Soap Opera
11 Years Ago, This ‘General Hospital’ Legend Bid Farewell to Port Charles for the Last Time
Explore Luke Spencer’s farewell from ‘General Hospital’ as Anthony Geary ended his nearly 40-year run in 2015, with Luke leaving Port Charles after emotional revelations and goodbyes.
Few characters and actors have transcended soaps through the decades the way General Hospital’s Anthony Geary and Luke Spencer have. Geary began playing Lucas Lorenzo Spencer in 1978 for what was supposed to be a brief 13-week story arc that went on to last for nearly 40 years. While July 27, 2015, was not the last time he was seen on GH screens, it was Luke’s final farewell to Port Charles.
Luke Leaves ‘The Chuckles’ Behind
As one half of the supercouple known as Luke and Laura (Genie Francis), Luke had a life outside of Laura for many years. She lingered in a catatonic state while he made an attempt at raising their teenage daughter, while also getting himself in much trouble along the way. Luke eventually married Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot), but trouble began brewing in 2015 when Luke appeared to develop a second personality.
Eventually, Luke’s teenage psychological trouble was revealed to have stemmed from the incident that took Luke and his sisters from Port Charles as kids. A teenage Luke had accidentally killed both his parents, which his sister Pat Spencer (played both by Chloe Lanier in flashbacks and then by Dee Wallace as an adult) helped cover up.
That realization, coupled with a final adventure with both Laura and Holly (Emma Samms) to rescue sons Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) and Ethan (Nathan Dean) from mobster Frank Smith, led Luke to decide to leave Port Charles for good. After some emotional goodbyes, Luke walked off into the fog to board a boat to nowhere.
We later learned that Luke settled in Amsterdam, which was where Geary had retired to. He made one last seconds-long appearance in 2017 when Tracy found him in an Amsterdam cafe. In 2022, Tracy returned to Port Charles to tell Laura that Luke had died, leading to a memorial on the Haunted Star.
On December 14, 2025, Geary passed away in Amsterdam after complications from surgery. ABC aired Luke’s final farewell again on New Year’s Day of this year.
