General Hospital's Emma Samms marks a major milestone

Emma Samms gave us quite a surprise as General Hospital's Holly Sutton last year when Holly revealed that Sasha was her daughter and ex-husband Robert Scorpio was Sasha's dad. It was a birthday of sorts for the new Scorpio trio, and now Samms is celebrating her own birthday.

Happy Birthday, Emma Samms

Robert and Holly walked off into the sunset last year | Image: ABC

Samms was born on August 28, 1960, in London, England, as Emma Elizabeth Wylie Samuelson, but adopted the stage name Emma Samms when she began her career. She was just 22 years old when she landed the role of conwoman Holly Sutton on General Hospital. Samms was cast as a new love interest for Tony Geary's Luke, but Holly ended up falling for Robert (the late Tristan Rogers), and a supercouple was born.

Samms left GH in 1985 to play a recast Fallon Carrington Colby on the Dynasty spin-off, The Colbys, which lasted two seasons. In 1987, Samms brought Fallon back to the mothership when she debuted on Dynasty and remained with the show until it left the airwaves in 1989.

After a role in the John Candy comedy Delirious, Samms returned to General Hospital in 1992 and has appeared off and on as Holly ever since. Samms makes her home in England, where she is married to Simon McCoy. She is also the mother of two grown children and has been an advocate for Long COVID patients, after contracting the virus when the pandemic began in 2020.

Will Holly ever return to General Hospital?

Sasha is now living with Holly off-screen | Image: ABC

While Samms left GH and Holly behind last fall, the door appears wide open for her return one day. We know that Sasha (Sofia Mattsson) is now living with Holly and Robert in France, but we didn't see Holly when Jason (Steve Burton) delivered Sasha and baby Daisy to their new home in July.

When Samms makes her GH appearances, she flies in from the UK and is grateful that the show makes life easy for her when she works, due to the exhaustion she feels from Long COVID.

"If it wasn’t for the fact that people at General Hospital are so understanding of it and accommodating, I would not be able to work like I do," she told Variety in 2024.