Alan Quartermaine

Stuart Damon as Dr. Alan Quartermaine

**Dr. Alan James Quartermaine, MD** was a fictional soap opera character appearing on *General Hospital*. He was the son of the late, wealthy businessman, Edward Quartermaine and his late wife, Lila Quartermaine.

He has been portrayed continuously by actor Stuart Damon since the character was first introduced in 1977.

In 1999, Damon won a "Best Supporting Actor" Emmy Award, for portraying Dr. Quartermaine's addiction to the drug Hydrocodone.

## Casting

According to an interview on the *Soapnet* talk show, *Soap Talk*, Damon first appeared in the role of Dr. Alan Quartermaine on September 12, 1977. After 30 years with the series, Damon was reportedly fired from the series and would exit in early 2007.

Though Alan dies on-screen in February 2007, Damon continued appearing as Alan's ghost until December 23, 2008. Damon once again returned to the role for a dream sequence episode on August 29, 2011.

In October 2012, TV Guide's Nelson Branco revealed that Damon had started taping scenes once again and *Soap Opera Digest* later confirmed that Damon would bring Alan's ghost back to the canvas in November. Stuart reprised the role of Alan on April 1 and 2, 2013 for General Hospital's 50th anniversary.

On June 29, 2021, Soap Central revealed that Stuart Damon had passed away at 84. A special tribute episode to Damon is planned.

## Background

Alan James Quartermaine is born on July 4, 1945 in Southampton, New York to the wealthy and influential, Lila and Edward Quartermaine.

He and little sister, Tracy Quartermaine are raised with every advantage money can buy and they are spoiled rotten. During his early years as a medical student, Alan has an affair with Rae Cummings who would give birth to a daughter, Skye.

The controlling Edward steals the infant and sells the child on the black market, and tells Rae the child is dead.

Alan knew all along that Rae was pregnant but he wasn't sure he was ready to be a father. As of 2012, Alan's date of birth has been revised to February 23, 1948.

## Storylines

* 1970s-90s
* 2000s

Alan came to Port Charles from Southampton at the request of Dr. Steve Hardy. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Alan's multiple affairs and quarrels with his wife, Dr. Monica Quartermaine were a major storyline. Alan attempted to kill Monica and one of her lovers, Dr. Rick Webber, more than once after he learned there was a chance that Rick might have fathered Alan "AJ" Quartermaine Jr.

When Alan first arrived he catches the eye of Dr. Monica Webber and the two clash in their work. Their relationship develops into a romance and Alan chooses to stay in Port Charles and his wealthy family the Quartermaines soon followed. Alan and Monica marry in June 1978 but their happiness is threatened due to Monica's growing closeness to her former love, Dr. Rick Webber. In November 1979, Alan and Monica welcome their son, Alan Jr; however, Tracy leads her brother to believe Rick is the boy's father.

A furious Alan plots to kill the lovers in 1980 but at the last minute, Alan rescues them realizing he'd be the only suspect. Alan and Monica's marriage is tested again when Alan begins having an affair with Susan Moore which leads to the birth of his son, Jason in 1981. As Alan prepares to divorce Monica, Monica begins a flirting with another man making him realize how much he loves her. With encouragement from Scott Baldwin and her cousin, Heather, Susan sues Alan for millions of dollars, and manages to get a million dollar trust fund for Jason. In early 1983, Alan is a suspect in Susan's murder investigation and it is later revealed that she was actually killed by Lila's first husband, Crane Tolliver who reveals that he and Lila never divorced. Meanwhile, Jimmy Lee Holt comes to Port Charles and reveals that he is Edward's illegitimate son. Jimmy Lee teams up with Heather in an attempt to blackmail the family with Lila's unsigned divorce papers. Alan soon reconciles with Monica and later she adopts Jason.

In late 1985, Monica has an affair with Jimmy Lee's business partner, Sean Donely. When the deal goes bad, Sean bankrupts the Quartermaines and Alan blames Jimmy Lee while Monica forces them out of the mansion. In a scheme to get the family fortune back, Alan fakes his death, frames Sean for his murder and disappears to Pautauk, New York where he lives under the alias Simon; he has a brief fling with country girl Charity Gatlin. After a bump on the head leads to Alan believing he really is Simon, Monica realizes how much she loves him and they reunite. In 1988, Monica beats out Alan for the chief of staff position at GH; however the job proves to be too much and Monica quits, briefly leaving town to stay at a spa. Meanwhile, Alan tracks down Tracy's son Ned Quartermaine. In the spring of 1989, Alan clashes with Ned after Edward is presumed dead and leaves his entire fortune to Ned. In October 1989, Lucy Coe seduces Alan into helping her dispose of Victor Jerome's body.

In the spring of 1990, Monica divorces Alan after finding him in bed with Lucy. Lucy later claims she is pregnant and Alan marries her. However, Alan learns that Scott Baldwin was actually the child's father and divorces her. He and Monica reconcile and remarry in August 1991. Meanwhile, Alan and Monica welcomed their sons, A. J. and Jason back to the mansion. A. J. falls for Nikki Langton who is going after the Quartermaine fortune to get revenge on Monica for her father, David's death. She manipulates A. J. into a marriage proposal and in November 1992, Alan pays Nikki to leave town leaving his son devastated. Alan soon develops an infatuation with the mother of his son Jason's girlfriend, Rhonda Wexler.

Though they never consummate the relationship, Alan becomes very protective of her and in 1993, accidentally kills her abusive ex-boyfriend Ray Conway when he finds him abusing her and Karen. A. J. attempts to frame Jagger Cates for the murder, but he is eventually cleared. In 1994, Alan and Tracy also learn they have another illegitimate sibling, the late Bradley Ward whom was murdered in the 70s. When Edward is arrested for his murder, Bradley's mother Mary Mae is forced to admit to the world that Bradley is Edward's son and he would not have killed him.

Monica is later diagnosed with breast cancer and must have a mastectomy; though Alan is supportive, Monica feels unloved and goes to Arizona for treatment. Monica returns and they decide to adopt in Emily Bowen, the daughter of another cancer patient and Monica's friend, Paige Bowen who had recently lost her battle with the disease. Monica's self-esteem diminished while she struggled with the disease and she succumbed to the advances of her colleague, Dr. Pierce Dorman. Despite the affair, Alan continues supporting his wife even after Dorman sues Monica for sexual harassment. During the trial, Alan is furious when Ned reveals that he and Monica had an affair years prior. In late 1995, a drunken A. J. gets into a car accident which leaves Jason with permanent brain damage and no recollection of his life.

Due to an old hand injury, Alan has to get an operation so he can continue working as surgeon. Alan later becomes addicted to pain killers. The rest of the family is also in crisis as Monica deals with the sexual harassment suit, a teenage Emily has also become a drug addict, while A. J. is fighting Jason and his estranged wife Carly for his son, Michael. Alan becomes so dependent on his drugs that he loses his job at General Hospital and is banished from the family. Monica took over as chief of staff. Alan's efforts to help kick his addiction took a toll on the marriage. However, When Alan saved the life of Mac Scorpio, after he had been shot at his club, Monica regained faith in Alan. Alan forces himself into rehab, and soon reunites with his family clean and sober; he also successfully started work at GH again.

In March 2000, Alan's former love, Dr. Rae Cummings comes to Port Charles searching for the child she thought died. Monica is jealous of their close relationship. When Monica's pregnancy scare proves to be menopause, Alan becomes fixated on the idea of having another child, until Emily is kidnapped and A. J. nearly dies from alcohol poisoning and they force him into rehab. After another cancer scare in early 2001, Monica and Alan decide to renew their wedding vows; on the day of the ceremony, Skye Chandler arrives and reveals that she is Alan and Rae's long lost daughter. Skye moves into the mansion and causes quite a bit of trouble amongst the family and even comes between Alan and Monica. Alan is able to forgive Skye when he witnesses her remorse at an AA meeting, however, this causes tension between him and Monica. Over the next few years, Alan becomes Skye's defender, despite most of the family's refusal to accept her.

A. J. also continues his schemes to regain custody of his son Michael. In 2002, Alan's jealous side came out when Rick Webber returned to town to be part of Laura Spencer's upcoming wedding. Alan was livid to see his wife in several animated conversations with Rick and even more upset to see them dancing together at Luke's during a party for the hospital. He warned Rick to keep his hands off his wife, and even planned to kill him. However Rick was later killed presumably by Laura after an accident in the Scorpio attic. It was later revealed Scott Baldwin committed the crime, A secret Alan discovered and took to his grave. In 2003, Edward and Alan are hell bent on bringing Ned's "daughter" Kristina into the Quartermaine mansion; they convince social services that her mother Alexis Davis is an unfit mother. Tracy makes a shocking return to town and reveals that Skye isn't Alan's daughter after all. Despite the revelation, Alan legally adopts Skye as his daughter.

Emily also returned with a secret of her own, she was suffering from breast cancer. Alan found out when Monica tried to have her treated at another hospital. Alan and Monica supported Emily and convinced her to seek treatment and were overjoyed when Emily managed to beat the cancer. Alan and the rest of the family were shocked to learn that A. J. had managed to empty the family's bank accounts and left town with the money. Emily and Nikolas later announced their engagement and Nikolas had gone bankrupt as well.

But their financial problems seemed to be over when Emily and Nikolas announced that they had found a sunken ship that had belonged to the Quartermaines several generations ago. The ship had contained a lot of treasure and Nikolas and Emily planned to hire Sam to salvage the treasure. Then the families would split it down the middle. Alan and Monica agreed to the split in order to support Emily, Tracy however pretended to go along with it but really made her own plans to pay Sam to give them the whole treasure. Sam later took off with the treasure herself.

The treasure came back to the Quartermaines when Nikolas and Emily were able to figure out where Helena, who had stolen it from Sam, had hidden it. The couple held an auction of the treasure with the intent of splitting the proceeds equally between their two families. Luke however stole the treasure and the PC hotel where the auction was being held caught on fire. The attendees had just started to evacuate when the firefighters closed down the elevators, leaving everyone left trapped in the auction room. Although Alan had wanted Emily to go in the first group, Monica persuaded him to go since doctors would be needed to help the injured. Eventually everyone made it out alive. Alan was soon devastated when Edward nearly died from a heartattack. It was later proven that the fire had been deliberately set.

Later that year Alan was shocked to find out that Lila died in her sleep. The whole family was grief stricken, However none of them could claim any of Lila's money for one month. Lila had left a stipulation in her will that a judge would award her estate to the person who acted the most virtuous in the next month. Monica and Alan were disqualified within the first week after they tried to conspire against the rest of the family. In Summer 2004, A storm knocked out the power in the Quartermaine mansion, an accident on the road left everyone stranded for awhile, and then Sage Alcazar was discovered stabbed to death in the basement freezer. The killer turned out to be Mary, who was after Emily in order to get Nikolas back. In a confrontation, Nikolas shot Mary to protect Emily. Mary was then institutionalized.

Alan was devastated when Justus announced that A. J. was dead. There was a double heartbreak when it was realized that Michael, who has been kidnapped by Faith, was dead as well. Alan turned back to the bottle, only to be found out by Emily after he hit Ric and Alexis's car. When Courtney came to him to tell him that A.J. was still alive, A.J. soon showed up with Michael, Alan promised to protect him but later turned his back on A.J., causing his son to shoot him in the back. Alan was then confined to a wheelchair for most of 2005. That night, A.J. was murdered at GH.

Alan blamed Jason for A.J.'s death, and paired up with Michael's therapist, Asher Thomas, to help get Michael away from Sonny and back in the Quartermaine mansion. Monica wanted to end their marriage over Alan's treatment of Jason and his handling of the whole affair, and vowed to leave as soon as he recovered. Alan began acting secretive and Monica finally learned that his secret was that he knew that A.J. had wanted his brother Jason killed years earlier after the accident that left Jason with permanent brain damage. She wanted to leave him, even after his heartfelt confession that he had saved Jason from certain death that night, even though he couldn't be sure how it would turn out. Alan felt like he was given a new chance with Jason when an experimental drug left Jason with complete amnesia, and tried desperately to get his son to come home, but Monica told him the truth.

Alan later forgave Monica for her role in the restoration of Jason's memory and life in the mob and turned their attention to Emily after she and Nikolas divorced. Emily moved in with Sonny Corinthos and claimed she was helping Sonny care for his children. Alan and Monica then decided to confront Emily after she chose spending time with Sonny instead of assisting Monica on a rare medical procedure. Alan threatened to have Emily expelled from medical school if she did not end her association with Sonny. When Emily refused to leave Sonny, Alan told her she would no longer be welcome in their home. Alan was pleased when Emily's relationship with Sonny ended and she reunited with Nikolas.