Tony Geary: Why couldn't he get what he wanted from fans and executives of General Hospital?

Now that the third and final tribute to Anthony Geary is over, a question to ask is, why were General Hospital execs and fans so obsessed with Luke Spencer? Geary walked away from the soap in 2015 to retire and said he would not return.

James Scott (EJ Dimera) and Renee Jones (Lexi Carver) on Days of Our Lives (and others) said they were walking away from acting, and fans and soap execs allowed them to without trying to get them back.

The GH powers that be were determined to have Luke return. They finally lured his portrayer back to reprise the role two years after he retired. This was for the episode where Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Alexander) left Port Charles.

She found Luke in a Paris cafe where he was shown for about 30 seconds. This brief appearance was all the soap vet would agree to, and it indicated that he wanted to be done with the ABC soap.

Think about it. Geary would not commit to one entire episode. Tracy walked into the cafe, and he smiled at her, and that was it. Fans did not complain or ask why the actor only committed to a cameo appearance.

Since that time, he has given several interviews stating he was in Europe, living in the Netherlands. He emphasized he was done with Hollywood and America. He also said he could be free to live his life without scrutiny and without everyone in his business.

Some fans suspected the actor was gay, and this was revealed when he announced he had married Claudio Gama, his partner of 30 years. Still on social media, fans kept saying they wanted Luke to return. Fake news sites reported that Geary was returning, and many GH fans believed the stories.

In January 2022, General Hospital had Tracy return to Port Charles with Luke's ashes. She said he had died in a cable car accident. The soap spent a lot of time on the subject, and once again, fans and news sites speculated that Luke was still alive.

The first episode honoring Luke aired shortly after Geary's retirement in 2015. A special tribute episode aired in 2020, celebrating the character's legacy.

Tracy disposed of his ashes from the Haunted Star in 2022, and various characters. continued to mention Luke throughout episodes over the years. Geary died on December 14, 2025, three days after surgery. General Hospital showed a picture of the former cast member after a later episode.

This past Friday, the soap had a special tribute to Geary by having Luke's family and friends celebrate him at a bar with Lulu Spencer (Alexa Havins Brueing), who was in a coma when her father died.

Before Geary's death, Luke continued to be mentioned in episodes, and the storyline teased viewers for a while by giving the impression that he might still be alive. When other cast members died, they were rarely mentioned after a tribute episode, except perhaps on the anniversary of their deaths.

Other cast members have died in recent years, like Jackie Zeman (Bobbie Spencer), Sonya Edy (Epiphany Johnson), Billy Miller (Drew Caine), Denise Alexander (Leslie Webber), and Tyler Christopher (Nikolas Cassadine). Nothing as extravagant was done for them, not even for Leslie Charleson (Monica Quartermaine).

Luke continued to be written into General Hospital scripts for a decade after his portrayer retired. He was enjoying his life in Europe and not giving his character, or his former daytime drama, another thought. Still, the fans and the powers that be could not let him go.

The man who portrayed Luke Spencer was an iconic actor, and his character was one of a kind, who cannot be replaced. The tribute after he retired and the recent one following his death were fitting.

Still, the question remains of why his wishes could not be honored. He was emphatic that he was done with General Hospital, only agreeing to that brief 30-second return, yet the executives and fans would not let him go.

Geary also said he wanted his character to die in a blaze of glory and not to be resurrected, yet fans held out hope he would return from the dead. In a 2013 TV Guide interview, the actor said the following.

"If I ever do leave GH - not something I want to see happen anytime soon - I want Luke to die. I don't want him coming home for Christmas episodes or the birth of his great grandchildren. I would prefer to have him go out in a blaze of glory and also that it be the climax of a wonderful story that involves the entire community, rather than some inconsequential B plot".

It's wonderful that Anthony Geary was so beloved by cast and crew and his fans, but he moved to a different continent with no intention of returning to America. Shouldn't his wish to be left alone to live his life without prying eyes and judgment have been granted? Read what he said in his own words.

I have a home in Amsterdam and no one knows me there. The show has never run in Holland and the Dutch have no interest in celebrity anyway, so I've been able to recapture a lot of the time I sort of lost in terms of just being a regular guy, and that's very valuable to me," he says. "Every time I'd go to Europe, I'd go through Amsterdam, because it's a hub. I always stayed there for a few days and I loved the openness of the people. I loved the liberal, truly unapologetic liberal attitudes. It was great to be in a place where intelligent people didn't spend so much time arguing about things like abortion rights, gay rights, and individual rights. But people just assumed that those things were part of the fabric of their society.... I found that this was the place I'd been looking for all my life. So that's where I intend to stay [now that] my job is through."

The man who played Luke Spencer left a lasting impression on us all but why wasn't he left alone? How could fans read what he said in interviews and not understand that Anthony Geary made it clear that he was done with show business?

Once in Amsterdam, he probably did not read online comments or watch General Hospital. If, per chance, he did, I wonder if he were annoyed at the constant mentions of his character and why Luke was not allowed to rest in peace.,