Drs. Alan and Monica Quartermaine are fictional characters and a widowed supercouple on the ABC daytime soap opera, General Hospital.
Casting[]
Celebratory wedding dinner at the Versailles Room (1991)
According to an interview on the Soapnet talk show, Soap Talk, Damon first appeared in the role of Dr. Alan Quartermaine on September 12, 1977. He remained under contract for a duration of 30 years. In December 2006, after three decades with the series, it was reported that Damon was dismissed from the show and would depart in early 2007.[1]
In February 2007, following the decision to kill off Alan, a significant backlash from fans prompted Stuart Damon to return as Alan's ghost on a recurring basis until December 23, 2008. Damon returned to portray Alan in a dream sequence on August 29, 2011, and made two further appearances over the subsequent two years.
In October 2012, TV Guide's Nelson Branco disclosed that Damon had resumed filming scenes, and Soap Opera Digest later confirmed that he would be reprising Alan's ghost in November. Additionally, Stuart Damon's final appearance was when he reprised his role as Alan on April 1 and 2, 2013, to celebrate General Hospital's 50th anniversary.[2]
The character of Monica Bard was originated in 1976 by actress Patsy Rahn, but has been portrayed by actress Leslie Charleson since 1977.
On August 24, 2010, it was announced that Charleson was being demoted to recurring status after 30 years. She continued in this capacity until her passing in January 2025.[3][4]
Background[]
Alan was the son He was the son of the late, wealthy businessman Edward Quartermaine and his late wife, Lila Morgan Quartermaine. He was a member of the prestigious and affluent Quartermaine family.
Monica was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Bard and the foster daughter of the late Greg Adamson and the late Dr. Gail Adamson Baldwin.
They have three great-grandchildren: Wiley Alan Corinthos, Amelia Grace Corinthos, and Daisy Celeste Gilmore.
Storylines[]
Monica and Rick Webber are forced to work together with Dr. Alan Quartermaine on plans for a new wing at the hospital. While Monica continues to antagonize Lesley Webber and Rick, she soon begins a relationship with Alan, though she's still very much attracted to Rick.
Monica had doubts about her relationship with Alan, but these were soon overshadowed when Monica's foster mother Gail Adamson discovered that Monica had slept with Gail's late husband Greg. Gail did not believe Monica's explanation that Greg had forced her into the affair and cut ties with Monica. Monica turned to Alan for support and agreed to marry him.
Following their March 1978 wedding, Alan and Monica moved into their Harborview Towers penthouse. In July 1979, Alan purchased the Quartermaine mansion as a gift for Monica, and they, along with his family, took up residence there. However, within a year of her second marriage, Monica once again fell into Rick's arms and the two had a one-night stand. Monica was pregnant and didn't know who the father was. Monica gave birth to a son, A.J.. Monica believed that Rick was the father and Rick and Lesley divorced so Rick and Monica could be together. Alan was enraged by this turn of events and made several attempts to kill Rick and Monica, but was thwarted at every attempt. Eventually, both Monica and Alan realized that A.J. was indeed Alan's son and not Rick's. Monica attempted to hide this fact from Rick, but Alan eventually exposed the truth. Rick, disgusted with Monica's continued manipulations, left her and went back to Lesley. Monica felt that she had no other alternative but to stay with Alan.
Following their 'reconciliation,' Monica refused to sleep with Alan and insisted on separate rooms. Alan grew frustrated and in 1981, he embarked on an affair with Susan Moore, who became pregnant and gave birth to Alan's sons, Jason and his unknown twin brother Andrew, who was given to Betsy Frank by Heather. In 1983, Susan was murdered and Alan fought Susan's cousin, Heather Webber (the same Heather whom Jeff had cheated on Monica with seven years earlier) for custody of the baby. Susan was a niece of Alice Grant who was Heather's mother. Monica was not pleased at having her husband's illegitimate offspring in the house at first, but eventually grew to love Jason as if he were her own. She later legally adopted him as well.
Despite being married, Alan and Monica each strayed, betraying one another. In 1985, Monica's affair with Sean Donely was initially viewed by the Quartermaines as a chance to uncover his business secrets. Yet, the two fell in love, ousting the Quartermaines from their wealth and mansion. In response, Alan devised a scheme to frame Sean for his own murder to claim insurance money. Presumed dead in a plane crash, Alan was actually living incognito in a new town under an alias and started an affair with Charity Gatlin. Edward Quartermaine enlisted Tiffany Hill to separate Sean and Monica, which cost him the local TV station WLPC and a large portion of the Quartermaine fortune. After Sean was arrested for Alan's "murder," he sought Tiffany's help, angering Monica but fulfilling Edward's plan. Edward promised to provide evidence of Sean's innocence in exchange for the return of their wealth. Sean complied, and Edward revealed in court that Alan was alive. In a twist, Alan, who had amnesia and believed he was Simon, eventually rekindled his romance with Monica, despite her initial belief that he was pretending.
After Alan manipulated Monica into quitting her new position as assistant chief of staff, which Alan had wanted, she went to Green Meadows Spa for a break. Monica ended up sleeping with one of the workers there, a young man named Ward. To Monica's surprise, Ward turned out to be Ned Ashton, the son of her sister-in-law, Tracy Quartermaine, and thus, Alan's nephew. The two agreed to keep the affair a secret, but soon another secret of Monica's would come out. Monica's secret daughter, Dawn Winthrop turned up and began dating Ned. These two secrets proved at last to be the deathblow to Monica and Alan's marriage and the two divorced. Alan later married Lucy Coe in 1990.
Dawn was later murdered, and Monica was devastated by her death. After Alan's marriage to Lucy also proved a disaster, Monica and Alan were drawn back together by their son A.J's rebellious behavior. In 1991, the two remarried and the next three years of their marriage were relatively calm, although the return of David Langton (Dawn's father), A.J.'s relationship with David's daughter Nikki and Alan's friendship with Rhonda Wexler did give the couple some cause for concern.
Monica's life was changed forever when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994. Monica became despondent and began pushing Alan away, though Alan fought hard to give Monica the support she needed. During this time, Monica befriended Paige Bowen, a fellow sufferer of the disease. Monica was devastated when Paige died, but ended up adopting Paige's daughter, Emily. Finally, Monica went into remission, but she and Alan were drifting further and further apart.
By 1996, A.J.'s alcoholism, which had been developing for several years, culminated in family tragedy when he and Jason were in a serious car accident. A.J. escaped relatively unhurt, but Jason was left with amnesia and brain damage. The family's attempts to make Jason remember alienated him from the family and he eventually rejected all of them including Monica in favor of working for local mob boss, Sonny Corinthos. As a result of all the tragedy in her life, Monica separated from Alan and longed to make herself feel better.
Monica embarked on an affair with Dr. Pierce Dorman, which predictably ended in disaster when Dorman made false allegations of sexual harassment against Monica. In court, Dorman's lawyers brought up Monica's past indiscretions, including her affair with Ned and ended up winning the case. Monica was fired from General Hospital as a result.
On top of this, Monica had to deal with both A.J.'s alcoholism and Emily's drug addiction. Monica snapped and kidnapped Dorman, and threatened to give him a lobotomy. Only Jason's intervention stopped her from doing so. Eventually though, Monica was vindicated when Dorman was murdered and revealed to have been a drug dealer.
In 1997, Alan and Monica were once again on the verge of divorcing, this time during their anniversary. However, they chose to remain together.
Monica was later shocked to learn that Alan was addicted to painkillers and had become a junkie. She kicked him out of the mansion when he refused to get professional help and took over as chief of staff at GH. Alan's efforts to help kick his addiction took a toll on the marriage. However, when Alan saved the life of Mac Scorpio, after he had been shot at his club, The Outback, Monica regained faith in Alan. Monica took Alan back when he finally got professional help for his addiction and returned to his old self.
Monica found herself concentrating on her children's lives. When Carly Roberts claimed that her son Michael was Jason's, Monica reached out to understand her estranged son so she could see her grandson. Monica's father-in-law, Edward Quartermaine, wanted to gain custody of Michael and thus Jason, who had been growing close to the Quartermaines was alienated from the family once again. Eventually, it was revealed that Jason was covering for Carly and that he was not Michael's father, but rather A.J.'s.
Alan and Monica briefly considered trying for another baby in 2001. They later decided to renew their vows only for Skye Chandler to turn up and claim that she was Alan's daughter. While Monica and Skye clashed at first, they eventually established a cordial relationship and Monica even allowed Skye to stay at the mansion after Tracy revealed that she wasn't Alan's daughter after all.
Alan's jealous side came out when later when Rick Webber returned to town to be part of Laura Spencer's upcoming wedding. Alan was livid to see his wife in several animated conversations with Rick and even more upset to see them dancing together at Luke's during a party for the hospital. He warned Rick to keep his hands off his wife, and Monica reveled in Alan's attention. Alan and Monica later reconciled after Rick was killed in 2002.
Emily returned home in 2003 with a secret of her own, she was suffering from breast cancer. Alan found out when Monica tried to have her treated at another hospital. Alan and Monica supported Emily and convinced her to seek treatment and were overjoyed when Emily managed to beat the cancer. Monica and the rest of the family were shocked to learn that A. J. had managed to empty the family's bank accounts and left town with the money.
Emily and Nikolas later announced their engagement and Nikolas had gone bankrupt as well. But their financial problems seemed to be over when Emily and Nikolas announced that they had found a sunken ship that had belonged to the Quartermaines several generations ago.
The ship had contained a lot of treasure and Nikolas and Emily planned to hire Sam McCall to salvage the treasure. Then the families would split it down the middle. Alan and Monica agreed to the split in order to support Emily, Tracy however pretended to go along with it but really made her own plans to pay Sam to give them the whole treasure. Sam later took off with the treasure herself.
The treasure came back to the Quartermaines when Nikolas and Emily were able to figure out where Helena, who had stolen it from Sam, had hidden it. The couple held an auction of the treasure with the intent of splitting the proceeds equally between their two families. Luke however stole the treasure and the PC Hotel where the auction was being held caught on fire. The attendees had just started to evacuate when the firefighters closed down the elevators, leaving everyone left trapped in the auction room. Although Alan had wanted Emily to go in the first group, Monica persuaded him to go since doctors would be needed to help the injured. Eventually everyone made it out alive.
Later that year Lila died in her sleep. The whole family was grief stricken, However none of them could claim any of Lila's money for one month. Lila had left a stipulation in her will that a judge would award her estate to the person who acted the most virtuous in the next month. Monica and Alan were disqualified within the first week after they tried to conspire against the rest of the family.
In Summer 2004, A storm knocked out the power in the Quartermaine mansion, an accident on the road left everyone stranded for awhile, and then Sage Alcazar was discovered stabbed to death in the basement freezer. The killer turned out to be Mary, who was after Emily in order to get Nikolas back. In a confrontation, Nikolas shot Mary to protect Emily. Mary was then institutionalized.
In 2005, A.J. faked his death as part of a complicated plot to frame his ex-wife, Courtney Matthews, for murder and eventually kidnap his son Michael. Alan and Monica blamed each other for failing to show A.J. enough love and attention and once again a rift began in their marriage. When A.J. turned up alive and was subsequently murdered, Alan and Monica separated.
Monica also believed that she had witnessed Michael kill A.J. and helped in the cover up, though eventually it was revealed that her grandson was not to blame. Alan blamed Jason for A.J.'s death, and paired up with Michael's therapist, Asher Thomas, to help get Michael away from Sonny and back in the Quartermaine mansion. Monica wanted to end their marriage over Alan's treatment of Jason and his handling of the whole affair and vowed to leave as soon as he recovered.
Alan began acting secretive and Monica finally learned that his secret was that he knew that A.J. had wanted his brother Jason killed years earlier after the accident that left Jason with permanent brain damage. She wanted to leave him, even after his heartfelt confession that he had saved Jason from certain death that night, even though he couldn't be sure how it would turn out. Alan felt like he was given a new chance with Jason when an experimental drug left Jason with complete amnesia and tried desperately to get his son to come home, but Monica told him the truth. Monica and Alan eventually patched up their differences and decided to remain married.
Alan and Monica were extremely concerned when Emily moved in with Sonny Corinthos. Emily claimed she was only helping Sonny with his children, but Monica and Alan believed a romantic relationship was developing. When Emily turned down an offer from Monica to assist on a rare procedure to spend time with Sonny instead, they confronted her Alan threatened to have her expelled from medical school if she continued to see Sonny and Alan banned her from the family home. Monica was relieved when Emily ended her relationship with Sonny and reconciled with Nikolas.
During the final months of Alan's life, he and Monica were compelled to face the truth about who murdered Rick Webber in 2002, as Lulu Spencer and Dillon Quartermaine's investigation unfolded. Monica had suspected Alan of allowing Laura to be blamed. In contrast, Alan had suspected Monica. Ultimately, it was disclosed that Scott Baldwin was the perpetrator, a fact Alan knew, having gone to the Scorpio house that night. He had observed the incident from afar, with the intention of killing Rick himself. Alan, the only witness to Scott's crime, wrote a letter to Luke Spencer, to be delivered posthumously.
In February 2007, Monica was frantic when many of her family were trapped and held as hostages inside the Metro Court Hotel. Jerry Jacks locked down the hotel and trapped everyone inside while he waited to open a briefcase from Lorenzo Alcazar. Alan suffered a heart attack while he was held hostage and was the only hostage released early. He collapsed as he exited the hotel and was taken immediately into surgery. Monica operated on Alan, aware that his survival chances were minimal due to severe heart damage. She declared her love for him one last time before he passed away.
Emily was a significant support to Monica during her mourning. However, a few months later, Jason delivered the heartbreaking news that Emily had been killed by one of his enemies. Blaming Jason for Emily's death, Monica distanced herself from him and turned to alcohol for comfort. After a car accident nearly claimed Sam McCall's life while she was under the influence, Monica checked herself into rehab and ultimately recovered.
On Christmas in 2008, Monica sees Alan's ghost after she receives a special pair of glasses as a gift. Alan and Monica immediately fall into their familiar round of bickering banter and profess their love for one another.
In August 2011, Alan appears alive in Monica's fantasy of where Jason never gets into the accident with A. J. and is being named chief of staff at General Hospital.
In late October 2012, A.J. Quartermaine resurfaces in Port Charles after the presumed death of his brother Jason, and it is revealed that Monica faked his death to protect him from going to jail but didn't tell Alan because Alan was so angry after A.J. shot him in the back. Monica insists A.J. hides to avoid prison time for the kidnapping of Michael Corinthos, Kristina Davis, and Morgan Corinthos, but A.J. decides to leave and go to a Halloween party to confront Michael. That night, Alan appears to Monica in the Quartermaine living room and A.J. at the Quartermaine crypt telling both of them that he is mad at neither of them. Alan tells A.J. that creating a relationship with Michael Corinthos, A.J.'s estranged son, will be the hardest thing he's ever done. Alan reminds Monica of some of their old memories. Monica tells Alan she loves him. A.J. returns home from the crypt and he promises Monica, he would never leave her again. Alan watches on and smiles.
Alan's ghost returns for General Hospital's 50th anniversary special, when Tracy Quartermaine says that she would kill Alan if he weren't already dead after Monica tried to throw Tracy out of the house. Alan appears and says to Tracy that "Here's her chance!" Tracy thinks that it is a figure of her imagination, but Monica also sees him. Emily Bowen-Quartermaine and Rick Webber also return, on April 2nd, 2013 to help Alan in convincing Tracy and Monica to be more civil to one another.Gallery & Videos[]
Alan and Monica were married in 1978 and remarried in 1991; the second time by a Justice of the Peace at the Port Charles Courthouse and celebrated their wedding dinner at the Versailles Room after.
1991 Alan and Monica get married
See also[]
Trivia[]
- In 1997, Stuart Damon and Leslie Charleson cameo'd as physicians in a season 4 episode of Diagnosis Murder titled "Physician, Murder Thyself," alongside several other guest stars who also portrayed doctors in various television shows.
References[]
- ↑ Dan J. Kroll. Heartbreaker: Stuart Damon's 30-year GH run ends. Soap Central. Retrieved on 2012-06-05.
- ↑ (November 13, 2012) “Comings and Goings”, Soap Opera Digest.
- ↑ Leslie Charleson dropped to recurring status
- ↑ Leslie Charleson taken off contract at GH!. michaelfairmansoaps.com. Retrieved on September 15, 2012.
