Luke and Laura Spencer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Luke Spencer and Laura Webber Spencer are fictional characters on the American soap opera General Hospital. Luke is played by Anthony Geary and Laura was played by Genie Francis. This pairing was credited with defining the term supercouple, and caused other soap operas to copy the successful formula.
Critics of the soap opera genre panned the unlikely pairing, as very few, if any, rape victims fall in love with their rapists. However, the duo became wildly popular in spite of Luke's past misdeed. They wed in 1981 and the episode was the highest-rated hour in soap history, with 30 million people tuning in to watch them wed. They were married for two decades and had two children. Even today, their union still has a prescence in Port Charles.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Early days
In the beginning, Laura was not paired with Luke, but with Scott Baldwin (played by Kin Shriner). Scott and Laura had continually faced obstacle after obstacle placed in their path by the scheming ex hooker turned nurse Bobbie Spencer, who wanted Scott for herself. Bobbie re-established contact with her brother Luke in order to help her with her schemes to break up Scott and Laura, which was how the character of Luke Spencer was introduced. However, after Laura was injured in a car accident caused indirectly by one of Bobbie and Luke's schemes, Luke and Bobbie felt guilty and decided to give up their vendetta against the couple. Of course, by this time it was becoming apparent that Luke was beginning to fall for his sister's foe.
In 1979 Scott and Laura married and while Scott was at work and law school, Laura was left at the house, bored. She encouraged Luke, who was now the manager of the Campus Disco, to offer her a job. He did so, and she began to feel more confident about herself. She went on a shopping spree; Scott was not happy when he found out that she had charged $500 over their credit limit. Scott and Laura got into a fight and she left for work. While Laura was working at the Disco, Luke had fallen in love with her. His boss, Frank Smith, who was affiliated with the Mafia, ordered him to execute a "hit" on senatorial candidate Mitch Williams, who had crossed Frank Smith by vowing to bring down the Port Charles mafia. Luke didn't want to, but he knew that if he didn't, he would be fired or possibly killed. Luke also knew that if he did perform the hit, then Mitch Williams' security agents would probably kill him as well. Luke was very depressed, and on the night Laura waited at the Disco for Scott to pick her up, Luke became very distraught and vowed to hold her in his arms before he died. On the floor of the Disco, as the Herb Alpert song "Rise" played in the background, a drunken Luke raped Laura.
Although Laura admitted that she had been raped, she never named Luke as the rapist. Laura stayed with Scott but ended up falling in love with Luke, as well. On Election night, the night that Luke was to assassinate Mitch Williams, Laura saved Luke's life by throwing away the keys to his car, thus preventing Luke from performing the hit. Luke's best friend Roy Di Lucca decided to perform the hit himself (Mitch Williams survived, Roy was presumed dead after Mitch's security agents shot at him, only to "return from the dead" twenty years later). Thus Luke was saved from his predicament, only to fall into another when Frank Smith told Luke he would spare his life if Luke married his daughter, Jennifer.
[edit] The 1980 "summer on the run"
Despondent over Frank Smith's order that Luke marry his daughter Jennifer, Luke ordered Laura to tell Scott that he raped her. Instead, she wrote Luke a love letter that Scott eventually found on the day that Luke was to marry Jennifer. He pulled Luke out of the ceremony and onto a yacht, beating him up. Luke fell overboard and was presumed to have drowned, but Luke eventually resurfaced and told Laura that they could finally be together, now that Scott knows about their relationship. Luke told Laura they could start a new life together if they could decode the black book he had stolen from Frank Smith - which contained the coded names of all of Smith's mob contacts. Solving the codes in the book would allow Luke to send Smith to jail, and he and Laura would finally be free of the mob.
Luke and Laura went on the run from Frank Smith's men, stopping on the way to have some fun dancing at Wyndham's Department Store and falling deeper in love during the process. Eventually Luke and Laura found the evidence they needed to have Frank Smith put away for his mob activities. Celebrating their success, the two made love. However, upon their return to Port Charles, they were met by a bunch of journalists who quizzed the two on their details of their personal relationship. Laura, who had been attacked by the press previously during the storyline where she had accidentally killed her former lover David Hamilton, found the hounding of the press again too much to take and flipped out. She told the press she still considered herself to be "Mrs. Scott Baldwin". Luke was heartbroken and immediately rejected Laura. In the months before their summer on the run, Luke had spent months trying to get Laura to admit her love for him. Now the tables were turned as Laura tried for months to get Luke to admit that he loved her.
Eventually, they were brought closer together by Laura's divorce from Scott and yet another compromising position in that Luke and Laura helped save the entire town of Port Charles from a deep freeze, orchestrated by Mikkos Cassadine.
[edit] Luke & Laura's 1981 wedding
Luke and Laura were married on November 16, 1981; the episode was the highest-rated hour in soap history. Laura's former rival for Scott's affections, Bobbie, was none too happy with the marriage but eventually declared an unofficial truce with Laura. The two have since become close friends. Similarly displeased with the prospect of the couple's marriage was Mikkos' widow, Helena Cassadine (portrayed by legendary film actress Elizabeth Taylor in a highly-publicized appearance). She arrived in Port Charles days before the wedding, blaming Luke and Laura for her husband's death. Unknown to anyone, she placed a curse on the two lovers as they were married. Since then, Helena has been the Spencer family's most ruthless and consistent enemy (and perhaps the most notorious villain in GH history).
The one outward blemish on the wedding festivities was the unexpected arrival of Scott, who caught Laura's bridal bouquet. Luke was enraged by Scott's appearance and the two began to fight, in a scene reminiscent of Luke's aborted wedding to Jennifer Smith a year earlier. This time, however, it was Scott who was soundly beaten by Luke.
[edit] Laura's presumed death and return
Happiness for Luke and Laura proved to be shortlived, for early in 1982 Laura went missing and was eventually presumed dead. Luke tried desperately to move on with his life and entered into a love affair with Holly Sutton (Emma Samms), but the romance was shortlived and ended when Holly fell in love with Luke's best friend, Robert Scorpio. Increasingly lonely as the second anniversary of his marriage to Laura approached, Luke ran for Mayor of Port Charles, and won. On his Inauguration Day, Luke got the surprise of his life when Laura appeared. Laura revealed that she had been kidnapped by the Cassadines as revenge for Luke thwarting Mikkos' plot to freeze Port Charles. Laura revealed that Stavros, Mikkos's son had fallen in love with her and spared her life in return so that she would marry him. Luke told Laura that none of this mattered and that her marriage to Stavros was invalid because Laura was still married to Luke. Soon afterwards, Stavros arrived in town, and after holding Luke and Laura hostage and attempting to rape Laura, he was attacked by Luke and knocked down a stairway to his death (although he would be revived in cryogenic freeze in 2001). Luke and Laura then settled into their respective roles as mayor and mayoress. However, the free spirited duo soon found the roles stifling, and decided to leave Port Charles in order to see the world.
In 1984, Robert helped Luke when he was accused of murder in Mexico so that Luke would be free to be with Laura. When Luke was finally cleared, he returned to Laura, who announced the joyous news that she was pregnant. With the revelation, Luke and Laura made what seemingly would be their last appearance on General Hospital.
[edit] Luke and Laura in the Nineties
While Luke and Laura were off-screen, the couple had a son, Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, Junior (nicknamed Lucky). Amidst much fanfare in both the real world and the fictional realm of Port Charles itself, Luke and Laura returned to Port Charles in 1993, with their son Lucky, played by Jonathan Jackson. The catalyst for their return was that Frank Smith had renewed his old vendetta against the couple. Frank Smith's men found Luke and Laura at the Triple L diner in Canada and attempted to kill them by blowing up their truck, an act which led to the death of one of Luke and Laura's Canadian friends.
In August of 1994, Luke and Laura had a daughter, Lesley Lu (Lulu), named after Laura's mother. They had to deal with Frank Smith for several more years, and then, when the character of Frank Smith was killed off, by his daughter Jennifer, then played by Sally Struthers.
But even though Frank Smith was safely out of their lives for good, Luke and Laura's life did not calm down. In 1995, Laura resented Luke's growing friendship with mobster Sonny Corinthos, and after an enemy of Sonny's attacked her family home, she and Luke separated for a while.
The following year, Laura was accused of murdering Frank Smith's son, Damian. Although she was exonerated, Luke and Laura immediately faced another crisis when their daughter Lesley Lu was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. Lesley Lu desperately needed a bone marrow transplant, but none of the Spencers, including Laura, Luke, Lucky, and Bobbie were a match. Eventually, Lulu got her transplant from a totally unexpected source. It turned out that when Laura had been held captive and married to Stavros Cassadine, she had had a son by him, Nikolas. Nikolas' bone marrow was a match and the transplant was performed that saved Lulu's life. However, the revelation that Laura had had a son that she never told Luke about was a great shock to the Spencer marriage. Furthermore, Nikolas and his uncle Stefan moved to Port Charles, and acted as a continual reminder of Laura's concealing of the truth. Stefan managed to take advantage of Bobbie's loneliness after her divorce from her husband Tony and turn Bobbie against Luke and Laura for a period of time. Bobbie and Stefan even married, but Laura knew that he only married Bobbie to make Laura jealous.
Luke and Laura soon discovered that back in the year 1984, Stefan had been ordered by his mother Helena to murder Laura's mother to avenge the deaths of Mikkos and Stavros. Stefan had gone against his mother's wishes however and had recused Laura's mother, Leslie from the car accident that had been presumed to be the cause of her death. Lesley was now in a catatonic state and after being reunited by Stefan, Laura and Lesley were presumed dead in an explosion. However it was soon revealed that their deaths had been faked by Luke in order to hide from Helena (and discredit Stefan at the same time). Upon their return in 1997, Luke and Laura were met with unexpected hostility from the citizens of Port Charles, and particularly Bobbie, Nikolas and Stefan.
Stefan decided to drive Laura out of town with the one piece of information that he knew would destroy her marriage to Luke. Stefan reminded Laura that years before, Stefan and Laura had been lovers behind Stavros' back when Stavros was holding her captive, and that Stefan could possibly be Nikolas' biological father. This was enough to get Laura to pack her bags, and she fled to Switzerland, giving the excuse that her mother would get better treatment over there that would help her come out of her Catatonia. She spent the next year in Switzerland, not returning until early 1998.
[edit] Separation
Early in 1998, Luke and Laura were forced to revisit their past again when Lucky learned of the long ago rape incident at the disco from Nikolas of all people. Luke and Laura were estranged from Lucky for months, as their son's romantic illusions about his parents had been shattered. Lucky didn't know which was worse, the idea of his father raping his mother, or the fact that his mother had lived with her rapist for all of these years. Even though Luke and Laura were eventually reconciled with Lucky, their own relationship was in bad shape. Luke hit the roof when he realized that Stefan and Laura had been lovers and that Stefan was possibly Nikolas' father. As 1998 drew to a close, Luke and Laura separated.
Luke and Laura would be further driven apart by the presumed death of their son Lucky in a fire the following year. Both were devastated, and separated during the tragedy. When it was revealed in 2000 that Lucky was indeed alive due to a plot by their nemesis, Helena Cassadine, Luke and Laura did not reconcile and instead divorced. Laura would consider reuniting with her first husband Scott Baldwin for a while but eventually she realized that she would always love Luke. By 2002, Luke and Laura had reconciled and made plans to remarry.
Genie Francis was abruptly maneuvered off the show during a dispute over vacation time, and the plot had a disturbed Laura murdering her stepfather, Rick Webber, in a psychotic episode, shortly before she and Luke were to remarry. She was sent to a mental hospital near Port Charles. Luke still mourned over the loss of Laura to a mental institution for several years, while dealing with their reckless daughter, Lulu. Laura "appeared" in episodes after her breakdown as a motionless figure, seen from the back, staring off in a catatonic state, though in one scene shortly after Luke left the room, Laura's hand was shown to move.
[edit] Laura's Return
In mid-September 2006, a new storyline was introduced, whereby Dr. Robin Scorpio has announced a potential alternative treatment which might bring Laura back. Luke indicated he did not want to cause any further lack of dignity to Laura via failed treatments, but later changed his mind due to their daughter Lulu's distraught condition after her recent abortion. With Luke's consent, Robin administered the experimental drug to Laura without giving prior notice to Lucky, Lulu or Nikolas.
On Thursday, October 26, 2006, the experimental drug touted by Dr. Robin Scorpio surprisingly brought Laura back from her catatonic stupor after four years, as Genie Francis returned to GH as Laura. On November 16, 2006, the show will air a 25th anniversary special celebrating the 1981 wedding of Luke and Laura. Thus far, the producers of GH have said that Francis' return is only a 6 week stint, intended to coincide with the anniversary of the highly-rated wedding episode.
On Friday, November 3, 2006, Laura and Luke fled away to a romantic Inn where they discussed that Luke feels as if he doesn't have a soul without Laura and that it feels like he is wondering around in the dark without her. After hearing this she asks Luke to marry him, again.
Luke agreed to marry his love and the two decided to wed on November 16, the 25th anniversary of their first wedding in 1981. However, Luke was already married to Tracy Quartermaine (after a series of events involving alcohol, gambling, a hotel, and one of Luke's attempts to obtain large amounts of money). After a brief departure from town, Luke told everyone that he and Tracy had gotten a quick divorce in the Dominican Republic. Unbeknownst to anyone (except Tracy), there was no such divorce. Luke convinced Tracy to go along with the charade for the sake of Laura's health and happiness. Tracy fully realizes that Laura will always be Luke's one true love, but she refuses to divorce him, because -- improbably -- she has fallen in love with Luke herself.
When Laura overheard Luke and Lulu discussing her condition, Laura went began having vague memories of the attack where she killed her stepfather. Curious, she went to the attic and remembered everything. When Luke discovered that she must have overheard, he rushed to the attic to make sure Laura was ok. Upon his arrival, Laura told Luke she remembered everything. Not wanting to take chances with her sanity, Luke took Laura back to Shadybrook to make sure she was fine. After a session with a psychiatrist, Laura was cleared, though Luke still worried about her mental state.
Luke and Laura returned home where Lulu, Lucky, Nikolas, and Lesley were waiting. Laura apologized to her mother for killing Rick, but Lesley said it was all water under the bridge. She was just happy to have her daughter back. Laura announced to her family that she remembered everything and didn't want anymore secrets kept from her. Lucky began by telling his mother about his addiction to pain killers and his marital problems. Laura gave Lucky her support and told him that she was proud of him.
Meanwhile, Luke found out that Laura's recovery was only temporary and she would soon return to her catatonic state. Devastated, Luke was determined to make Laura's remaining days as happy as possible.
When Lulu found the invatation to Jax and Carly's wedding, which was to be held on November 16 as well, she immmediately called Carly. When Carly and Jax arrived, everyone found out about the scheduling dilemma. Carly graciously stepped aside to give to her uncle and aunt their day and even offered them her and Jax's entire wedding, flowers, caterers, and all. Laura and Luke thanked Carly and Jax and took them up on their generous offer.
On November 16, 2006, Luke and Laura were ostensibly remarried in front of all their friends and family in a lavish ceremony in Lila Quartermaine's garden. The festivities were enjoyed by all except Tracy, who was visibly intoxicated and had to be physically removed before the ceremony was completed (and thus before her husband Luke became a bigamist).
[edit] Luke's family, marriage, & children
[edit] Parents
- Tim Spencer (father)
- Lena Spencer (mother; deceased)
[edit] Siblings
- Barbara Jean "Bobbie" Spencer (sister)
[edit] Nieces and nephews
- Carly Corinthos, a.k.a. Caroline Benson (niece)
- Unborn child of Bobbie Spencer and D.L. Brock (nephew or niece; miscarriage)
- Barbara Jean "B.J." Jones (adopted niece; deceased)
- Lucas Jones (adopted nephew)
- Terry Brock O'Connor (step-niece)
- Michael Corinthos III, a.k.a. Michael Alan Quartermaine (great nephew)
- Unborn male child of Carly and Sonny Corinthos (great nephew; miscarriage)
- Morgan Corinthos (great nephew)
[edit] Cousins
- Bill Eckert (first cousin; deceased)
- Jenny Eckert Hornsby (first cousin)
- Sly Eckert (first cousin once removed; Bill's son.)
- Fred Eckert (cousin; deceased)
- Paul Hornsby Jr. (first cousin once removed; Jenny's son by Paul Hornsby)
[edit] Marriages
Marital status: Married to Tracy Quartermaine; invalid marriage to Laura Webber
- Laura Webber (divorced)
- Tracy Quartermaine
- Laura Webber (invalid)
[edit] Significant Relationships
- Laura Webber (married/divorced/engaged)
- Jennifer Smith (broken engagement)
- Summer Halloway (lovers)
- Holly Sutton (lovers)
- Constance Townley (lovers)
- Tammy Hansen (one night stand)
- Felicia Jones (affair)
- Skye Quartermaine (kissed)
- Tracy Quartermaine (married)
[edit] Children
- Lucky Spencer, full name Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, Jr. (son; with Laura Webber Spencer): born 1985 (revised to 1982 in 1993).
- Lesley Lu "Lulu" Spencer (daughter; with Laura Webber Spencer): born 1994 (revised to 1988 in 2005).
[edit] Stepchildren
- Edward "Ned" Ashton (stepson via Tracy Quartermaine)
- Nikolas Cassadine (stepson via Laura Webber Spencer): born 1983 (revised to 1981 in 1996)
- Dillon Quartermaine (stepson via Tracy Quartermaine)
[edit] Grandchildren
- Brook Lynn Ashton (step-granddaughter)
- Cameron Webber (step-grandson)
- Spencer Cassadine, a.k.a. John Jacks (step-grandson)
- Unborn child of Lulu Spencer and Dillon Quartermaine (grandchild; aborted)
[edit] Laura's family, marriages, romantic entanglements & children
[edit] Parents
- Gordon Gray (biological father; deceased)
- Lesley Webber (biological mother)
- Cameron Faulkner (stepfather; deceased)
- Rick Webber (stepfather; deceased)
- Barbara Vining ("mother", raised Laura after she was switched at birth)
- Jason Vining ("father", raised Laura after she was switched at birth; deceased)
[edit] Siblings
- Amy Vining ("sister", raised as Laura's sister after Laura was switched at birth)
- Blackie Parrish (foster brother)
[edit] Uncles and aunts
- Jeff Webber (step-half-uncle)
- Terri Webber Arnett (step-aunt)
[edit] Cousins
- Steven Lars Webber (step-half-cousin)
- Sarah Webber (step-half-cousin)
- Elizabeth Webber Spencer (step-half-cousin / daughter-in-law)
[edit] Marriages
Marital status: Invalid marriage to Luke Spencer
- Scott Baldwin (1979-1981; divorced)
- Luke Spencer (1981-2001; divorced)
- Stavros Cassadine (1983; invalid)
- Luke Spencer (2006-present; invalid)
[edit] Significant Relationships
- David Hamilton
- Luke Spencer (married/divorced/engaged)
- Stefan Cassadine (affair)
- Scott Baldwin (married/divorced/dated)
[edit] Children
- Nikolas Cassadine (son; with Stavros Cassadine): born 1983 (revised to 1981 in 1996).
- Lucky Spencer, full name Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, Jr. (son; with Luke Spencer): born 1985 (revised to 1982 in 1993).
- Lesley Lu "Lulu" Spencer (daughter; with Luke Spencer): born 1994 (revised to 1988 in 2005).
[edit] Grandchildren
- Cameron Webber (step-grandson)
- Spencer Cassadine, a.k.a. John Jacks (grandson)
- Unborn child of Lulu Spencer and Dillon Quartermaine (grandchild; aborted)
