Anthony Geary has died at age 78 in Amsterdam

Sad to see that actor Anthony Geary, who won eight Daytime Emmy Awards for playing Luke Spencer on General Hospital. has died at the age of 78.

Back in January, I had noticed a link to a photo of  Geary and his husband Claudio Gama on the Kenneth in the 212 blog. Curious, I then went over to Geary’s Wikipedia page and then to the official General Hospital Facebook fan page and found even more pics.

Very cool!

I had long been aware that Geary was gay but don’t know that there had ever been any kind of coming out story. I’m almost certain he had never publicly discussed his husband or his sexual orientation in an interview.

Geary originated the role of Luke in. 1978 and retired from the show, the role and acting altogether in 2015 and lives in Amsterdam. He made a cameo appearance on the soap in 2017 to facilitate the retirement of co-star Jane Elliot, who played Luke’s former on-screen wife Tracy Quartermaine. But, of course, his most famous wife on the show was Laura played by Genie Francis. Their 1981 TV wedding was an iconic event and even included a guest appearance by Elizabeth Taylor (as evil Helena Cassadine). It still holds the record as the highest-rated soap opera episode of all time and Luke and Laura were a daytime super couple – on and off – for decades.

Wikipedia states that Geary married longtime partner Gama in 2020. They had resided happily in Amsterdam, Netherlands since 2017.

I never interviewed Mr. Geary but I did get to meet him back in 2013 at “Broadway My Way,” the S.T.A.G.E. event benefiting AIDS Project LA when we were both in the lobby waiting for the show to start. He hadn’t done the arrivals carpet but I said hello, he was shy but friendly, and we took a photo together. I’m so glad we did.

In 2023, in his final interview with Soap Opera Digest, the actor said his perspective on his career had changed in the years following his departure from General Hospital in 2015. “Not being on the show after having been on it for 30-plus years, practically half my life, I have a feeling of satisfaction because I did it, I showed up, I did my work, I won some trophies, I enjoyed the people I worked with for the most part and I feel I got out in time. I look back on it and it’s great and it gave me this wonderful life I have now, so I’m not going to complain. I live in the city [Amsterdam] that I’ve always wanted to live in my whole life and I have somebody who loves me and I have a life now, that I didn’t have before, no matter how many fan letters or Emmys or how many pages of dialogue to learn. I didn’t have what I have now. So, everything happened at the right time, I guess.”