General Hospital Star Laura Wright Celebrates 30 Years in Daytime

Laura Wright has spent half of her daytime career on General Hospital as Carly, but she actually started out in soaps in 1991 on the half-hour soap opera Loving as Ally Rescott. The actress recently took to social media to celebrate her three decades in soaps!

Laura Wright Celebrates

“[Thirty] years ago today – I was working at my dad’s gas station in Chesapeake, Maryland and received the phone call that changed my life- Be in New York by 5 tonight,” the Daytime Emmy winner wrote. “You start work [on Loving] tomorrow morning — still in shock – still so grateful and still madly in love with what I get to do every day!!!!!” Wright enthused. #whataride #Loving #AllyRescott #30yrs #Daytimebaby #4showslater #stillalotofhair #NewYork.”

Wright played the part of Ally on Loving and was paired with Paul Anthony Stewart’s Casey. Alas, the couple was separated after Casey was killed. Wright brought Ally to Loving spinoff The City in 1995 and remained on that show until it came to an end in 1997.

She shot a pilot for The WB. But when that didn’t get picked up, she let her representatives know that she’d like to find another home on daytime TV. She had two auditions — one for All My Children and the other for Guiding Light; former The City writers James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esentsen were writing for GL.

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After doing a chemistry read with Kim Zimmer (Reva), Wright was cast as her half-sister Cassie Layne. In Springfield (and on the island of San Cristobel), Wright’s Cassie shared a storybook romance with Prince Richard (Bradley Cole) that ended after Richard died; Cassie’s heart was broken, but she donated Richard’s to a dying Rick Bauer (Michael O’Leary).

Wright remained on GL until 2005. She made the difficult decision to leave her Springfield family behind and move her real family 3,000 miles across the country to take on the role of Carly Corthinos, which has been played previously by Sarah Brown, Tamara Braun, and Jennifer Bransford.

Wright won the Daytime Emmy for Oustanding Leading Actress in a Drama Series in 2011. She has played the role of Carly longer than any other actress. Recently, Wright has taken Carly to new heights as she has assumed the role of a lady mob boss in light of her husband Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) “death.” Unbeknownst to Carly and Sonny’s other loved ones, the “coffee emporium owner” is actually alive, having survived the fall off the bridge he took late last year.

When will Carly find out that Sonny’s alive and well in Nixon Falls? Stay tuned to find out! Soap Hub congratulates Wright for her three decades in daytime drama and her tenures as Ally, Cassie, and Carly! General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.