Today marks forty-seven years since 14-year-old Genie Francis debuted as Laura Collins (Laura Vining as was) on General Hospital. Since that most auspicious day, much has changed in the life of the actress and her alter-ego — let’s take a curated look at the high highs and low lows.
Where It All Started
Francis, the daughter of Canadian actor Ivor Francis and Rosemary Daley, a former actress/model, had a two-episode stint on Family to her name before being tapped to take over the role of Laura, previously played by Stacey Baldwin.
Francis was almost immediately capitulated onto the storyline front burner, first in a lurid tale that saw Laura accidentally murder the lothario who seduced her in an attempt to spite her birth mother whom he was obsessed with.
Afterward, Francis’ Laura was paired opposite Kin Shriner’s Scotty Baldwin, much to the delight of the show’s growing fanbase (the majority of whom were young women, much like Francis herself).
It was with Shriner whom Francis shared her first ever kiss (and in front of the camera no less), and it was Shriner who became Francis’s real-life beau.
Genie Francis Strikes Out On Her Own
In time Anthony Geary and his character, wily Luke Spencer, were thrust into Francis’s orbit, and Luke and Laura usurped Laura and Scotty as the couple viewers swooned to — even if the romance was precipitated by a violent rape.
By the time of the fictional duo’s wedding — which aired November 17, 1981, to boffo, unparalleled ratings, the climax to a storyline that saw Luke, Laura, and other heroes rise up to prevent the power-mad Cassadine patriarch from overtaking the world — Francis was in serious crisis.
She’d developed an addiction to cocaine, and after a particularly harrowing night, she had to bear the indignity of hearing a producer claim that it didn’t matter whether she lived or died because Geary was the whole show.
In response, Francis quit the soap (her Laura walked into a cloud of fog and mysteriously disappeared) and offered herself up as a free agent. Quick to capitalize on her star power, CBS hired her to headline Bare Essence. Subsequently, NBC bought the rights to expand the project into a nightly serial, and once again the promos relied heavily on Francis.
Though the series was ultimately unsuccessful ratings-wise, it paid dividends for Francis for, amongst her co-stars, was future-husband Jonathan Frakes
Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, Francis was a TV staple, appearing in epics such as North and South (and its sequels), recurring on Murder, She Wrote (as Jessica Fletcher’s niece Victoria), and eventually returning to the world of suds, first via guest appearances on GH, then Days of our Lives (where she played Diana Colville) and All My Children (where she played scheming maneater Ceara Connor Hunter).
Back At GH
In 1993, Francis was back on contract GH, more so out of necessity than by her own choice. For the next nine years, Laura, as before, was in the thick of things.
She and Luke battled foes old and new (mobster Frank Smith and his smirking progeny) and the ghosts of their pasts. Laura birthed a daughter (to go with the son she’d previously bore Luke), then came face-to-face with her eldest child fathered by her long-ago captor, Stavros Cassadine.
Whirlwind
Genie and the ABC soap parted ways again (again under a cloud) in 2002 and for four years a traumatized Laura remained in a catatonic state.
Francis’ return in 2006 (in time for the 25th anniversary of Luke and Laura’s wedding) saw Laura awaken for a brief spell, and subsequent guest stints in 2008 and 2013 resulted in the character making a complete recovery.
Since 2018, the year Francis was solidified as a contract player at GH, Laura has weathered yet more losses (Luke and Bobbie, her enemy turned sister-in-law turned friend, have passed on, and daughter Lulu has been comatose for years), but found peace, love, and contentment in her marriage to Dr. Kevin Collins (Jon Linstrom) — a true port in the storm that is her life.
Daily Drama congratulates Genie Francis on her massive achievement and wishes her nothing but continued success in the future, on and off-screen.
What is your favorite Laura Collins memory? Have you followed Genie Francis’s career outside of daytime? Let us know in the comments below!
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