High There
After appearing as Victoria the White Cat in the original London production of Cats and starring opposite John Travolta in the Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive, Finola Hughes took her career in a whole new direction.
Now You See Her, Now You Don’t: Finola Hughes’ Wild Ride as General Hospital’s Devane Sisters [PHOTOS]
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Image Credit: Paramount/Courtesy of the Everett Collection -
Lather Up
Image Credit: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection In 1985, the London-born actress accepted her first daytime role — and it was a doozy. General Hospital cast her as Anna Devane, the long-lost wife of Robert Scorpio — and a major spoiler in his mega-popular relationship with Holly Sutton.
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‘I Redo’
Image Credit: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection Once Anna and Robert had unpacked the baggage of their yesterdays, General Hospital capitalized on the sparks that flew between Hughes and Tristan Rogers by pointing their characters toward a new lifetime of tomorrows. In the end, however, everyone seemed to realize that the Scorpios were probably better off as the best of exes and sparring partners.
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‘May I Have This Dance?’
Image Credit: Bob D’Amico/ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection Not only did Hughes have mad chemistry with Tristan Rogers as Robert, she and Ian Buchanan turned Anna and Duke Lavery into one of the greatest supercouples in General Hospital history.
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In Full Bloom
Image Credit: Touchstone Television/Courtesy of the Everett Collection By 1992, Hughes, Daytime Emmy in hand, was ready to try her luck in primetime. And her luck, it turned out, was fantastic. She headlined the short-lived Jack’s Place with Hal Linden and became Mayim Bialik’s stepmother on Blossom.
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In the Thick of Things
Image Credit: Aaron Spelling Productions/Courtesy of the Everett Collection After starring on Aaron Spelling’s too-brief Pacific Palisades with Michelle Stafford (Phyllis, The Young and the Restless), Hughes began recurring on Charmed as the ill-fated mother of the series’ sibling sorceresses.
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Twisted Sister
Image Credit: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection In 1999, Hughes relocated to Pine Valley to play Anna’s twin, Alex, on All My Children. Eventually, the character was sent packing — and she wasn’t even a villain yet! — and her portrayer reprised her role of Anna.
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The Odd Couple
Image Credit: Paul Skipper/JPI Following Hughes’ 2012 return to General Hospital, Anna was paired with a surprising partner, Anthony Geary’s roguish Luke Spencer. Mind you, the biggest shock wasn’t that they were hooked up but that it worked so well.
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To Die For
Image Credit: Sean Smith/JPI It seemed as if no sooner was Duke resurrected — and, as you’d hope, reunited with Anna — than he was revealed to be the nefarious Cesar Faison in a crazy elaborate mask. Then, almost as fast as the real Duke turned up, he was gunned down!
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Death Becomes Her
Image Credit: ABC Did we mention that, at turns, Anna and daughter Robin both believed that the other had passed away? ’Cause they did. On and off, “grave matters” were kinda their thing.
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Playing Doctor
Image Credit: Chris D/JPI Recruiting handsome M.D. Hamilton Finn to help her on a case yielded a most unexpected result for Anna: The flirtation that they started off faking soon became real… as did the deep love that they felt for one another.
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Mind Games
Image Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI During a particularly confusing stretch of storyline in which memories were exchanged like glances, Anna was led to believe that she’d gotten it on with Faison as part of a WSB mission and had wound up bearing his child. (Spoiler alert: She hadn’t.)
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No Son of Mine
Image Credit: ABC Once Anna learned not only that the nefarious Peter August wasn’t her son but that he was every bit as evil as dad Faison, she made it her mission to see him brought to justice — which was easier said than done, slippery as he was!
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At Long Last, Love
Image Credit: ABC For ages, the relationship between Anna and Valentin Cassadine was adversarial at best. But once they reached a new understanding of their past, it totally changed the tone of their present, resulting in a future that seemed far more romantic than either of them could have imagined.
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Parting Is Such Bittersweet Sorrow
Image Credit: ABC As much as Anna had wanted to stop Peter, she’d also hoped against hope that there was some good in him. So when he was finally introduced to his maker in 2022, she was the only person who could bring herself to shed a tear (other than the happy kind).
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What a Tangled Web They Weave
Image Credit: ABC While “Vanna” should have been able to revel in their relationship, they couldn’t, thanks to his nefarious father, Victor, Anna’s supposed “murder” of Lucy Coe and a complicated plot involving Deputy Mayor Eileen Ashby, Robert, impotence and the Ice Princess.
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The Writing Was On the Wall
Image Credit: ABC screenshot As Anna became more and more suspicious that Valentin was affiliated with the nefarious Pikeman, she was targeted by a stalker. When at last she caught her tormentor in the act and opened fire, it turned out that… oh dear. It was Valentin’s disturbed daughter, Charlotte. The mini-Helena survived, but “Vanna”? Not so much.
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Playing Cops and Robbers
Image Credit: ABC screenshot Once reinstated as police commissioner, Anna was forced to address the blind spot that she’d long had where Mr. Popularity Sonny Corinthos’ criminal activities were concerned. It would take more than the testimony of his flunky Dex Heller to put him away, but she was determined to see the godfather behind bars nonetheless.
