General Hospital fans saw many sad deaths over the six decades of the ABC soap opera including Stone Cates and Nathan West, among others. Today, our video looks at five of the saddest deaths we’ve seen on GH.
Sad Deaths on General Hospital – Do You Remember These?
Hey there ABC Soap Opera fans. Today, we, here at Soap Dirt on YouTube have got something sad to talk about with you. We are going to be looking back at some of the most tragic and sad deaths on GH over the years.
And of course, there have been many, many lives lost over the six decades that the soap’s been on the air. But we polled our soap writers and we came up with the five names that we’d like to talk about as the saddest.
So, we are going to talk about these in order of the least to most recent on General Hospital. So as we start, we’re going to dial the time machine back to Port Charles in 1993.
#1 BJ Jones’ Death on GH Was Heartbreaking
And you might already know who we’re gonna be talking about. And that is adorable little BJ Jones. Okay? You might have already guessed that by the year.
Barbara Jean Jones was named for her mother, Bobbie Spencer. And her father, if you don’t remember, was Tony Jones. Her parents were played by Jacklyn Zeman and Brad Maule.
And adorable little BJ was played by young actress, Brighton Hertford. At the time of BJ’s death, her parents were already having a hard time because Bobbie had been going behind Tony’s back with Damian Smith.
He was the son of mobster Frank Smith, if you don’t remember. And in fact, Tony was brawling with Damian over Bobbie. And she tried to break it up when someone came in to notify them that their daughter was in an accident.
It was nurse Amy Vinings who broke in and told them that BJ was hurt. By the time the EMTs got little BJ to General Hospital, her condition was dire.
BJ’s Death Saved Maxie Jones on ABC Soap
And at one look, her dad being a doctor, Tony knew that she was probably brain dead. At the same time, her little cousin, Maxie Jones, who was just a little tyke back then also, had heart failure.
Maxie was facing death if she did not get a heart transplant. So immediately Tony knew that the right thing to do was to donate BJ’s heart to save Maxie’s life. But Bobbie was so devastated.
And she initially refused, but Tony told her, “Nothing’s going to bring our little girl back.” So they knew they had to say goodbye. And it was a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking moment.
Tony’s final words to BJ were, “When you give your heart to Maxie, I will give my heart to you, and we will both be safe. Bless you, BJ. I love you.”
Later, after the heart transplant at General Hospital, Tony went in to check on Maxie, and there was just this heartbreaking scene. If you were watching back then, or if you’ve ever seen the video, it’s so sad. It’s so damn sad.
Tony Jones laid his head down on Maxie’s little chest so that he could hear BJ’s heart beating in her chest. Of course, it was a miracle because even though they lost their daughter, her heart keeps beating inside Maxie to this day.
But the death of BJ Jones is still one that haunts many long-time GH viewers.
#2 Stone Cates Died of HIV/AIDS – General Hospital Fans Crushed
For the number two death, we are going to skip two years ahead to 1995. And you may already know who we’re going to mention. It is Stone Cates who was played by Michael Sutton from 1993 up until the time of his death.
And he had a few subsequent ghostly visits since then. Stone Cates remains one of the most talked about deaths on GH. Because if you don’t remember, the Nurses Ball was begun in his honor.
And typically he’s mentioned at almost every Nurses Ball, if not on stage, at least by other people talking about the event. You may recall that Stone was the younger brother of Jagger Cates, on General Hospital.
And Stone Cates was the teenage love of Robin Scorpio, who is still played by Kimberly McCullough. Although she doesn’t appear very often on the soap anymore. Stone and Jagger had this really sad backstory.
At one point they were homeless, living on the streets. And while living that terrible life, Stone wound up infected with HIV. But they didn’t know it. Stone got tested and one test was negative.
Then, he and Robin slept together. And then another test came back positive. And so Stone Cates inadvertently infected Robin. This was a groundbreaking story at the time on GH that highlighted the heartbreak of HIV AIDS.
Stone’s Death Still Mentioned Today at Nurse’s Ball
And at the time of his death, Robin and Sonny Corinthos were Stone’s primary caregivers. Sonny saw Stone as a pseudo-son. And he adored him. In the last months of his life, Stone Cates was almost blind.
And in one of his last moments on General Hospital, he asked Robin to stand by the window so he could see her one last time. And miraculously Stone’s eyesight cleared enough so he could actually see her.
Stone’s final words were, “Robin, I see you.” And then he died. This death hit a lot of people hard. Poor Stone had had such a hard life. And Stone Cates was still a teenager when he died.
Of course, Stone’s love for Robin and hers for him was so pure and beautiful to see. And that made it even more heartbreaking when she lost Stone Cates.
Stone was absolutely horrified that he’d infected Robin with HIV. However, she’s still alive now. Although she doesn’t come back to Port Charles often. But she is a case study on the soap for successfully managing HIV.
We’ve seen Michael Sutton back as Stone Cates a few times. As a ghost in 2010, 2017, and most recently in 2021. He has returned to visit both Robin and Sonny. And Stone’s death remains tragic.
#3 Emily Quartermaine Dead by Text Message Killer on General Hospital
For our number 3 sad death on General Hospital, we skip ahead to 2007, 12 years later, to November of 2007. And that is for the death of Emily Bowen Quartermaine.
You may remember that Amber Tamblyn originated the role when she was a teen. But at the time of her death, it was Natalia Livingston playing the part of Emily.
Way back in the day, Emily Bowen’s mother died of cancer. She was left an orphan. And she was taken in by Alan and Monica Quartermaine. You may remember this was after Monica’s own breast cancer crisis.
And at one point in time, Emily herself had a life-and-death battle with breast cancer during her time on GH. But it wasn’t breast cancer that took her life. It was something much more violent and terrible.
Of course, you’ll recall that Leslie Charleson plays Monica and Stuart Damon played Alan on GH. And Emily was part of the teen scene when she first came on with Lucky Spencer, Elizabeth Webber, and Nikolas Cassadine.
That was when she was played by Tamblyn on General Hospital. Then when Natalia Livingston was recast in the role, one of her biggest romances was with Nikolas Cassadine.
Emily & Nikolas Cursed by Helena Cassadine on General Hospital
Back then, Emily and Nikolas were engaged at the time of her brutal murder. After some twists and turns, Emily survived her cancer battle. And she and Nikolas reunited.
He even came back from the brink of death for her twice, surviving a fire and amnesia after a near-fatal car crash. Helena Cassadine hated them being together and cursed their love.
But they thought they had broken the curse by going through this ritual. And we have to say that considering how tragically Emily Quartermaine died. Maybe it was Helena’s curse still lurking around.
Her death came at a terribly young age. At a black and white ball that Nikolas and Emily threw out at Windermere when she told him that she always liked the Bacchanalia Galas.
So, that gala started Halloween night, October 31st, 2007. And it was just a string of scary things that happened. Right before the guests arrived for the ball, Nikolas proposed to Emily on General Hospital.
They had been married once before, but divorced. And they had this roundabout journey to get back to each other. But they were completely smitten and loved each other.
Emily Killed by Serial Slayer the Night she Got Engaged on GH
Nik and Emily were thrilled to announce their reunion and engagement that night. But then mob boss, Anthony Zacchara, turned the ball into a nightmare. And despite everything he did, he was not the scariest guy there.
Because after the dust settled and Nikolas went looking for Emily, he found her dead with a rope wrapped around her neck. She was a victim of the prolific Text Message Killer.
That was Diego Alcazar, if you don’t remember. Diego later confessed that he murdered Emily to hurt Jason Morgan and Sonny Corinthos. Remember she was Jason’s adoptive sister.
But they treated each other like full-blood brother and sister. And Sonny had fallen for Emily. Although things didn’t work out for them because he didn’t want her around him.
Because she was with him when he was initially diagnosed with bipolar. And between that and his mobster life, he decided it was a bad idea. And then, of course, she ended up with her soulmate, Nikolas, at the time of her death.
Emily Quartermaine’s death was definitely a tragedy on GH. However, Natalia Livingston has reprised the role for ghostly visits a couple of times on General Hospital. And so maybe we haven’t seen the last of her.
#4 Tragic Loss of Nathan West Tragic Loss on ABC Daytime
Now our number four death, we’re gonna skip a decade ahead to detective Nathan West, played by the gorgeous Ryan Paevey.
Paevey had a nearly five-year run on the ABC soap from 2013 through his character’s death in early 2018. Nathan West was Maxie Jones’ soulmate and husband.
And Nathan’s the father of her son, James, who had not been born by the time his dad died. When Nathan and Maxie first met each other, it was a lot of fun. Nathan sublet her apartment. And she came back to Port Charles.
That was back in the day when she was involved with skeevy conman, Levi Dunkleman, played by Zachary Garred. And she and Nathan West just did not get along. It was not love at first sight on General Hospital.
As a matter of fact, they kind of despised each other. And you may recall, Nathan West has this bizarre backstory. Because his birth mother was Dr. Liesl Obrecht. And Nathan’s birth father was uber-villain Cesar Faison.
They are played by Kathleen Gati and Anders Hove. Liesl was scared of Faison getting his hands on her son and just being a horrible person. And so she handed Nathan West over to her wicked sister Madeline Reeves to raise.
You may recall Madeline was played by Donna Mills on GH. So, Nathan had found out, a little while before his death, the truth of his paternity and that he was adopted
Nathan’s Twisted Daddy Killed him on General Hospital
So, Nathan was getting to know Liesl as his mother and Britt Westbourne, played by Kelly Thiebaud, as his sister. And of course, Britt is now dead also. So Liesl has lost both of her children at this point.
But, in a horrible twist of fate, a very soapy twist of fate, it was Nathan West’s biological father that took his life. After decades of Liesl Obrecht hiding him from Faison, his awful dad was back in Port Charles and wreaking havoc.
And he shot Nathan in the chest, right in front of Maxie on General Hospital. She cried but dialed 911. And the EMTs came. And they took Nathan to GH. He had emergency surgery. And he woke up a few hours later.
So, Maxie was full of hope. She thought, “Oh, this is great. He has survived this.” She was pregnant with their son, James, at the time. And she felt their baby kick for the first time.
And Nathan West was able to put his hand on her stomach and feel his son. He told Maxie, “I love you, Maxie. Like there’s no tomorrow.” And then he just died. Just suddenly and terribly.
It was heartbreaking and instantaneous. He was a hero of the PCPD. He got a full honors funeral on February 9th, 2018. And Nathan remains someone that is mentioned fairly often because Maxie talks about him.
She always wants James to know about his dad. Liesl has talked about him in light of losing Britt recently. And it was a true tragedy and one that fans would like reversed. But it doesn’t look like he’s coming back from the dead.
#5 Kiki Jerome Targeted by Ryan Chamberlain on GH
Now, we are going to stick to the same year that Nathan West died, 2018, as we talk about our most recent tragic death. And that is the death of Kiki Jerome on General Hospital.
This young woman was brutally murdered the same year that Nathan West died. And she was played by Hayley Erin at the time of her death. But Kristen Alderson originated the role back in 2013.
She had a similar lifespan as Nathan. Kiki was the daughter of Ava Jerome, of course, played by Maura West. And her father was Silas Clay, played by Michael Easton in one of his many roles over the years on the ABC soap.
But Kiki was raised to believe that serial killer Franco was his father, played by Roger Howarth until that character’s death. And so it was all very confusing. And the reveal with Silas only happened after he was stabbed.
So, it was this terrible thing. When Kiki first came on, she had been involved with both Morgan Corinthos and Michael Corinthos. But at the time of her death, she had been seeing Dr. Griffin Munro.
And it was her seeing Griffin that put her at odds with her mother, Ava. Because Ava had been dating Griffin and had fallen for him. But he just couldn’t deal with the worst parts of Ava and broke things off.
Serial Killer Slashed Kiki to Please Her Mom on General Hospital
And he and Kiki initially tried to fight their attraction on General Hospital. But then they didn’t. What was particularly sad and awful about Kiki’s death was first, it was at the hands of serial killer Ryan Chamberlain.
And second, Ryan stabbed her to death thinking he was doing her mother, Ava, a twisted favor. To this day, Ava has this intense pain over her daughter’s death.
But she has a little bit of comfort now that Ryan Chamberlain is also dead. However, when Ava had the chance to shoot him, she wavered.
Fortunately, Mac Scorpio did the job for her, finishing off Ryan Chamberlain once and for all. Kiki Jerome’s death remains one that is mentioned now and then, most recently in context with Esme Prince.
You may remember when Esme Prince and Spencer Cassadine, whom Nicholas Chavez plays, were tormenting Ava, Esme resurrected the memory of Kiki. Esme set Ava’s car on fire at the General Hospital parking garage.
And she left Kiki Jerome’s hospital lanyard near the scene of the crime. The fire was scary enough for Ava. But finding Kiki’s lanyard there just resurrected all her anguish over losing her daughter. And she remains haunted by it.
So, those are our five saddest GH deaths, ranked by the people in our writer’s room. Of course, you probably have some more that are painful to you that hit you hard.
