Five Things That Happened On February 23 In Soap History

In 1964, Rachel Ames (r., pictured with Lucille Wall as Lucille March, Audrey’s sister) debuted as Audrey March on General Hospital. Ames would go on to become a long-running cast member, whose last on-screen appearance took place in 2015. Audrey was introduced as a flight attendant, but she soon joined the nursing staff of the hospital and ultimately married its chief of staff, Steve Hardy (three times, to be exact). After Steve’s passing in 1996, the show introduced Audrey’s teen granddaughters (the biological children of Steve’s son Jeff Webber), Sarah and Elizabeth, giving her new storyline life.

In 1998, Guiding Light‘s Annie parachuted out of a plane, marking Cynthia Watros’s (now Nina, GH) exit from the role for which, later that year, she won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress. In 2019, Watros recalled to Soap Opera Digest of her departure from the show, “I’d always heard about L.A. and how cool it was to go out there and be an actor. And I was young, and I was like, ‘I have to do this now!’ I went and told [then-Executive Producer] Paul Rauch, ‘I’m going to leave,’ and he took me out to dinner and he was like, ‘Don’t leave!’ and I was like, ‘I must!’ Very dramatic, you know? ‘I must go to L.A.!’ And I packed up all my stuff and moved out to California.”

In 2016, General Hospital‘s Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) and Julian Jerome (William deVry) said, “I do.” The bride’s daughters — Sam (who was also Julian’s biological child), Kristina and Molly — comprised her bridal party, and Julian’s son Lucas served as his best man. Though not the most traditional of couples, they chose to get married in a church at Alexis’s behest, which Alexis noted during her vows had surprised Julian. “Nobody was more surprised than me, because before you, I had all my faith in facts,” she told him. “And now with you, I actually believe all things are possible.” The notoriously passionate couple couldn’t wait until after they were pronounced husband and wife to smooch — which was probably a good thing, since shortly after the ceremony was completed, a gunman stormed the church and took everyone hostage.

In 2017, Lamon Archey made his debut as Eli Grant on Days of Our Lives. The actor had previously appeared on Young and Restless as Mason Wilder. In an interview about landing the role, Archey told Soap Opera Digest, “I was really excited to get that call that I would be Eli…. As soon as I got the call, they were like, ‘You’re working tomorrow, first thing in the morning. We’re going to be sending you scripts.’ Luckily, I think it was two meaty scenes that I had been working on in the audition, and there were some other added scenes, so it went pretty fast once I did find out that I had the job.”

In 2022, the dastardly Peter August (Wes Ramsey) was killed by Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner) on General Hospital. Felicia was acting in defense of her daughter, Maxie Jones, who Peter had kidnapped (along with their young daughter, Bailey) and dragged to Europe. Peter’s aunt, Anna (Finola Hughes), then let him die rather than summon an ambulance. The show’s co-head writer at the time, Chris Van Etten, explained to Soap Opera Digest, “Felicia was so connected to the story, even when she was not on screen, and it was important to us that she have a big role in the final chapter. This is Maxie’s mother. This is somebody who would do anything to keep her children safe. We thought the audience would love the surprise of Felicia’s role in Peter’s demise — but just as importantly, we always knew the final moment had to be between Anna and Peter. There was no other consideration. The story started with Anna and it had to end up with Anna.”