General Hospital’s Marco Rios took his last breath on the March 25th episode and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The character had only been a part of the Port Charles canvas for under a year, but during that time, he and portrayer Adrian Anchondo endeared themselves to the audience.
General Hospital star says goodbye
Anchondo told TV Insider that he began to get an inkling that Marco might not be long for the soap world last summer when there were some online rumblings. Still, he gave it his all in the months that followed, but was proud of the way his character went out — a hero in every sense of the word.
“When I got the script, I was like, This is really powerful. This makes sense. This is a beautiful way to end Marco,'” Anchondo said. “He got to go out a hero. He saved Britt and Lucas, so it was nice to go out with a bang.”
In the story, Lucas (Van Hansis) convinced Marco to steal Britt Westbourne’s (Kelly Thiebaud) Huntington’s Disease meds so Jason could have someone reverse-engineer them and free her from Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes) and Marco’s dad, Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota). Marco did just that, but when Pascal (Marc Forget) noticed that two vials were missing and informed Cullum, the crooked WSB director entered Alexis’s office, where Marco was quietly working and stabbed him multiple times.
Anchondo is grateful for Marco and GH
Despite the best efforts of Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) and Isaiah (Sawandi Wilson), Marco succumbed to his wounds, which led to more emotional scenes as Lucas and Sidwell cried over Marco’s body.
“Luckily, I didn’t have a lot of lines because I was just getting operated on, but it was definitely hard,” the actor explained. “Van [Hansis, Lucas Jones] had a monologue over my body. Carlo [Rota, Jenz Sidwell] had a monologue over my body, and I had to pretend like I couldn’t breathe because I’m dead. But the tears were flowing during those scenes, and it was just so sad.”
Despite the dramatic way his time in Port Charles ended, Anchondo is grateful for the opportunity that General Hospital gave him over the last year. He also had a wish for his character that never came true.
“The biggest surprise and the most joy I got was working with Kelly [Thiebaud],” he said. “Her character is just so fun and has so many different layers, and she just lights up the set whenever she’s there. I was glad that I got to have conflict with her, but then also helped save her life. I really would have loved for Marco and Britt to be friends at some point.”
Alas, Britt will always be thankful that Marco gave her life for her, but how will it affect her friendship with Lucas going forward? Time will tell…
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Edited by Hope Campbell