Luke Spencer is leaving! Anthony Geary announced on Friday, May 8, that he will be exiting the long-standing daytime TV soap General Hospital after 28 years.
“I’m just weary of the grind and have been for 20 years,” he said in a statement, via TVLine. “I really don’t want to die, collapsing in a heap, on that GH set one day. That wouldn’t be too poetic.”
Geary, 67, played Luke Spencer on the ABC series from 1978 to 1984, before returning in 1993. He’s won eight Emmys for his work over the years.
“The door at GH will always be open to Tony,” ABC Daytime told TV Insider, “and we hope that he will make a return visit at some point, even if just for a few weeks.”
The news (hold back those tears!) comes nearly two weeks after it was announced that Genie Francis would be reprising her role as Laura Spencer for a couple of episodes. Francis, of course, played Geary’s TV wife for several years on the show. The pair were part of the biggest supercouple on GH, with their characters tying the knot in 1981. The wedding episode was watched by over 30 million viewers.