealthy family on the ABC soap opera “General Hospital,” becoming one of the most enduring cast members in daytime television, died on Sunday at a hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79.
Frank Valentini, the executive producer of “General Hospital,” confirmed her death in a statement on social media. Marianne Price, a spokeswoman for the show, said the cause was complications of a long illness, which she did not identify.
Mr. Valentini said that just as Ms Charleson’s character, Dr. Monica Quartermaine, was the heart of the Quartermaine family on the show, Ms. Charleson was the “matriarch of the entire cast and crew.”
She joined the cast in 1977, playing a cardiologist at the hospital where much of “General Hospital” is set. Since 1963, the series has followed the lives of hospital staff members and residents in the fictional town of Port Charles, N.Y.
Ms. Charleson, who appeared in more than 2,000 episodes, began endearing herself to fans after her character married into the wealthy and volatile Quartermaine family as the wife of Dr. Alan Quartermaine, who was played by Stuart Damon.
For decades, story lines revolved around their turbulent marriage, which involved fights, affairs, breakups and even murder attempts.
“We’d do real slaps,” Ms. Charleson told People magazine in 2023 on the occasion of the show’s 60th anniversary. “I would fake a slap in dress rehearsal, but when we went to tape it, all that went out the window!”
She was nominated four times for a Daytime Emmy Award as outstanding lead actress in a drama series. She also played the character on a spinoff series, “Port Charles,” which ran from 1997 to 2003.
Leslie Ann Charleson was born on Feb. 22, 1945, in Kansas City, Mo. Her earliest television acting role was on the former ABC soap opera “A Flame in the Wind” in 1964. She was later part of the cast of the CBS daytime series “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.”
She also had parts in popular prime-time series in the 1970s, including “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Happy Days” and “The Rockford Files.”
But she was best known to television viewers as a daytime mainstay on “General Hospital.” In a 1981 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Ms. Charleson described her character as “dedicated in all areas.”
“Her dedication in her social life can be a bit over the top, but it’s true,” she said. “When she loves, it’s passionately. She puts her effort into it, sometimes at the expense of others.”
She is survived by her brother, Malcom Charleson, and a longtime family friend, Krista Dragna Zampino, according to Ms. Price, the show’s spokeswoman.
Although plots involving the charcter Dr. Monica Quartermaine mostly related to her marriage and colleagues, one of her more notable story lines came when she learns she has breast cancer.
Ms. Charleson told Soap Opera Digest, “We had all either gone through it or knew someone close to us who had, so we all had a vested interest in keeping it honest and real.”
She added, “I really wanted to portray it in the most honest, realistic way we could.”
