Anthony Geary2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee
- David Lockhart, Bright Promise
- George Curtis, Young & the Restless
- Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, General Hospital
- Eli Gilmour, Hotel
- Phil Tanner, Hotel
- Bill Eckert, General Hospital
- Luke Spencer, Port Charles
- Luke Spencer, General Hospital: Night Shift
Geary was a gifted student in Coalville, attending the University of Utah as a Presidential Award Scholar in theater. Jack Albertson saw Geary perform there, and cast him as his son in the tour of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Subject Was Roses. The production, starring Albertson and Martha Scott, toured Hawaii and settled at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, where Geary decided to establish himself, taking a job selling toys in a department store while making the audtion rounds. One of the highlights of his department store job was selling trains to Shelley Winters. He took other odd jobs such as a Vegas chorus boy and acted in summer stock, eventually racking up credits in over forty stage productions. A highlight in this period was his co-starring engagement with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in Your Show of Shows.
For nearly a decade, Geary shuttled back and forth between the stage, film, primetime and daytime television.
Among his early films, he was in a quickie Western called Educated Heart and a horror exploitation film Blood Sabbath, which was mercifully never released. His best movie role was a small part in the 1971 anti-war cult film Johnny Get Your Gun, adapted from Dalton Trumbo's novel and directed by Trumbo.
Geary has performed in more than 50 stage productions throughout the United States. His extensive theatrical credits include roles in productions of The Wild Duck, The Inspector General, The Cat's Paw, The Glass Menagerie, and Barabbas at the Los Angeles Theater Center. In addition, he toured with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, portraying the title role. He also portrayed Octavius Caesar, opposite Lynn Redgrave and Timothy Dalton, in a production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra for PBS and the BBC.
He has made guest appearances on more than 40 primetime television series. Among his TV credits are roles on Starsky & Hutch, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, The Blue Knight, All in the Family, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Partridge Family, Most Wanted, Mannix, The Mod Squad, Room 222, Doc Elliot, Temperatures Rising, Marcus Welby, M.D., Arthur Hailey's Hotel and Murder, She Wrote. In the 1971 All in the Family episode, Geary guest-starred as a friend of Mike (portrayed by series regular Rob Reiner). In the episode with him was fellow future soap star Phil Carey, where in a strange turn of events Geary's character is mistaken as gay by the town bigot Archie Bunker. The real gay man turned out to be Archie's best friend (Carey's character).
He also performed in the television movies, Perry Mason and the Case of the Murdered Madam, Kicks, Sins of the Past, The Imposter, Intimate Agony and Do You Know the Muffin Man?.
He received unanimous critical acclaim, and a DramaLogue Award, for his one-man show, Human Scratchings, performed to sold-out houses in Los Angeles in 1996. As a producer, Geary received a Cindy Award for the drama, "Sound of Sunshine, Sound of Rain," a children's story for Public Radio. He has also taught improvisation and story-theater techniques. He competed in track and field and swimming events as a college student, and also raced horses. He is a certified scuba diver as well as an accomplished rollerblader. He also claims to be "the world's oldest Hip Hop dancer."
It was in daytime television though that Geary became a household name.
He took his first role in daytime in 1971, working for the first time with future General Hospital executive producer Gloria Monty as a sensitive young man David Lockhart who was unjustly committed to a mental hospital as a child on ABC's Bright Promise, a role that first brought him praise from daytime critics. His surrogate mother in the series was portrayed by his future General Hospital co-star Susan Brown.
In 1973, he followed that role portraying rapist George Curtis on Young and the Restless on CBS. Again although his character was not a likable one, critics noted the talent of the young man. The six-month storyline where Curtis raped virginal heroine Chris Brooks, shocking in it's day, put Young and the Restless in the thick of the ratings race and gave Geary the dubious distinction of perpetuating daytime TV's first non-marital rape, a distinction that would later haunt him on General Hospital when Luke raped -- or seduced -- Laura on the famous disco floor.
In 1978, Monty, who had directed Geary in both Bright Promise and in the TV movie Sorority Kill, was in the midst of renovating the ailing General Hospital. She remembered Geary's work and he auditioned for the role of Mitch Williams, an ambitious politician who would be paired romantically with the volatile Tracy Quartermaine, portrayed by Jane Elliot. In a sense of coming full circle, years later Geary would end up as the romantic partner of Tracy onscreen.
Monty decided that Geary's talents would be better suited for a different part, and writer Douglas Marland created the pivotal role of Luke Spencer for Geary.
Geary's character began as a rather sleazy foil for his white-trash sister Bobbie, who played dirty tricks on Laura (portrayed by Genie Francis), the young woman to whom Luke became perversely attracted, leading him to rape her on the floor of the disco as Herb Alpert's Rise played in the background. Luke's love for the confused Laura humanized him, and Geary's poignant pantomiming touched a responsive chord among viewers.
The character became so popular that the writers turned Luke into a protagonist. His popularity soared, especially during a series of Luke-and-Laura-on-the-run stories. These were nearly improbable storylines seemingly lifted from the pages of a spy novel, which only served to further the character's popularity. Those stories and their 1981 wedding began what was arguably the greatest love affair in the history of General Hospital, if not daytime television.
Viewers quickly warmed to Luke, and easily forgot or overlooked the rape, due to his street-smart sarcasm, his inventive humor (often improvised by Geary), and his outlandish dress -- a wardrobe presumably from Geary's own closet. Luke Spencer has been described as the most popular character in soap opera history.
As Luke and Laura, Geary and Francis jumped to the top of fan magazines. Both were named Best Actor and Best Actress at the 11th Annual Daytime TV Magazine year end awards.
Luke's populariy was due in big part to Geary's portrayal, his acting. The audience found Geary's performance refreshing, especially after a generation of blandly handsome, often passive leading men. One critic said, "Geary's individualism, uniqueness and awesome range is the most notable in daytime (television) history," a statement that is typical of the actor's reviews. Early on, he was rewarded with three consecutive Outstanding Lead Actor nominations from the Daytime Emmys, taking the award in 1982.
In 1983, Geary took a three-month hiatus from the show to star in a the TV movie Intimate Agony opposite One Life To Live star, Judith Light. Geary gave an appealing, low-key performance in the story about a doctor fighting an epidemic of herpes at a popular beach resort. He returned to GH with a reported salary of $500,000, unprecedented at the time. He was back in top form as Luke fought to regain use of his legs after an accident. He found the dramatic storyline a relief after all the spoofy, science fiction adventures the character had boxed into. Geary soon chose to depart from the show though. A year after his return, his departure was handled in grand style, with the return of Genie Francis and a happy ending for soap opera's most famous love story.
He returned to the series the first time in 1984 in a special, limited appearance.
In January 1991, Geary returned to General Hospital in the role of Bill Eckert, a cousin of Luke Spencer's, and a man of many, often dark, colors. As the story progressed, he was seen on-screen as both Bill Eckert and Luke Spencer, when Luke returned for good on October 29, 1993, until the death of Eckert in 1993.
He has won the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" for General Hospital six times, a record for male actors and tying with Erika Slezak and Justin Deas for the most Daytime Emmy wins by an actor.
Geary has a winter and summer vacation from General Hospital every year where he is gone for a few months. He usually spends his time at his other home in Amsterdam.
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