‘General Hospital’ legend Jane Elliot celebrates character Tracy Quartermaine, 60 years in television

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES — In the world of daytime dramas, actress Jane Elliot is a legend.

She’s appeared on nine different soap operas over the course of 60 years, but is best known for her Emmy-winning role of Tracy Quartermaine on “General Hospital.”

“When I would fantasize about what I would be when I grow up, it would be an ice skater or a nurse. But I knew I was an actor,” Elliot said.

Elliot knew, come hell or high water, acting would become her profession. In her earlier years, she did plenty of primetime, including “Kojak.” Before that, she played a nun alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Elvis Presley in “Change of Habit.” At the time, she really wasn’t an Elvis fan.

“He ended up being everything I never imagined he was,” said Elliot. “He was intelligent, kind, honorable, funny, professional.”

Elliot started on soaps four years earlier. In 1965, she was in “A Flame in the Wind”… which was live! She was later guided to “Guiding Light,” where she played a less-than-honorable character.

On “All My Children,” she would seduce, then marry an older man. But, Elliot’s time on “General Hospital” began in 1978.

“It’s the easiest kind of role to play, though. There’s no crying. There’s no heartbreak,” said Elliot. “There’s no — you come in, you’re snarky and mean, you take your wardrobe off, and you go home, and you don’t take it home with you.”

The character of Tracy Quartermaine would come and go over the years, but Jane always returned, even playing the same role for a while on “The City.”

“I prefer to do what I do because it demands the ability to be comfortable not being liked, and a lot of people are not comfortable with that. I don’t care. I don’t care what you think of me!” laughed Elliot.

Wally Kurth plays her son on “General Hospital.” On “Days of Our Lives,” they were lovers.

“So he comes here, and my first scenes were in a restaurant, and I find myself rolling my shoulders and batting my eyes at him, and I’m going, ‘No! No! No! I’m your mother this time! I’m your mother,'” she said.

Now, she is the matriarch on “General Hospital,” with the other members of her TV family having passed.

“I’m the last person standing,” said Elliot. “I represent what is left of the arch family that started. And I have to fill all those slots now.”