General Hospital Fanon Wikia
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Helena Anhalt Cassadine was a fictional character on General Hospital.

Since her debut and even in death, Helena has been the main overarching antagonist of GH, and is known to be the most notorious and wicked female villain in GH and soap history.

The character reappeared 15 years later in 1996 for two or three episodes by actress Dimitra Arliss, and was recast with Constance Towers in 1997, for periods of varying length, nearly every year since.

Helena returned in 2014 after Robin Scorpio-Drake developed a protocol that revived her, but died in 2015 after being poisoned by her grandson Nikolas and later replaced by her male counterpart Landon Dixon who had Helena's instincts in 2016 in violating everybody's constitutional rights under Mayor Janice Lomax's orders in revenge for Helena before her will reading a month later before the civil court trials which Morgan Corinthos was unable to testify resulting in T.J. Ashford testifying on Morgan's behalf after T.J. was revealed to be unharmed along with Ric Lansing and Epiphany Johnson.

It was revealed in October 2009, that the only person Helena ever feared was her illegitimate son Valentin Cassadine. She was terrified of him to the point that she begged her most hated enemy, Luke to help her fend him off.

During her recurring appearances throughout the years; Helena wrecked havoc and terrorized the citizens of Port Charles, even mob boss Sonny Corinthos. She mainly targeted the Spencers' and most of Nikolas' love interests. However, she did have a small feud with the Quartermaine's and Scorpio's. Even after her death at Nikolas' hands, she continues to wreak havoc on PC residents and be behind the schemes of other villains.

Helena was pure evil, with little to no redeeming qualities and was the type of villain who committed countless crimes from blackmail, murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to committing mass murder, attempted murder, switching paternity tests, faking people's deaths and having their loved ones grieve, putting curses on her victims, bringing her relatives back from the dead, brainwashing people and trying to take over the world like her husband once did. Her only redeeming quality seems to be her love to her most adoring yet deranged son Stavros Cassadine and her great-grandson Spencer Cassadine before his presumed death on January 31, 2024.

Casting[]

A fan of the series and wildly and famous popular supercouple Luke Spencer and Laura Webber (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), Taylor called then-Executive Producer Gloria Monty in 1981 and asked for a cameo role. She was cast as Helena, the vengeful widow of villain Mikkos Cassadine, who had died at the climax of that summer's popular "Ice Princess" storyline.

Luke and Laura's November 16, 1981 wedding, featuring Taylor's Helena, was watched by 30 million viewers and remains the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history. Dimitra Arliss appeared briefly as the character in 1996.

Constance Towers was later introduced as Helena on December 19, 1997.

Towers was a regular presence on the series until April 9, 2002; later returning on October 16 and 17, 2003; in December 2003, and from January 16 to October 2004. Towers' Helena reappeared in January 2005, April and May 2005, October and November 2005, and January 2006.

Most recently; Towers returned from April 13 to April 21, 2009; and again on June 4, 2009.

Towers appeared again from November 30 to December 3, 2012 and from March 29 to April 3, 2013 when she was allegedly killed off, although she appeared in Nikolas' flashbacks on April 11, 2013. She also appeared in a video on June 25, 2013 and again as a ghost on September 27, 2013.

Towers returned to the role for an extended arc from September 17, 2014 until February 20, 2015 when Helena was revealed to be alive. She made a one-day return on July 9, 2015.

Towers reprised the role again from November 19 until November 23, 2015 when Helena died of "natural causes" (later revealed to actually have been poisoned by Nikolas), but she made several guest appearances in 2016 after being replaced by Troy Ruptash as Landon Dixon who had the late Helena Cassadine's instincts.

On May 9, 2017; Soap Opera Digest announced that Towers would once again reprise the role of Helena. She returned from May 10 to May 26, 2017 before and after being replaced by her onscreen grandchildren Jack Dylan Grazer as Donald Cassadine and Scarlett Fernandez as Charlotte Cassadine.

On August 13, 2019; it was announced that Towers would return to GH in a flashback for Chief Andrew Cain's (Billy Miller & Steve Burton) and Hank Archer's (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) time in Afghanistan because Hank bore a striking resemblance to Nathan West (Ryan Paevey). She appeared on August 19 and August 21, 2019.

On February 1, 2020; it was revealed that Towers would return to GH sometime during February sweeps. She returned from February 13 to February 14, 2020.

On October 29, 2020; it was revealed that Towers would be making another return to GH as Helena Cassadine. It was also revealed that Towers filmed new scenes from her own home due to the pandemic. Towers returned as the voice of Helena from October 29 to October 30, 2020.

On December 4, 2021; it was revealed that Towers filmed a scene and would be returning soon. Towers appeared on the January 21, 2022 episode where a video of Helena surfaces following Luke's death.

On March 31, 2023; it was revealed on Facebook that Towers will return to GH as Helena for two episodes in May. She returned from May 3 to May 4, 2023.

On May 3, 2023; she returned as a hallucination seen by her only living child, Valentin after he was injected with a pathogen by order of his father Victor using him as a guinea pig for his scheme to cull the population before being since replaced back by James Patrick Stuart, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Scarlett Fernandez before Valentin and Charlotte left town and disappeared a year later on July 17, 2024.

Scarlett Fernandez who currently portrays Charlotte will later portray as younger version of Helena.

Storylines[]

In Summer 1981; Luke, Laura, and Robert Scorpio foil Mikkos Cassadine's plot to freeze the world using a weather machine, and both Mikkos and his brother Tony are killed while their other brother Victor is arrested. Mikkos's widow Helena appears in Port Charles just in time to curse Luke and Laura from the sidelines of their November 16, 1981 wedding. Laura later vanishes without a trace in 1982, leaving a devastated Luke to search for her.

Presumed dead, Laura reappears in 1983 having been kidnapped by the Cassadines in revenge. Told that Luke was dead, Laura had been forced to marry Mikkos and Helena's son Stavros Cassadine who had fallen in love with her. She had returned to Port Charles upon learning that Luke was alive, followed by Stavros; he is ultimately killed, and Luke and Laura are reunited. Discovering that Laura is pregnant with their first child, she and Luke leave town in 1984. Laura's mother Lesley Webber is killed in a car wreck later that year.

Having returned to Port Charles in 1993 with son Lucky, Luke and Laura have a daughter they call Lulu in 1994. In 1996 she is diagnosed with aplastic anemia, and a mysterious young man comes to town hoping to help. Laura is forced to reveal that he is Nikolas Cassadine her son with Stavros born during her captivity. She had been sworn by the Cassadines to leave him behind and keep his existence a secret as a condition of her release and to protect Luke from their wrath. Nikolas saves Lulu's life with a bone marrow transplant, but Luke and Laura's marriage is destroyed by the revelation of this secret. Around this time, Luke visits a bedridden Helena, gloating at her condition but vowing to have his revenge when she is well enough to fully experience him murdering her.

In 2006; Helena placed a nanny in Nikolas' home, Colleen McHenry in hopes of getting Nikolas' son Spencer Cassadine. For a while, everything was going according to plan, until Colleen turned on Helena with her own agenda. She had fallen for Nikolas, and when her feelings weren't returned because Nikolas and Emily had gotten back together, she lost it. Colleen overpowered Helena and held her captive in a tower near Wyndemere Castle for a couple days, then kidnapped baby Spencer on Christmas Eve. Nikolas and Emily searched for them and tracked Colleen to Chicago where she had dyed her hair and gotten a job at a daycare center to save enough and start a new life with "her son". After a few near-misses with Nikolas and Emily, Helena encountered the psycho nanny and took Spencer to St. Petersburg, Russia. Nikolas & Em followed her and got there just in time to stop Helena from baptizing Spencer with a different name. When they tried to get him back, Helena threatened to kill him with a dagger. Emily offered to trade herself for the infant and Helena accepted. Emily was able to get away, as was Helena.

Helena reappears Port Charles at the General Hospital grand re-opening on April 13, 2009 demanding that Nikolas return a painting of Saint Gregoire to her, which he does. Alexis voices her suspicions that Helena has actually orchestrated the recent arrival of Rebecca Shaw, who resembles Nikolas' deceased wife Emily Quartermaine; Nikolas is inclined to agree when he later sees Helena and Rebecca talking. As Helena leaves town on her jet, she tears the paper off the backside of the painting and reveals a birth certificate. She returns again on June 4, 2009 and soon tries to lure Rebecca away from her "current partner" and assist in Helena's plans; Rebecca angrily refuses. After their conversation, Helena disappears.

Helena showed up in Port Charles again on February 10, following her learning of Nikolas' affair with Elizabeth Webber. The following day, Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant. Believing the baby is Nikolas', Helena made immediate threats to Elizabeth about the welfare of the child. Believing she is unstable, Nikolas and Lucky pressure her into committing herself into Shadybrook Sanitarium. In an attempt to keep tabs on Elizabeth, Helena makes a large donation to the institution, getting the upper-hand with the staff. While reminiscing with Luke, she reveals the immediate threat from Valentin has passed. Later, when Elizabeth has a paternity test done, Helena pays the lab tech to let her see the results first. She finds out Lucky is the biological father, but has the results switched to make it look like Nikolas is the father. Helena has her man kidnap Tracy who she thought knew Liz's baby was a Spencer. Luke tries to find Tracy but ends up kidnapped, too. While they are being held hostage, Tracy becomes sick and Luke takes care of her. Later Nikolas and Lucky find Tracy and Luke. Upon returning to Port Charles, Nikolas banishes Helena from Wyndemere for her actions and warns her to stay away from Elizabeth and their son. When the newborn Aiden is later kidnapped, Helena instantly becomes a suspect, and Nikolas openly threatens to kill her if she is the one who did so. Eventually, Aiden is found and is ok.

Over time, Elizabeth suspects that Aiden is Lucky's son, not Nikolas', and confirms this with a third DNA test. After delaying this revelation when Elizabeth's middle child Jake is killed in a hit-and run accident, she finally reveals the truth to Lucky and Nikolas. Nikolas does not take the news well, and decides to leave Aiden with Elizabeth and Lucky, then prepares to leave town. Helena is seen in Port Charles secretly watching Nikolas as he boards his jet. Shortly afterward, she confronts Lucky to taunt him, while insisting the whole time that Aiden was really a Cassadine and that Elizabeth's third DNA test was the tampered one. Lucky demands her to leave.

While searching for a recently missing-in-action Luke in Florida, Lulu and her boyfriend Dante Falconeri learn from a pimp that Luke is somewhere doing business with Helena. The two arrive on Cassadine Island where they confront Helena about Luke's whereabouts. Helena later threatens to cause the Spencer family pain by making them lose Luke. Helena has a plan to get revenge on Spencer's for the deaths of both her sons. Nikolas leaves Port Charles with Spencer in summer 2011. On September 28, 2011 Luke's son Ethan Lovett is wandering in Nikolas' home. While there, he find a photo of Laura and is smacked in the head with vase by Helena. Helena sees someone passing by while she and Ethan talk.

On January 11, 2012; Helena is seen lurking the tunnels of Wyndemere holding a dagger and listening in on Ethan and "Cassandra's" conversation. Helena reappears on February 24, 2012 when she shows her face to Ethan and "Cassandra". She insists it's time to end the charade and tell Ethan the truth. Ethan's shocked when he realizes that Helena and "Cassandra" know each other. It hits him even harder, when "Cassandra" announces under the pressure of Helena that she really is Irina Cassadine, Helena's daughter. Irina tells Ethan that she was forced to play the part and take a place in Helena's never ending vendetta against Laura and the Spencer family. Helena seeks her goal when she informs Ethan that she wanted him to fall for Irina in order to break his heart. Irina tries to convince Ethan that she's fallen in love with him and doesn't want to lose him.

Helena claims that Irina is still playing him and then she lets two of her men bring in a beaten up Luke. Ethan is shocked to learn that Luke was captured by Helena all this time since he thought his father was on one of his adventurous trips. Helena then announces that one of them is going to die. She ends up shooting her daughter, killing her. Ethan is shocked and even calls Helena a bitch. Helena then tells Luke she's going to kill Ethan for payback when Luke killed her son(s). Right when Helena is gonna kill Ethan, Ethan's mother Holly Sutton comes in and says Ethan is really Robert Scorpio's son. Helena they takes hair out of Ethan and Luke and tells them she's going to do a DNA test to see if Holly is lying and leaves them alone. On November 30, Helena Cassadine appears again when Robert Scorpio wants information about Cesar Faison who was revealed to be alive 12 years later. She doesn't give him too much of useful information, and later warns Faison that Robert suspected him.

On January 31, 2014; it was revealed that Helena and Stavros' bodies had been cryogenically preserved by her husband's brother Victor Cassadine who was planning on using Robin Scorpio-Drake to revive them. Victor along with his associates show up at Robin's door demanding that she helps Victor revive Stavros and Helena in exchange for her also reviving Jason Morgan meaning she once again has to leave her family behind indefinitely and be replaced by Brad Cooper and Ava Jerome once more. Robin reluctantly agrees but only agrees to do it to save Jason. Victor removes Robin from Port Charles and takes her to the Crichton-Clark Clinic in Scarsdale, NY.

On November 16, Nikolas claimed Helena was dying. On November 19, Jason broke into Cassadine Island and confronted Helena, demanding answers about what happened to him. On November 20, Helena told Jason that Faison had originally planned on killing Jason, but she decided he could be useful to her, so she convinced Faison not to kill Jason. After Faison has kicked Jason into the harbor, Helena made sure her men were there to snatch him up, and deliver him to Victor. She also implied she was responsible for Jason losing his memory. Sam McCall lost her temper, and started disrespecting Helena, so Helena put a curse on Sam like she had done to Luke and Laura years ago. On November 23, Helena dies before she can give Jason anymore answers, and Nikolas reveals she was buried on Cassadine Island. Three months later, a man named Landon Dixon who had Helena's instincts as her male counterpart with a hostage situation which violated everybody's constitutional rights with the help of Mayor Janice Lomax under her orders in revenge for the late Kyle Sloane and the late Helena Cassadine.

On March 14, 2016; Helena's last will and testament was shown and she promised everyone who attended; Laura, Elizabeth, Nikolas, Sam, Alexis, and Lulu that she intends to immortalize herself through her will one month after the wedding disaster at the All Saints Church occurred by a man named Landon Dixon who had Helena's instincts as her male counterpart with a hostage situation which violated everybody's constitutional rights with the help of Mayor Janice Lomax under her orders leaving her outraged and security at the All Saints Church was later tightened in the aftermath because Mayor Lomax had no skills of being a hostage negotiator which left T.J. Ashford and Epiphany Johnson unharmed because Helena's will reading will remind Sonny Corinthos of his own nightmares.

Despite her death, Helena continues to be a threat to many people in Port Charles. It was revealed on May that during Jake's time on the island, Helena had brainwashed him into unleashing a powerful bio-weapon called The Chimera when the time was right. On May 10, 2017, it was revealed that Valentin illegally sold the Chimera Virus to his step-mother Helena 30 years prior. In addition she had Jason beaten down by henchman Costa in front of his own son, during his time on Cassadine island. She appeared as a hallucination to Jake during the 2017 Nurses Ball to motivate him to activate the Chimera, but her plans were thwarted by his parents, Jason and Elizabeth.

In October, a mysterious man known as "Patient 6" showed up in Port Charles and he looked exactly like Jason used to look before his accident in 2014. Jason and "Patient 6" were proven to be identical twins but it was not known who the real Jason was. On December 1, it was revealed that "Patient 6" is the real Jason, and the man thought to be Jason since 2014 was actually his twin, Andrew Cain which means it was Drew that was at Crichton-Clark and it was Drew who Robin revived, not Jason.

On August 19, 2019; it was revealed that Helena had approached Hank Archer who bore a striking resemblance to Nathan West in Afghanistan in July of 2012 in hopes of acquiring Jason Morgan's identical twin brother, Chief Andrew Cain so she could use him as her "soldier boy." She threatened to kill Hank if anything happened to Drew and had her men and women pay him for capturing him. It was also revealed that Peter August aided and abetted Helena in kidnapping Drew.

On February 13, it's confirmed that her father Valentin isn't Mikkos' son but is actually Helena's son. On February 14, Helena's ghost revealed that Charlotte Cassadine was always meant to be Valentin's daughter with Lulu, as she wanted an heir from Luke's genetic line making Helena as Charlotte's paternal grandmother since Helena's other grandchild Donald is Valentin's son with Elaine Benson.

On October 29, Peter August got a mysterious phone call and was shocked to hear that it was Helena. Peter went to a corner and reminded Helena that she was dead, but Helena claimed that she has eluded death before and asked why this time should be any different. Helena threatened to expose Peter's role in Drew Cain's disappearance of he didn't help her stay dead until she was ready to reveal herself. Helena wanted to meet with Peter and warned him about the consequences if she didn't hear from him. After being interrupted by Maxie Jones and Damian Spinelli, Peter called Helena back and requested a meeting tomorrow night.

On January 21, 2022; at Luke Spencer's memorial service on The Haunted Star, Dante Falconeri finds a giant TV and wonders who was trying to send a message. Anna Devane mentions that she and Felicia Scorpio heard a crash and found a flash drive with a message that says "Play me" (presumably left by Johann after the death of Jason Morgan since their names start with the letter J as Johann is Esme Prince's male counterpart). The flash drive contains a video of Helena gloating about Luke being dead. Laura Collins turns off the video when she has heard enough.

On March 29, 2024; it is revealed that her son Valentin has been operating as the new leader of the Pikeman Security Group after Jack Brennan was arrested and sent to prison prior to her son being the new owner of The Invader a month ago when he bought it from Shawn Butler who is now living in San Francisco.

Crimes Committed[]

  • Cursed Luke and Laura on their wedding day; as revenge for killing Mikkos [Nov 1981]
  • Slapped Lucky Spencer [Apr 27, 1998]
  • Arrested for Katherine's "murder" [1998; actually innocent and the charges were dropped when Katherine revealed she was alive]
  • Tricked everyone into thinking that Stefan Cassadine was Nikolas' father instead of Stavros Cassadine so that she could get her hands on the Cassadine fortune; killed a doctor (who knew the truth) and tried to kill Jax and Alexis in order to keep her secret
  • Pretended to be comatose [1999]
  • Kidnapped Lucky and faked his death [May 1999]
  • Pushed Katherine Bell off the parapet to her death to prevent her from trapping Nikolas into a marriage based on a fake pregnancy [Oct 1999]

Health and Vitals[]

Relationships[]

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