From Luke & Laura to Anthony & Claudio

So. When I was a student at Austin College WAAAAAY back in the dark ages of the early 1980s, the soap opera General Hospital was a big deal — a REALLY big deal.

I lived in Dean Hall, which at the time was AC’s only co-ed dorm. In the lobby of the first floor in Dean, there was almost always at least one hotly-contested game of Spades going on at all hours of the day and night, usually with players rotating in and out as class schedules and sleep schedules demanded.

We had a kitchen and TV room in the basement, and card games popped up there from time to time, it seems. But every weekday, at 2 p.m. Central, that giant TV was tuned to ABC for our daily dose of General Hospital.

As I remember it, students from all the different dorms converged on Dean Hall for the daily GH watch party — maybe because Dean was the only co-ed dorm. And every spot on every chair and every sofa and all the floor space was occupied as folks crowded in there to watch the daytime soap. I mean, people actually scheduled their classes around the show’s broadcast schedule, and those who couldn’t get there early sent someone ahead to save them a seat.

General Hospital was a big deal at Austin College. And Luke Spencer and Laura Webber were the biggest deal on General Hospital.  When Luke (played by Anthony Geary) and Laura (played by Genie Francis) got married on Nov. 17, 1981, 30 million people were watching. Seems like a couple hundred thousand of those were crammed into Dean Hall’s basement TV room. And Google tells me that episode of GH is still — 44 years later — the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history.

I told you. It was a big deal.

I have to admit. I didn’t really care that much about the show or even the wedding. But I watched because EVERYbody was watching, and besides, Genie Francis was HOT!

I left Austin College after two years (majoring in the Dallas gay bars doesn’t do much for one’s GPA), and I lost track of Luke and Laura and whatever was happening on General Hospital. I really had no idea what happened on the show beyond sometime in early 1982. I didn’t even know whether it was still on the air today.

So I checked; it is. And, again according to Google, it is the longest-running American soap opera, airing on ABC and available for streaming on Hulu. And Genie Francis is still on the show. And, at 63, she’s still pretty hot.

But Luke’s not on the show anymore. Luke and Laura were divorced in 2001. They got remarried in 2006, but it didn’t count because Luke was already married to somebody else. And then, after a series of suitably dramatic storylines, Luke left Port Charles in — I think Google said it was 2015. And finally, Laura and her and Luke’s daughter Lulu find out in 2022 that Luke was killed in a cable car accident, of all things, in Austria.

So. You are probably wondering what the hell sent me off on this General-Hospital-Luke-and-Laura-Genie-Francis-is-hot tangent. Or maybe you read the news, so you don’t wonder why; you know.

See, Anthony Geary — the man who to thousands of devoted fans WAS Luke Spencer — died yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 14) of complications following a scheduled surgery several days ago at the age of 78. He died in Amsterdam where he moved for real in 2015.

He died with his husband, Claudio Gama, at his side.

His husband. His partner of nearly 30 years and his husband of six years.

Anthony Geary — Luke Spencer — was a gay man. And I had no idea. That floors me — not because it was a big deal, or because I was some huge super fan. It’s just that I DID watch General Hospital back in its heyday, and knowing which celebrities are LGBTQ has been kinda part of my actual job for more than 37 years now.

And I never knew that he was an open and proud member of our rainbow family. That’s just weird to me.

So. Rest in peace, Anthony Geary. My condolences to his husband, Mr. Gama, and to all his friends and loved ones. May his memory be a blessing.

And farewell for real to Luke and Laura.

— Tammye Nash

NOTE: In the original version of this post, I wrote that Anthony Geary and Genie Francis shared two children in real life. A reader questioned that and when I double-checked I couldn’t find that info again and instead found that Anthony Geary had no children. That’s been corrected. And many thanks to the person who pointed that out.