Even The Great Victor Newman can't prevent this.

Giving the Devil his due. In honor of Beverlee McKinsey’s memory I searched through countless You Tube clips to find one that best summarized her tremendous strength as an actress. This clip is famous for Guiding Light fans, as it is where Springfield's grand dame Alexandra Spaulding makes a mockery of her cheating, thieving husband Roger Thorpe played with equal brilliance by the late Michael Zaslow. Alex also makes amends to her loved ones for believing in Roger over them. 

The clip is almost painful to watch as it evokes memories of Guiding Light and the daytime soap opera at its best. One thing that amazes me is that most of the actors in this storyline, Alex, Roger, Fletcher (Jay Hammer), Holly (Maureen Garrett), Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), Ross (Jerry ver Dorn), Henry (William Roerick, Ed (Peter Simon) and Maureen (Ellen Parker) were over 40. 

 The few younger actors involved, a fresh-faced Rick Hearst as Alex’s nephew Alan Michael, the vivacious Kimberley Simms as Mindy Sue Lewis, the girl Alex loved like a daughter before she found out she was sleeping with her nefarious husband and a pre-ER Sherry Stringfield as Roger’s equally venomous daughter Blake Thorpe, benefitted from sharing scenes with such legends of soap and stage. Wouldn't it be great it soap execs today took a page from soaps gone by, instead of trying to rip off Laguna Beach?

Daytime mourns the loss of one of its most legendary names, Beverlee McKinsey, who died May 2, 2008 from complications of a kidney transplant. She was 72. McKinsey shot to fame as the original Iris Cory Carrington Wheeler on Another World  and later the short-lived AW spinoff Texas. After her wildly successful decade's long run as Iris (1970-79 on AW, 1980-81 on Texas) McKinsey joined another Proctor and Gamble soap, Guiding Light and created a role that would compete with Iris as the performance of her career, Alexandra Spaulding.  McKinsey starred on that soap from 1984-1992. She briefly returned to the soap world in 1994 when she appeared as Myrna Slaughter on General Hospital.

"For my money, Beverlee McKinsey is the greatest actress ever to grace daytime drama." -TV Guide's Michael Logan.

David Groh may be most famous for his role on Rhoda, where he played her husband Joe, but for longtime General Hospital viewers he will be recogonized as one of Bobbie Spencer's husbands. Groh died in Los Angeles of kidney cancer February 14. Rhoda Morgenstern and Joe Gerard made television history in the 1970s when they married and divorced. 

DL Brock appeared in Port Charles in 1983 and remained until his character was murdered in 1985. He married Bobbie Spencer, who was accused of killing her abusive husband. In the end, it was his daughter Terri who did him in. This lead to a convoluted storyline involving Terri's past in Laurelton. The best thing to come from that was the introduction of fan favorite Lucy Coe, who's sexy character was disguised as a timid librarian. 

Groh appeared in several television programs and movies, but loved Broadway best. Clips of DL Brock's murder mystery can be found at YouTube.  

 I found a wonderful article at Jack Martin's Watercooler. Here is a taste but be sure to read his whole touching tribute!

Ed Martin's TV Buzz: "General Hospital" Sadness: Remembering Nurse Amy Vining

"But the real reason why Kepler deserves a prominent footnote in the history of daytime drama is because of Amy's inadvertent contribution to the circumstances that led to Luke raping Laura in the Campus Disco in the fall of 1979. Laura, who was newlywed to good-boy Scotty at the time, was working for bad-boy Luke at the disco. On the night that Laura was attacked by Luke, Scotty had asked Amy to tell her that he wouldn't be able to pick her up when her shift ended. Amy, who was distracted by other matters, forgot to give Laura the message, leaving her stranded at the disco after closing and thinking her marriage was in trouble. (Remember, the arrival of the cell phone was still a long way off.) Luke, you may recall, was in love with Laura, a girl he thought he could never have, and believed that he was about to be killed by the murderous Frank Smith mob. Hence, his deranged assault on Laura – which did nothing less than change General Hospital and all of daytime drama forever."

In memory of General Hospital's Shell Kepler (Amy Vining) I've found some clips of her on Youtube. There weren't that many but I hope you'll enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Well, I hope you're proud of yourself, Guza. You've successfully killed off ANOTHER character from a core and heritage family on General Hospital. Heaven forbid we have any character left on canvas that we grew up with, that we feel like we have known since day one. Heaven forbid we have less mob and more core character interaction. A day without Jason or Carly would be a day without sunshine, is that right?

You should be ashamed of yourself! Gloria Monty would roast your chestnuts over an open fire.