Anthony Geary, the actor best known for portraying Luke Spencer on the popular soap opera “General Hospital,” died in Amsterdam on Sunday. He was 78.
His death, in a hospital days after surgery, was confirmed by his sister Deann Geary. Mr. Geary portrayed the mafia-connected Luke on and off for decades beginning in the late-1970s, a nuanced role that required balancing the character’s darker tendencies and softer undertones. Playing a self-important, street-savvy criminal, Mr. Geary would later tell The Toronto Star, was “taxing.”
“He was a grab bag of emotions and directions, a minor icon of anti-heroism in the ’80s, and in many ways represented a lot of what was bad with the decade,” Mr. Geary said. “He was violent, he was greedy, he was arrogant and a chauvinist. At the same time he was romantic and sensitive.”
The character’s whirlwind — and controversial — romance in the 1980s with Laura Webber (Genie Francis), became a cultural touch point. Luke and Laura’s deeply complicated history included Luke raping Laura in an episode that aired on Oct. 5, 1979, though she would fall in love with him later — a story line that both captivated audiences and infuriated some who said the show glorified sexual assault. (In recent years, Ms. Francis has criticized the story line.)
The show soon turned Mr. Geary and Ms. Francis into stars. Soap operas were not typically structured as star vehicles, but in 1981, the duo landed on the cover of Newsweek with the headline, “TV’s Hottest Show.” Their wedding episode became the most watched episode of a daytime drama in history, and Mr. Geary won his first Daytime Emmy in 1982, the first of eight in his career.
The onscreen relationship with Laura consumed Mr. Geary’s life offscreen, too. He and Ms. Francis became celebrities, widely recognizable and deluged by fan mail. But he also recalled in a 1989 interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that some fans would shout, “Luke, rape me,” at him during personal appearances.
“If I couldn’t avoid the subject entirely, I just said I appreciated that we touched them so deeply,” Mr. Geary said.
Mr. Geary left the show in 1984 but returned in the early 1990s, though not as Luke, but rather a look-alike cousin of Luke’s, Bill Eckert. He eventually returned as Luke himself in 1993, reuniting with Laura. (They also appeared in character in an episode of the sitcom “Roseanne” in 1994.)
Tony Dean Geary was born in Coalville, Utah, on May 29, 1947, to Russell Dean Geary, a contractor, and Dana Anderson. Tony was fascinated with movies and wanting to be an actor. Starting in grade school, he kept a notebook in which he logged every movie that he saw, including who directed and starred in them, according to a 2007 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
Mr. Geary studied theater at the University of Utah, which he attended on a scholarship. He was discovered by the comedian Jack Albertson, who helped Mr. Geary get cast in a touring production of the Broadway play “The Subject Was Roses.”
“I was raised a Mormon, which gave me a solid family base, but I rejected the philosophy and prejudice I found repressive,” Mr. Geary said an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1984. “I lived very much in my imagination to escape that repression. This led to acting.”
In addition to his sister Deann, he is also survived by his husband, Claudio Gama, and another sister, Jana Geary Steele.
Mr. Geary appeared in dozens of regional theater productions and was an established stage actor before he was cast in “General Hospital.” After he began his career in television, he changed his first name to Anthony because he felt the name had “gravitas” that Tony didn’t, he told the Television Academy Foundation in 2007. One of Mr. Geary’s first television roles was in a first season episode of “All in the Family.”
In the 1970s, Mr. Geary appeared in several television shows, including “Mannix,” “Shaft” and “The Young and the Restless,” before landing on “General Hospital.”
Mr. Geary was, at points, chilly about taking part in daytime soap operas, a genre that is seen as lacking prestige.
“I almost did ‘Salvador’ with Oliver Stone, until he hired me and found out I was Luke Spencer, and pulled back his offer,” Mr. Geary recalled in the Television Academy Foundation interview. “It was hurtful at the time, but I understand that if you’re doing a big film, for the five seconds or less that someone goes, ‘Isn’t that that guy on “General Hospital”?’ — they’re out of the movie.”
At other points, Mr. Geary embraced the role, especially as it left him as one of the most recognizable soap opera stars in television history. He left the “General Hospital” for good in 2015, except for a one-off appearance in 2017.
“I don’t mind doing daytime,” Mr. Geary told The Union-Tribune in 1984. “The money is less and the hours are longer, but I’m an actor, and acting beats wrecking cars at night.”
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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