All The Soap Opera Characters General Hospital's Laura Wright Has Played

"General Hospital" star Laura Wright was working at her parents' Maryland gas station just after graduating high school when a talent agent spotted her and her photo ended up in the hands of an ABC casting director. Before she knew it, Wright had landed her very first soap role and was moving to New York City to star on the now-defunct 30-minute soap "Loving" and her career in soaps hasn't stopped since (via Soap Hub).

The year was 1991 and the actress then known as Laura Sisk was thrown into front burner storylines right away and even moved her character over to "The City" in 1995 when "Loving" morphed into a soap with a bran-new name and locale, New York City, as a last-ditch effort to keep it on the air. Sadly, the effort didn't work and "The City" was canceled in 1997, but that didn't mean it was the end of Wright's soap career (via Soaps.com). More than 30 years later, the actress is one of the most well-known names in the industry and she did it by playing three extremely memorable characters.

As "Loving's" young heroine Ally Rescott, Laura Sisk, the actress who would eventually be known as Laura Wright when she married John Wright, played a character involved with quite a few romances while she lived in the fictional Corinth, New York. But when Ally moved to New York City, she became a much more independent woman living with the friends who joined her in a fancy SoHo apartment building (via Soaps.com).

Wright remembered one of her first days on the set of "Loving" as she reminisced about her three decades in daytime television in 2021. "Well, the first night, after I worked, Rena Sofer [Rocky on "Loving," now Quinn on "The Bold and the Beautiful"] saw me wandering the hallways. She goes, 'Do you know where you are or what's happened to your life?'And I'm like, 'No!'" Wright told Soap Opera Digest. "She said, 'Well, is there anyone you want to meet?" and I was like, 'Hayley from All My Children!'" [So] she calls Kelly [Ripa] and she's like, 'Hey, a fan got a job and let's take her out tonight.'"

That means she got to spend the evening with a new co-star and an actress she absolutely loved, who went on to become a talk-show phenomenon on ABC.

After "The City" ended, Laura Wright was not out of work for long. In 1997, she switched networks and joined the cast of "Guiding Light" as Reva Shayne's heretofore-unheard-of half-sister Cassie Layne. When she was first introduced to the show, Cassie was a stripper trying to regain custody of her daughter, Tammy Layne, who had been put in foster care (via Soap Central).

Eventually, Cassie became an integral part of the "GL" canvas and bonded with her sister Reva. Wright remained on the show until 2005.

Wright admitted to Soap Opera Digest that working on an hour-long soap was much different than working on a half-hour soap, which "Loving" and "The City" were. "They cared about every performance being the top of the game, you know? And everyone showed up knowing their dialogue and emotionally prepared to kill it in every scene," Wright said. "It was the most incredible experience working on Guiding Light. ... I loved every second of it"

In 2005, Laura Wright took a chance and left "Guiding Light" to head out to California and start a new life and play a new-to-her character on "The Bold and the Beautiful." Carly Corinthos was originally played by Sarah Joy Brown, with Tamara Braun putting her own spin on the character with another memorable years-long performance. After Jennifer Bransford didn't click with fans as Carly, Wright landed the part that she still plays as of this writing (via Soap Central).

As Carly, Wright plays one of the most un-self-aware characters on soaps, but Wright seems to wink at the audience during Carly's slightly narcissistic moments. Wright's Carly has been married to Ingo Rademacher's Jasper Jacks and Maurice Benard's Sonny Corinthos quite a few times but is currently divorced from Sonny once again because of his involvement with Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros). 

Carly also holds the secret that Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) is really Nina's other daughter, but she is not about to reveal that just yet (via Soaps.com).