General Hospital’s Sonny and Luke were never tidy friends. They ran cons, built empires, clashed over family, forgave what probably should not have been forgiven, and kept circling back to each other anyway. On screen, it read as history. Off-screen, it became something else. In a recent interview, Maurice Benard reflected on how Anthony Geary did more than play Luke. He shifted the course of Sonny’s future and, in the process, reshaped Benard’s own legacy on the show.
Key Takeaways
- Maurice Benard said he and Anthony Geary shared mutual respect from the start.
- Geary urged Benard to step out of Luke’s shadow, which led to Sonny gaining a father and a defining romance.
- Benard admitted he might have left GH if he had remained a sidekick.
- He described Luke and Sonny as brothers, a bond that shaped Sonny’s choices long after Luke’s exit.
The Advice That Changed Everything
Benard spoke to Soap Opera Digest about his long partnership with Geary, both in front of and behind the cameras. He said, “From day one until the day he left, Tony and I just always had this kind of mutual respect.”
That respect was not just friendly. It was practical. Within his first year on the show, Benard said Geary called him into his dressing room and asked if he wanted to stay in Luke’s shadow. “Listen, do you want to be the Tonto to my Lone Ranger?” he asked. The implication was clear: sidekicks don’t build legacies; they orbit them.
Benard took the advice, went to the then-Executive Producer Wendy Riche and asked for more. The result: Sonny gained a father in Mike Corbin (Ron Hale) and a romance with Brenda (Vanessa Marcil). He gained emotional weight. Benard later admitted that if he stayed a sidekick, “I don’t know what would have happened. I mean, I may have left.”
Brothers on Screen, Brothers in Craft
Luke and Sonny fought, betrayed, protected, and reconciled. The show let them fracture and mend in cycles. Through it all, Benard framed their dynamic as deeper than business. He said, “They were kind of like brothers, whereas Sonny and Jason (Steve Burton) are more like uncle and nephew.”
That distinction mattered. It informed how Sonny moved after Luke left Port Charles. It explained why he protected Laura (Genie Francis). It shaped the emotional temperature of their final dockside scenes in 2015, when Benard held back tears in moments that were not scripted as sentimental.
Geary retired and moved to Amsterdam. The friendship endured in memory and influence. When GH airs its tribute, Sonny will grieve Luke, and Benard will honor Geary. And the throughline is simple: One actor saw potential in another and nudged him toward something bigger. The rest followed. (Catch a sneak peek of the Geary tribute episode.)
