Anthony Geary, General Hospital Actor, Dead

The General Hospital community is in mourning.

Anthony Geary, who played Luke Spencer on the iconic soap opera on-and-off for nearly 40 years, died in the Netherlands on Dec. 14, three days after a scheduled surgery, his husband Claudio Gama confirmed. He was 78.

“It was a shock for me and our families and our friends,” he told TV Insider in a statement Dec. 15. “For more than 30 years, Tony has been my friend, my companion, my husband.”

The actor had most recently appeared in a short clip shared by Claudio, 54, where he watched former costar Genie Francis on Maurice Benard‘s State of Mind podcast.

“It really made Tony very happy,” he captioned the clip on Instagram Nov. 17. “He told me, ‘Those are two lovely and talented people, great friends, and I miss them.’”

Anthony filmed his last bit of acting work in the form of a scene with General Hospital‘s Anders Hove for an upcoming project filmed the day before his operation, TV Insider reported.