‘General Hospital’ star Maurice Benard dishes on his soap opera supercouples
nypost.comMaurice Benard, 60.For three decades, he’s played mob boss Sonny Corinthos on the iconic ABC soap opera, but he initially feared it would be a short gig. “When I first started … I had my third manic episode,” Benard, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 22, told The Post. “So it sticks in my head how loyal and incredible they were not to fire me.
If I want to leave or something, I always think about that time.”Benard has won three Daytime Emmys in his decades on the show, which is the longest-running scripted drama on TV.
On Saturday, it celebrates its 60th anniversary.Viewers first checked into “General Hospital” on April 1, 1963, and Benard and his castmates are still stirring up love — and drama — every weekday afternoon in the fictional upstate New York town of Port Charles.The prescription for success is “a lot of hard work” and “fans who are more loyal than any fans in the whole world,” according to Benard.
The actor first tuned into “GH” — as the show is known by its diehard fans — as a teenager.“I watched it when I was sick when I was about 13,” he said. “I watched ‘All My Children’ and ‘General Hospital,’ and I ended up being on both shows.”He got his start on “All My Children,” appearing on that now-defunct ABC soap as bad boy Nico Kelly from 1987 to 1990.
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