Michael Morgan Corinthos III
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| Michael Corinthos III | |||||
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| General Hospital | |||||
| Portrayed by | Dylan Cash (2002-2008) | ||||
| First appearance | Onscreen December 29, 1997 | ||||
| Last appearance | May 16, 2008 | ||||
| Cause/reason | Fell into a permanent coma following a gunshot wound to the head | ||||
| Created by | Robert Guza Jr. | ||||
| Profile | |||||
| Gender | Male | ||||
| Date of birth | December 26, 1995 (SORAS) | ||||
| Age | 12 Years old | ||||
| Occupation | Student/Patient | ||||
| Residence | 607 Braidenwood Terrace Port Charles, New York |
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Michael Corinthos III [1] (born Michael Morgan; previously Michael Alan Quartermaine) is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital. The son of Carly Corinthos Jacks and the late A.J. Quartermaine. Michael was adopted by mobster Sonny Corinthos. The character has been played by a variety of baby and child actors since 1997, the most notable of which is Dylan Cash, who has played the character from 2002 until May 2008, when the character was placed into a coma. The character's storylines have often been central to the program since 1997, as the adult characters would battle over custody of Michael.
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[edit] Actors
- Blake and Dylan Hopkins (1997-2001)
- Tiarnan Cunningham (2001-2002)
- Dylan Cash (2002-2008)
[edit] Character history
Michael is conceived when his mother Carly has a one-night stand with AJ Quartermaine while she is involved with Dr. Tony Jones. When she discovers she is pregnant, Carly tries to keep AJ from discovering the truth, going so far as to heft the recovering alcoholic AJ into a laundry cart, dump him in a back alley and sprinkle beer all over him to make him think he was still drinking and needed to check into rehab. Carly persuades her former lover Jason Morgan to claim that he is the father. After Michael's birth, Carly develops post-partum depression and cannot bear to even touch her son, who is born with a heart defect. Jason raises the baby and has him baptized Michael after his good friend, mob boss Michael "Sonny" Corinthos.
Dr. Tony Jones, Carly's husband, abducts baby Michael, thinking Michael is his son. Tony is put on trial for the abduction, and Carly shoots Tony in open court, then being committed to a mental hospital. Jason continues to raise Michael, with help from his girlfriend Robin Scorpio. When Michael is a toddler, Robin tells AJ Quartermaine the truth, devastating Jason and ending their relationship. Carly marries AJ to keep Michael, whom AJ names Michael Alan Quartermaine, but the court gives Jason visitation rights. AJ finds it difficult to connect with his son, who is emotionally attached to Jason. Jason ultimately leaves town, giving up the fight for Michael, when Carly betrays him by sleeping with Sonny.
Sonny and Carly marry and Sonny strong-arms AJ, getting his henchmen to hang AJ from a meat hook until AJ signs away his parental rights. Toddler Michael's name is legally changed to Michael Corinthos III, and Sonny becomes his permanent father. Michael grows up with a mob lifestyle, thinking it normal to have bodyguards. Michael stays emotionally close to Jason, but the one constant in his life is his nanny, Leticia. She is hired by Jason right after Michael's birth and takes care of him until she is murdered in 2007.
Sonny and Carly repeatedly fight over custody of Michael and his younger brother Morgan during their on-again, off-again marriage. In 2005, Michael is abducted by his biological father AJ, who is an associate of mobster Faith Rosco and thereby arranges for the kidnapping of all of Sonny's children. While the two younger children, Kristina Davis and Morgan Corinthos, are recovered, Michael is presumed dead. AJ intends to take his son to another country and live there under assumed names. He is initially helped by his father, Dr. Alan Quartermaine, but when Alan observes AJ's violent nature, he turns AJ in to the authorities. Jason confronts AJ, and in the resulting fight, AJ's back is broken. In the hospital, AJ is murdered. For a time 8-year-old Michael is suspected of killing his biological father, but the real culprit turns out to be Dr. Asher Thomas, whom AJ had been blackmailing.
After the abduction, Michael is treated by Dr. Thomas for a time and is confused and alienated from his family. He eventually regains his equilibrium, but then has to adjust again when his mother marries Jasper Jacks.
In 2007, Michael's longtime nanny, Leticia, is murdered in their home. Michael asks his adoptive father Sonny to seek revenge.[2]
Soon after Leticia's death, Michael's aunt Emily Quartermaine is also murdered, and he again wants his father to seek revenge. His parents and guardians try to tell him that revenge isn't the correct path, but Michael decides to take matters into his own hands, so as to protect his mother and younger brother from harm. He repeatedly tries to steal a gun from Sonny's office, but is caught by Jason, who tries to warn him about the damage that guns can cause. Michael then decides to buy a gun in a back alley, dealing with two teenage thugs. Michael raises money by asking for donations, saying he is raising money for school. He also steals money from his mother's purse to buy bullets. His grandfather, Mike Corbin, catches him buying the bullets and tells him to throw them into the harbor. Michael throws them away, but palms one remaining bullet which he keeps.
When Sonny learns from his father about the bullets, Sonny tells Michael that if he heard or saw that he was anywhere near a gun, there would be hell to pay: "You had better turn around and run. And keep running!". Michael tries to hide the gun in his room, but has too many close calls with his brother and parents almost finding it. He then decides to try and hide the gun in a back alley, but while trying to move a piece of wood, the gun falls out of his hand, hits the ground, and goes off, accidentally shooting Sonny's girlfriend Kate Howard.
In fear, Michael runs away, hiding out on a cargo ship, and then in a forest where he stays in the home of a hermit named Peg. She eventually persuades him to call his parents, and Michael returns to Port Charles. He is terrified of his father's wrath, but agrees to meet his mother in Alcazar's warehouse. He confesses to her about the shooting, but as they are leaving, the warehouse explodes, from an unrelated explosive. Michael is buried in the wreckage but then rescued by Johnny Zaccara, another son of a different mob boss. Carly, who is pregnant, is found in the water by Ric Lansing. She is suffering from hypothermia, and is revived, but then suffers a miscarriage. Michael blames himself for the loss of the baby.
Sonny reconciles with Michael, and decides to change his own violent life so that Michael will no longer try to emulate him. Sonny invites Michael and his girlfriend Kate to the docks to see a "legal" shipment of coffee arrive, with no mob guards present. A hitman hired by the Zaccaras, Ian Devlin, tries to shoot Sonny, but the bullet ricochets and hits Michael in the head. The doctors save his life, but Michael falls into a coma, and all of the doctors and all of Michael's relatives come to the realization that the coma is permanent. The only person who still believes that Michael might recover is his mother Carly, who fiercely defies everyone else's negativity. Jason, Spinelli, and Maxie go after Ian Devlin. Ian holds Maxie at gunpoint and is then killed by Jason. On May 16, 2008, Michael is moved to a permanent after care facility in Manhattan, where Sonny, Carly, and Jason give him tearful goodbyes.
Sonny has since signed away his rights to Michael and Morgan if Jason would take over the mob. Mac Scorpio has since closed the case on Michael saying that what ever motive Ian Devlin had died with him. Claudia has since told Nikolas Cassadine that she was the one who hired Devlin. Nikolas is now using this as leverage. Carly tries to move on with her life and wants her and Jax to have another child.
