The Weird And Wacky Life Of General Hospital's Tracy Quartermaine
"General Hospital" fans can't get enough of Jane Elliot, who has played Tracy Quartermaine since 1978 and has consistently refined her performance as the surly socialite over the years. Although Elliot officially retired from acting in 2017, she's brought Tracy back to the show a handful of times since then. Born into the wealthy Quartermaine family, Tracy's parents were Lila Quartermaine (Anna Lee), and Edward Quartermaine (played by David Lewis, Les Tremayne, Jed Allan, and fan favorite John Ingle).
Her brother was Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon), and she often feuded with his wife, Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson). Tracy tried to prove that Rick Webber (Chris Robinson), not Alan, was the father of Monica's child. Fed up with Tracy's schemes, Edward attempted to test her loyalty by pretending to be having a heart attack. She purposely denied him his meds, and when Edward revealed he was faking, he kicked her out of his will and his house.
Tracy's first husband was Lord Larry Ashton (Hugo Napier), and they had a son, Ned Ashton (then Kurt McKinney). When Tracy learned Larry wasn't actually an heir to the Ashton fortune, she kicked him to the curb and started dating Paul Hornsby (then Paul Satterfield) instead. The two married but, although they had a son named Dillon Quartermaine, Paul fell in love with Jenny Eckert (Cheryl Richardson) and left Tracy for her. An angered Tracy ran Jenny over with her car but fortunately didn't kill her.
Tracy became a mob queen
Jenny Eckert subsequently used that incident to blackmail Tracy into divorcing Paul. Frustrated, Tracy decided to go to Europe with Dillon after being kicked out of the house by her father, when he learned about her hit-and-run incident. Tracy later tried unsuccessfully to take control of the family's lucrative pharmaceutical company, ELQ, so she and Dillon moved to New York City where the character continued her shenanigans on the "GH" spin-off series, "The City." There she married a gangster named Gino Soleito (Joseph Sirola) and ended up acquiring his criminal organization after he died.
Tracy returned to Port Charles in 2003 with Dillon (then Scott Clifton) and was duped by Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) into marrying him so he could acquire a slice of the Quartermaine fortune. Tracy started to realize she was attracted to him around the same time that Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) recovered from being catatonic, so it was hard for her to compete with the love of Luke's life, and she divorced him. Meanwhile, Alan Quartermaine had passed away, yet his ghost continued to pester Tracy, who ended up in the Shadybrook mental facility for seemingly talking to no one.
Ultimately, Luke and Tracy resumed their relationship and when they got remarried, he was forced to sign a prenup to ease her mind that he was being genuine (she burned it after the ceremony). However, mobster Anthony Zacchara soon set his sights on Tracy and eventually forced her to marry him.
She regularly returned to Port Charles
When Anthony Zacchara turned up dead, Tracy assumed Luke had murdered him and hid the body. She then got embroiled in a battle with her nephew A.J. Quartermaine (Sean Kanan) concerning her late mother's relish company, Pickle Lila. Tracy and Luke broke up, so she ended up getting involved with Paul Hornsby (Richard Burgi) again, who had recently returned to Port Charles. But, she caught him having sex with Ava Jerome (Maura West) and promptly dumped him. Tracy ended up in the hospital with brain cancer, but with the help of Dr. Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton), she got through it.
A woman named Samira Adin (Ivy Natalia) tried scamming Tracy by claiming Edward had been in a relationship with her mother, and she wanted a painting he'd left Tracy so she could sell it and use the money to rescue her own daughter who'd been taken by human traffickers. When Samira turned out to be a fraud, Tracy paid her off, making her leave town. Tracy then moved to Amsterdam to be with Luke.
In 2019, Tracy returned to a completely renovated Quartermaine mansion, but was horrified that her great-nephew Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) was allowing the evil Nelle Benson (Chloe Lanier) to live there — Nelle had ELQ stock, which worried Tracy. Tracy was also concerned that a hostile takeover of ELQ was imminent, but luckily Ned resolved both issues. With peace of mind, she went back to Amsterdam.
She saved the life of Ethan Lovett
When Ned cheated on his wife, Olivia Falconeri (Lisa LoCicero), with Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) in 2020, Tracy returned and orchestrated things so that Alexis would be blamed for drunk driving, but as the authorities started to close in on her, she fled Port Charles. On New Year's Day 2022, Tracy returned again, this time with bad news: Luke had apparently been killed in a cable car accident. Things got worse when she was then arrested for framing Alexis for drunk driving. However, Alexis dropped the charges and Tracy was freed.
Tracy tried giving the Ice Princess, the world's largest uncut diamond, to Laura Collins (Genie Francis), but it ended up being a fake and the World Security Bureau got involved. Thankfully, Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) was able to get the WSB to back off so that Tracy could go back to Amsterdam to resolve Luke's personal matters. When Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy) put Luke's son, Ethan Lovett (James Ryan), up for auction in South America, Tracy intervened and won.
With the help of Ethan's mother, Holly Sutton (Emma Samms), and Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner), the three fought Victor's henchmen and got Ethan back to safety. Now, Tracy is blackmailing her granddaughter, Brook Lynn Quartermaine, to be her spy at Deception Cosmetics, because she'd secretly helped BLQ's on-again off-again boyfriend, Harrison Chase (Josh Swickard), get his job as a detective back. What Tracy does next is truly anyone's guess.