‘General Hospital’ Star Wally Kurth Remembers Leslie Charleson & Her Decades as Monica Quartermaine (Exclusive)

Wally Kurth joined General Hospital in 1991 as Ned Ashton, a member of the Quartermaine family — so Ned enjoyed a close relationship with his aunt, Monica Quartermaine, played by Leslie Charleson, who passed away on January 12, 2025, at the age of 79. Kurth, who joined General Hospital fresh off a four-year run as Days of our Lives’ Justin Kiriakis, remembers Charleson as a positive force around the studio.
“She always had a smile on her face, every morning,” he shares. “We didn’t all have a smile on our face, but she always did because she was just a friendly person. She came from that generation where even if you’re not feeling good, you put on a happy face.”
Working alongside Charleson on-screen was a high point for the actor, who admired her dedication and expertise. “She was a pro, she was easy,” Kurth recalls. “We took pride in those Quartermaine scenes, and they were often orchestrated because everyone had a part to play, and everyone had an instrument to strike and she was on it. I don’t think I remember her ever missing a line. She was always coming in at the right time with the right emotion, and she was just rock solid. That’s why those scenes were so much fun, because everyone was really prepared.”

ABC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
One storyline with Charleson remains particularly memorable to Kurth. “I remember when she did the breast cancer story [from 1994-95], they gave us some lovely scenes where I could comfort her and talk to her,” he remembers. “I thought she did so well in that story.”
Kurth says Charleson could always be counted on to be a great ambassador for GH. When Kurth did double duty on the soap playing rocker Eddie Maine in the mid-90s, his real-life band at the time, The Idle Rich, appeared on the soap. Members of the band brought guests to watch the taping, and they also ended up impressed by Charleson. “I remember the wife of the drummer said to me, ‘John Ingle’s [Edward Quartermaine] nice. Anna Lee [Lila Quartermaine] was so sweet, but Leslie went out of her way to welcome us and to greet us, and to be kind to us, and to talk to us. And every time we showed up, she was there with hugs,’ ” Kurth relays. “I didn’t know that. I was worrying about whatever I was doing on stage, so I didn’t see any of that happen, but that was Leslie. For friends of friends, she was going to be an open, welcoming presence.”
Her goodwill extended to the fans of the show, as well. “I’m good with the fans, but she might have been better,” he adds. “She was such an open, friendly person. She allowed herself to be known and to be approached and spoken to and all of that, and she gave it right back.”
The Quartermaine luncheons events “that she used to throw were not easy,” Kurth says, “and she organized the whole thing. The Quartermaines were all there, but it was her. She ran the show, she organized it all. And every time I asked her to come to a fan event, she came, and she was there with a big smile on her face. So, she was one of the best when it came to loving her fans and loving people who watched the show. She really cared about every one of them.”
Charleson had fun bringing up the past at those gatherings. “We would go to fan events and we’d always talk about the fact that Ned and Monica’s relationship started with an affair,” Kurth notes of the 1988 fling, which occurred when Ned was played by another actor, Kurt McKinney. “She thought Ned was just the tennis pro, not her nephew by marriage. We always laughed about it because we never played those scenes, we never got to make out. And Leslie would say, ‘Well, let’s do it now. Why can’t we do it again? I don’t know what the problem is.’ She was always kind of flirting with it like, ‘I think we need to redo that story.’ And I would say, ‘I wish we could, I wish we could, Leslie.’ ”
With Charleson’s passing, Kurth can’t help but think about the co-stars he has lost over the past few years from both GH and Days. “I was just remembering when Leslie, [the late] Jackie [Zeman, Bobbie Spencer], Kin [Shriner, Scott Baldwin] and I went out to the Actors Fund Home to see [the late] Stuart [Damon, Alan Quartermaine] and we had a lovely lunch,” he says. “We did it a couple of times and it didn’t seem that long ago. And we were all healthy and moving pretty well. Now three of them are gone. I was just thinking yesterday when I was walking into a store, like, ‘Wow, John Aniston [Victor Kiriakis, Days], Bill Hayes [Doug Williams, Days], Drake [Hogestyn, John Black, Days], Wayne [Northrop, Roman Brady, Days] and now Leslie [are all gone]. It’s a little shocking and just sad.”