Genie FrancisNew Jersey born actress Genie Francis is best known for her soap opera roles beginning in 1976, as Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer on ABC’s longest running soap opera, General Hospital .
She was born as Eugenie Ann Francis on May 26, 1962, in Englewood, New Jersey, to a father of English descent and a mother of Lithuanian descent. Her father is the late Canada-born character actor Ivor Francis who died in 1986. Francis has an older half-sister, Shelley; an older brother, Ivor; and a younger brother, Kenny. She is a confirmed Catholic.
For five years Francis played the role of Laura on General Hospital, the series which has been the springboard for many acting careers, such as Kelly Monaco and John Stamos. In one of her final performances in 1981 her character married Luke Spencer, played by Anthony Geary, a man who had drunkenly raped her at one time. That November episode became one of the most watched daytime drama events in the history of television.
In 1982 Francis landed her own series Bare Essence where she played Patricia "Tyger" Hayes. The show was not successful and ended up being cancelled after just one season.
In 1984 Francis briefly returned to General Hospital and made a full return to the show on October 29, 1993.
She has also had a few recurring appearances on 'Murder She Wrote' which starred Angela Lansbury.. In 1990 she created the role of Ceara Connor,where her character was an incest survivor and a con artist. Other stars who have found the show a vehilce to their future are, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kelly Ripa.
Francis has also performed on stage appearing in the stage productions Crimes of the Heart and See How They Run. In 1991 she appeared in the Williamstown Festival Theater Production of Defying Gravity. The same year Francis also debuted at New York City’s Lucille Lortel Theater in Greenwich Village in the production The Baby Dance.
Francis’ other stage performances include an appearance in a Comedic Curtain Raiser at Manhattan Class Company called The Group.
Since 1993 Francis has continued acting on and off for General Hospital. She took time off to have children, returned for a while, and then abruptly quit in 2002 following ABC’s refusal to work on a contract she wanted. The scriptwriters wrote her out of the storyline by having her kill her character’s stepfather and then lose her mind and not remember her husband or children.
In 2004 she was offered a return to General Hospital, but Francis turned down the offer. However, in 2006 she agreed to another return as Laura Spencer for a limited run through November. This return coincided with the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Luke and Laura’s wedding. Her first airdate back was October 26, 2006.
Francis has won four awards for her portrayal of Laura Spencer in General Hospital: the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Daytime Series in 1981, the Soapy Award for Outstanding Actress in 1980 and 1981, and the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1997.
She has been married to actor/director Jonathan Frakes since May 28, 1988. They have two children: Jameson Ivor, born August 20, 1994, and Elizabeth Francis, born May 30, 1997. The couple resides in both Los Angeles and Manhattan. YUDDY |
