It's with heavy heart I read about the passing of Leslie Charleson today. We all knew she was ill but this is just so sad. Monica was one of the first characters I remember and was always with Laura when she was mad at her mother. She will be missed--one of the greats.
RIP Leslie. You will be missed.
ReplyDeleteI just got this in my email!! Wow! I didn't know that she was that ill! :( As Di said, RIP Leslie. Yes you will be missed. I wonder what they are going to do. Tell us Monica passed or recast her? I think they should just have her pass on. I don't want a recast. :(
ReplyDeleteWhen the announcement was made last fall that she would not be returning, I figured she was seriously ill. 1,000 percent no recast. Leslie Charleson deserves her place on the wall at GH and if they show were to recast, that would not be possible to honor her in that way. Charleson's Monica was among the very first characters I remember keeping me glued to the screen in the late 70s when I started watching in jr. high. The triangle with Rick and Alan was riveting and her rivalry with Denise Alexander's Lesley was so fun to watch. And as the open post said...the show sort of forgot over the years that Laura was once close to Monica. She squabbled with her parents and Monica was sort of a confidante when Laura was in her teenage tumultuous years. Over the years, Charleson's trademark humor wound its way into the scripts and Monica. You needed a sense of humor to survive in the Quartermaine house. One of my all time favorite scenes with her is when Monica and Alan were seeing a divorce counselor and the counselor gave them rubber or foam batons or bats to hit each other. Alan bopped her on the head after she said, Don't you dare! And then the two really went at it smacking each other with those bats. It was so funny. The real tragedy is that Monica outlived 3 of her children - Dawn, AJ and Emily. I always thought it was a serious mistake to kill all three...especially her real daughter. They never really developed that story, mostly because the show couldn't settle on one person to play the role (I think it was recast 4 times). Too bad they didn't keep the faith with Sharon Case who we all know as gone on to much success on the Young and the Restless. I wonder who they'll have Monica give the house...the one that Alan gave her.
ReplyDeletefast forward to the 7:50 mark lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfvJU3eSTA
ReplyDeleteRIP Leslie. She was a wonderful actress and a wonderful character for so long.
ReplyDeleteLindaV
So sad to hear this. I just loved the actress and Monica. Peace to her family.
ReplyDeleteAnd Diana, thank you for your post. I remember the bats vividly. Thanks for the flashback, it was a hoot!
One of the heartbeats of GH that honestly should have WON a Daytime Emmy at some point (especially for the breast cancer storyline). Like all of the Q's (except the ever-angelic Lila) her character could do some shameless awful things over the years but you never really disliked Monica and you also wanted to tune in to see her redemption arcs and root for her as well. Of the core Q's that I remember when I started watching like in 1980 (Lila, Edward, Allen, Tracy, and Monica), Jane Elliot's Tracy is the last one with us now. Thanks Leslie for all the memories!
ReplyDeleteAnother terrible loss. May she RIP.
ReplyDeleteNO, you can't recast her. So, so sad. I've been watching since about 1977. Monica and Alan's fights were EPIC.
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