General Hospital Star Genie Francis' Soap Opera Roles Over The Years

While over the years, actress Genie Francis has been in several productions including the "North & South" TV miniseries, as well as playing Victoria Brandon, the niece to Angela Lansbury's character Jessica Fletcher on the hit series, "Murder, She Wrote," among many others, she also became a major soap star. In 1976, a teenaged Francis landed the part that would define her career: Laura Vining on "General Hospital." Laura fell head over heels for bad boy Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). However, fans were shocked when Luke raped Laura on the floor of the Campus Disco, and that incident would eventually linger as a dark cloud over them. Despite that conflicted history, Luke and Laura's eventual wedding was one of the highest rated episodes in the history of daytime television.

In 1981, Luke and Laura saved the world from a dastardly plot by the evil Cassadine family. "GH" recently celebrated its milestone 15,000th episode, which centered around the iconic fan favorite, Laura. Laura also recently spearheaded a mission to rescue several people, and a baby, that had been kidnapped by Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy). She was even instrumental in stopping his plot to obliterate 80% of the world's population with a biological weapon.

While Laura continues to be a beacon of hope for the citizens of Port Charles, let's take a look at some of the other soap roles Francis has played over the years.

When Francis took a break from "General Hospital," she moved over to "Days of Our Lives," playing the character Diana Colville from 1987 to 1989. In 2019, another "GH" alum, Judith Chapman (ex-Ginny Blake) took over the part. Diana and her mother Serena Colville (Valerie Karasek) had been on the hunt for a computer disk that would lead them to a rare, valuable mineral. Pretending to be interested in villain Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston) during her search, Diana got involved with John Black (Drake Hogestyn), who believed he was Roman Brady at the time. 

When her father died, Diana inherited his vast amount of money, so Serena and Victor hatched a scheme to steal it from her. They kidnapped Diana and tried to force her to marry Victor, but John/Roman managed to rescue her from them twice. Diana and John/Roman's relationship was rocky, especially when he learned that after losing her fortune, she tried to frame Victor for stealing a valuable statue. They faced several dangers together, but when John's memories started to return, and Marlena Evans (Diedre Hall) became a part of his life, she left town.

Francis told Soap Opera Digest that acting on "Days of Our Lives" was tough on her career, because many in the industry viewed it as a step backwards from playing Laura on "General Hospital."

In 1990, Francis went back to ABC to play Ceara Connor on "All My Children" until 1992, with a brief stopover at "Loving" in 1991. Since the two shows took place in the same shared universe as "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital," Ceara easily made the transition. As an adult, Ceara dealt with her past trauma of incest, which garnered Francis rave reviews from fans and critics alike. Ceara's cousin was also the show-hopping Skye Chandler Quartermaine (Robin Christopher). Ceara met a tragic end when she was shot to death in 1992.

After reprising her role as Laura Spencer on "GH" a few times, Francis would go on to portray Genevieve Atkinson on "The Young and the Restless" in 2011. Genevieve had married an Australian man named Colin Atkinson (Tristan Rogers) and had no idea that he was a gangster. They had twin sons, Cane Ashby and Caleb Atkinson (both Daniel Goddard), and though she tried to protect them from their dad's mob life, Cane got into a lot of trouble. Genevieve got involved with Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and ended up stealing his company, Beauty of Nature. After getting romantic with Tucker McCall (then Stephen Nichols) she was accused of murder, so he helped her by giving her money before she left town for good. 

Now, Francis has saved the world once again on "General Hospital," and fans couldn't be happier.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).