Genie Francis – Secret Drug Problems on the Set of General Hospital

If you watched the November, 1981 wedding of Laura Baldwin [Genie Francis] and Luke Spencer [Anthony Geary], you were one of 30 million rabid General Hospital fans that was obsessed with the super couple. Who didn’t wish they were America’s sweetheart in that beautiful white dress? For one, Genie Francis herself wished she was elsewhere.

Turns out that American’s soap sweetheart experienced deep on-set trauma on the ABC show and it nearly ruined her life. Genie was the daughter of a renowned Broadway actor and landed the GH gig as her second ever acting job when she was just 14 back in 1976. She had her first ever kiss on screen at age 15 with Kin Shriner who played her GH boyfriend Scott Baldwin and later became her real life BF.

Her onscreen romance with Scotty made her a household name and pulled GH back from the brink of cancellation. As the show’s ratings climbed, Genie’s pay also increased dramatically and then her parents asked her to help pay the bills at home. She did but this put her in a terrible position of being a working adult supporting her family at just 16.

On the small screen, Laura married Scotty and their life seemed perfect. Off screen, Genie’s life was horrible, lonely and painful. Because she worked full time, teen Genie couldn’t go to school and was tutored on set. This meant she had no friends or social circle outside of work and her coworkers were all much older than her. This set the stage for the secret addiction that Genie would hide for decades.

Looking back, she says if Kin stayed on the show, she might have been okay but he left when Laura’s storyline shifted to be Luke-centric and she once again felt completely alone and depressed. Genie got married on the show to Geary when she was 19 and he was in his mid-30s. He became part of her social circle and, apparently, the drug culture of the 80s was running rampant on the GH set and Genie fell in with the adult peer group and did drugs to fit in.

Genie says the first time she tried cocaine, she knew instantly it was a problem but said “it took away the pain inside. The pain was numbed and all I knew was wow, I need to get more of this.” She says within an hour of her first hit on drugs, she had an addiction problem. Anthony Geary also dabbled in coke and says the drugs “almost broke him.” Geary admitted he was drinking and doing hard drugs.

Show runner Gloria Monty claimed she didn’t know they were using drugs, but others says it was well known on set and she was a very hands on manager so it couldn’t have escaped her attention. Genie’s struggle with drugs is what led her to quit the show, especially when it was made clear that she didn’t matter to them. She says people on set knew there was a problem going on and covered it up.

She had been on the show for five year and was immensely popular when she snapped and quit the show. The night before she quit, she had been up partying for more than 24 hours straight and passed out at her house – her brother found him and she begged to go to the hospital for help. She had burned her hand and had a sprained ankle.

Genie spent the night in the hospital but was picked up by someone from the show and taken directly to work. They hid her away in her dressing room and sent makeup and hair in so no one would see the state she was in – there was no sympathy. Then an associate producer on the show said “it doesn’t matter if you live or die because Tony Geary is the whole show.”

Genie says she quit because she knew she would never get clean and sober while still on General Hospital because there were drugs everywhere on set and her costars and other staff on GH were drugging up and partying. On the show, Laura disappeared into the fog in December 1981 while she was a huge star and wildly popular.

Genie says her mission was to become clean and sober but then she swapped addiction and started over-eating instead. Although she later conquered her eating problems in the short term, Genie has struggled with her weight on and off for years even though she’s managed to stay clean of drugs. She met her future husband on the set of Bare Essence, a mini series, and married Jonathon Frakes (best known as Commander Riker on Star Trek).

Genie went on to work on Broadway, a lifelong dream, and then went on to a role she enjoyed, also at ABC, on All My Children playing Ceara Hunter. She had been on the show two years and loved it but then ABC wanted Tony Geary back on GH as Luke and he said having Genie to play Laura to his Luke. The network cold-bloodedly fired her from AMC to force her to come back to GH.

Interestingly, Genie had avoided a return to GH because of all the bad memories and pain she suffered there and was worried about the negative environment. She was pleased to find out that things had changed and the set wasn’t stressful like it had been. They also cast Laura and Luke a son named Lucky (Jonathon Jackson) and this made her time there even happier.

Genie was determined to protect Jonathon from the child star mistakes she had fallen prey to and took him under her wing like a real mother figures. She said she wanted to protect him in a way she was never protected. Genie enjoyed her second stint on GH much more than her first – and has come back to the show a number of times over the years to reprise her role as Laura Spencer.

Fortunately, Genie has completely conquered her drug and alcohol-related demons and hasn’t ever gone back down that terrifying path. But it’s sad to think that as we were all watching Laura enjoy her fairy tale romance on set, that her life was falling apart behind the scenes. It just goes to show you that you never really know what’s going on in even the most idyllic seeming lives.

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