Sonny Corinthos
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| Sonny Corinthos | |||||||||||||||
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 Maurice Benard as Sonny Corinthos |
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| General Hospital | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Maurice Benard (1993 to present) | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance | August 13, 1993 | ||||||||||||||
| Created by | Claire Labine | ||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Coffee Importer Former Mob Boss (1993 to 2008) |
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| Residence | 120 Shoreline Road Port Charles, New York |
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Michael "Sonny" Corinthos Jr. is a fictional character on the popular ABC soap opera General Hospital. Maurice Benard has played the role, that of a manic depressive Mafia boss living in Port Charles, since the character's storyline originated in August 1993. He won a Daytime Emmy for the role in 2003. He left the mob organization in May 2008.
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[edit] Character background
Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, Jr. was born in blue-collar Bensonhurst, New York, in Brooklyn. Sonny's biological father, Michael Corinthos, Sr. is of Irish and Greek descent. However, due to his gambling problems, he felt that Sonny would be better off not knowing him. He divorced Adela and left her and his young son and changed his name to Mike Corbin. Sonny's mother, Adela Corinthos is of Cuban heritage, and Sonny occasionally speaks Spanish on the show. Sonny and his mother had been abused by his stepfather, Deke. It is also eventually revealed that Mike Sr. had a daughter, Courtney Matthews, with his ex-girlfriend Janine, and that Sonny's mother Adela had another son, Ric Lansing, with Trevor Lansing. After Adela fell down a flight of stairs (allegedly caused by Sonny. though he denied it), her relationship with Trevor fell apart as Adela refused to abandon her son in favor of staying with Trevor, ultimately leading to Adela abandoning her newborn child Ric to his father to raise.
Sonny first appeared on the show as a strip club owner and low-level mobster, that provided teenage stripper Karen Wexler with drugs and fueling her self-loathing regarding her childhood molestation at the hands of her father in order to keep Karen working for him. Originally conceived as a short-term foil in the romance of the front burner couple Karen Wexler and Jagger Cates, the character became popular with writers and fans, quickly going from a villainous foil to one of the main characters in the series, with actor Maurice Benard moved to contract status.
Originally conceived as a villain, Sonny's character was softened in in 1993, when he took in troubled teenager, Stone Cates, who became a good friend. When Stone died of AIDS in 1995, Sonny was devastated, and named his second son "Morgan Stone" after both Stone Cates and Jason Morgan. The rings which Sonny wears belonged to Stone and were given to him by Stone's girlfriend Robin Scorpio.
Sonny's estranged father Mike had a gambling problem, and Sonny often had to bail him out of financial trouble. Sonny is also a devoted Roman Catholic and his religious faith is emphasized by the soap opera as a means to contrasting against his more ruthless mobster day job. Because of his criminal career, members of his family are shadowed by bodyguards, live in homes with bulletproof windows and guards at the door, and travel in cars with bulletproof glass. His children have witnessed car bomb explosions and have been sent to Sonny's private island for safekeeping, causing them to miss school. All three of Sonny's children were kidnapped in 2005 by mobster Faith Rosco, who had been paid to do so by Michael's biological father, A.J. Quartermaine.
Sonny is bipolar, which combined with his stressful career in organized crime, has caused Sonny to routinely break out in acts of senseless violence. The most infamous example of Sonny's violent side was when Sonny, during one of his "manic" moods, shot his wife Carly in the skull while she was in the process of giving birth to his son. Sonny ultimately was forgiven by Carly (who along with her child survived Sonny's attempt on their lives), leading to him seeking help for his mental illness, going so far as to stop drinking and seeing a therapist on a regular basis.
[edit] Sonny Corinthos and Brenda Barrett
During the 1990s, General Hospital paired Sonny with Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) in a supercouple pairing, which proved incredibly popular with viewers. The couple faced numerous complications in their relationship: Sonny's mobster life style, Sonny being forced to marry Lily Rivera, and Brenda's relationship with corporate raider Jasper Jacks (Ingo Rademacher), which became one of the most popular love triangles in General Hospital history. Sonny, worried about Brenda's safety because of his lifestyle, decided to "stand her up" at the altar hoping this would make her hate him and forget him. The loss of Sonny coupled with career setbacks and loss of income caused Brenda to have a nervous breakdown. Brenda was presumed dead in 1998 when her car went into the ocean. She was later discovered to be alive in 2002, having been kidnapped by Luis Alcazar after he rescued her from the ocean. Brenda returned for a brief time and made peace with Sonny.
[edit] Sonny and Carly
More controversial was Sonny's relationship with Carly Corinthos Jacks, with whom Sonny had two sons, Michael Corinthos III and Morgan Stone Corinthos. Originally enemies from the moment the two first met, Carly softened in her hate for Sonny upon finding out that Sonny suffered bi-polar disorder when she caught him while in the throes of a mini-nervous breakdown. They continued to have a contentious relationship because Sonny thought of Carly as not being good enough for his best friend and business partner, Jason Morgan. One night, Carly came upon Jason and Elizabeth Webber in a supposedly compromising position as they slow-danced at Kelly's. In reality, Jason was only attempting to comfort Elizabeth over the then-presumed death of her own beloved, Lucky Spencer, but Carly assumed otherwise. She stormed over to Sonny's penthouse, demanding answers about the questions she had regarding Elizabeth. Sonny fired back with taunts of his own. They began arguing; it escalated and ultimately culminated in the two of them having "hate-sex," which unfortunately for Carly, took place at the very same time Jason was involved in a shoot out. Jason returned to Sonny's penthouse, and had planned to tell Carly that he loved her; but his timing was off - he arrived just in time to see Carly come downstairs from Sonny's bedroom dressed in nothing but his shirt. Broken-hearted, Jason left town soon after. Soon after, Carly discovered she was pregnant. Sonny found out and confronted her, in front of the Quartermaine family where she was living with A.J. Quartermaine under the lie that the child's was A.J.'s. Carly had thought she was tricking A.J. into believing that the child was his, however A.J. believed that the child was Jason's and had been prepared to raise his brother's child as his own.
Carly ended up living in Sonny's penthouse and in spite of themselves, they began to get along and even like and find understanding with one another. They began sharing many tender and funny moments as the pregnancy progressed, even making love one night. Deciding what would be best for the baby to have Sonny's Last name, Sonny planned to Marry Carly Quartermaine. Unfortunately, while Carly was visiting Lila Quartermaine, she and A.J. met at the top of the stairs and got into an argument. Carly accidentally fell down the stairs and lost the baby.
Sonny arranged for Carly to his island home to recover from her miscarriage, at which point their relationship officially turned to love. However, in an ill attempt to help Sonny's father with his debts, Carly became a witness to an exchange between Sonny and his rival mob boss. Carly would be forced to testify against Sonny if they didn't marry. To keep Carly from testifying, Sonny convinced Carly to go through with their planned wedding though Carly was quite open with her suspicions that Sonny only sought to go through with the wedding to ensure her inability to testify due to spousal privilege.
Sadly before their wedding, Sonny was gunned down in front of the PCPD. Carly stayed by her fiance's side until Sonny awoke from a lengthy coma. Sonny attempted to dump Carly, citing the fact that his mob ties would inevitably put her in danger but finally went through with the wedding.
In time, however, the incident and her growing disdain for Sonny's mobster life led to her going behind her husband's back to try and broker a deal with the FBI to get Sonny to turn against his fellow criminals and go into the witness protection program. Sonny would promptly divorce Carly when he found out about the deal she was brokering behind her husband's back for him.
When the European arms-dealer Luis Ramon Alcazar came to town, Sonny, Carly and the couple's mutual friend Jason were forced to fake Sonny's death, leading to Carly being confronted by Brenda Barrett, and Luis Alcazar. After a lengthy struggle between the various parties, Luis was killed by Alexis while Brenda and Sonny reconciled due to Brenda realizing that she could have been the one Sonny shot in the skull had the two been married. Sonny and Carly took solace in the lull that followed as Carly became pregnant again. But when Sonny's new lawyer Ric Lansing began to become obsessed with Sonny, he drugged Carly in order to create doubt towards Sonny being her unborn child's father by making it appear that the two had slept together. Though Ric's scheme was exposed via amniocentesis, Sonny was shocked to learn that Ric was his long-lost maternal half-brother, who blamed Sonny for pushing his mother down the stairs and poisoning their mother's mind so as to make her abandon Ric and his father.
After Luis died, his identical brother Lorenzo Alcazar from Venezuela came to town, and after a number of incidents, Carly and Lorenzo were drawn to each other. Sonny and Carly's marriage went downhill as Sonny spiraled further into a manic-depressed state and culminated when Sonny accidentally shot Carly who was delivering their son, Morgan Stone Corinthos. Sonny, who may have believed that Lorenzo was hurting Carly (as she was screaming in agony) shot at Lorenzo and shot Carly in the head while she gave birth to their son. Carly would survive, but Sonny would soon divorce Carly in favor of Sam McCall and refuse Carly any visitation with her children. Lorenzo was at Carly side's as she fought for her children as Sonny threatened to kill her if she tried to take them away from him. But when they were fighting for custody of the boys Alcazar caused an accident in the court room so Carly can get full custody. But then sonny realized that she should have the boys, but Carly told sonny that he can see them when ever he wanted. As time went by Michael wanted his parents back together, so he faked his own kidnapping. But Jason found him after he got hurt, having sonny and Carly worry for his well being, sonny made a deal with god that if he lets Michael be ok that he will forgive Carly and let her and the boys move back in with him at the penthouse. So after Michael came out of Gh, sonny asked Carly to move back in and she agreed. when Carly and the boys where back together under one roof Sam McCall found out she was pregnant with Sonny's child, but sonny being afraid of losing his family had agreed with Jason to lie about who the father really is. so sonny let Carly and the whole town believe that Jason was the father of Sam's baby. But after a while Sam ran away and got tired of telling a lie, so she went to Costa Rica to give the baby up for adoption. sonny did'nt want that so he had Jason follow her. But sonny thought she was in Costa Rica so he went down there to talk to her, but instead Faith Rosco ordered a hit on sonny. sonny got shot and a nun found him and took care of him, and this nun called Carly. so Carly went to go check on him, and he fought with her to take him home. S o she finally gave in. While sonny was at general hospital healing he was telling Carly that all he can think of was her and how she's his home. He told her he wanted things back to the way it use to be and she said she felt the same way. After sonny and Carly attended Lila's funeral he realized that life is to short, and that he does'nt want to lose or lie to her anymore. So when he got her home he tell's Carly the truth about everything and she freaks out cause she did'nt expect him and Jason to lie her for so long. Carly forgives Sonny and Jason and then they reconcile, but Carly is still keeping a secret of her own. During the hotel fire Alexis and Carly were stuck in an elevator and thought they were gonna die so Alexis told Carly that Sonny is Kristina's father and not Ned. Carly agreed to keep it a secret and she continued to even after her and Sonny got back together.
They are now divorced but frends. Sonny and Carly still love eachother very much and there is a chance that they will reunite in the future. Their couple name is Carson (Carly and Sonny).
[edit] Michael's Shooting
In April of 2008, Sonny wanted to prove to his son that his business was a legitimate business and wanted to spend a little time with him. Kate picked Michael up from his house and drove him to the piers to watch a coffee shipment come in. The three were having a good time until Sonny notice the glint of a gun up in the rafters. But, he didn't push Michael out of the way. He pushed Kate.
Michael was shot in the head and slipped into a coma. Carly and Sonny were told that Michael was in a permanent vegitative state. Carly is still in denial. She blames Sonny and wants him out of Michael and Morgan's lives.
Filled with guilt, Sonny stops by the hospital every day to see Michael. Jax calls in specialists in Michael's condition and they tell him the same thing Robin and Patrick told them. Michael will stay in the coma. Jax says that it will be easier to send Michael to a special facility. Carly refuses and starts setting up shop at home where she can care for Michael.
On May 2nd, Sonny stops by the hospital and he and Carly sit together with Michael and talk about things that could have been and probably never will be. Carly flees the room in tears. Sonny goes after her and they hug and cry together.
It is unknown when Michael will come out of his coma and what age he will be. (Most likely he will be SORASed to 16-18 years old, and be played by a different actor.)
Due to the grief Carly and Sonny have felt after finally placing Michael in a facility, they kiss and then have sex on May 19th.
Sonny signed the papers that makes him lose his paternally rights to both Michael and Morgan. Sonny also signed his mob business over to Jason.
[edit] Sonny and Connie/Kate
Sonny and Connie were neighbors in their hometown Bensonhurst. They started dating in high school. They planned to run away together, but the night that they were supposed to go, Connie left Sonny. She didn't want to go because she wanted to live her own life in New York City. Sonny left and joined the mob. Connie changed her name to Kate Howard and went to Princeton University. She became editor and chief of the very popular fashion magazine called Couture.
Kate came to Port Charles to find a house "in the country". She walked into Sonny's office demanding to use his phone. At first, he didn't recognize her, but she recognized him instantly. She did not tell him they knew each other, she lied about her past to him when he asked. Finally he figured out who she was. Kate ended up moving in next door to Sonny, and despite getting on each others nerves, they slowly started to fall for each other again.
Kate ended up saving Morgan's life while he was drowning in her pond. In the process, she was bitten by a snake and Sonny rushed her to the hospital.
Later on, Kate was arrested for side swiping a cop's car and fleeing the scene. Sonny's lawyer, Diane was able to get her out on bail in Sonny's custody. Kate took the fender bender offense as a joke, deciding to go to Paris for a fashion show. Diane was able to get her community service instead of time in jail and as Sonny and Kate celebrated with a kiss, Ric walked in and told Kate that he was going to bring up the charges against her once again and make her pay by spending time in jail. Kate was then forced to terminate her relationship with Sonny.
Kate and Sonny talked, and decided to keep their friendship alive. They both wanted something more, but her ex-lover Trevor Lansing (his mother's ex lover) came to town and brought a mob war with him. Trevor had the hit and run charges against Kate dropped and delivered an ultimatum... she had to choose between Trevor or Sonny. She chose Sonny.
Another issue in the couple's relationship is Sonny's ex-wife Carly who does not approve of Kate and is jealous of her. Her and Kate do not get along and are constantly getting into arguments. Carly feels Kate is not "good enough" for Sonny.
At the black and white ball in November 2007, Kate and Sonny admitted that they loved each other very much. Sonny even took a bullet from Anthony Zacchara to save Kate's life.
In February 2008, Sonny found Kate after his son shot her by accident.After going to the hospital, Kate recovered from a coma and was diagnosed with pericarditis and a shorter life. Sonny then found out that Michael may have [and did] shot Kate and ran away. Michael returned to Port Charles before a bomb went off in Alcazar's piers.
[edit] The Proposal and Claudia
In 2008, Sonny took Kate back to Bensonherst to where the first met. They went to dinner and the movies where they went on a date when they were teenagers. At the restaurant Kate and Sonny put quarters into a "psychic machine" and Sonny puts the card that came out into his pocket. After dinner Sonny and Kate go outside and he proposes to her. She tries to skirt around answering but Sonny firmly tells her if she's not going to say yes then don't bother saying no. Kate runs off and Sonny is left standing there hurt and pulls the card out of it which reads "You will stand alone." He then proceeds to buy the restaurant and movie theater him and Kate went to and burns them down. He goes missing for a bit and when Kate finds him again he is not so quick to forgive her for leaving him twice. He is so hurt that he inadvertently ends up sleeping with Claudia Zacchara, the enemy. [2]
[edit] Others
[edit] Sonny and Alexis
Sonny has a daughter, Kristina Davis, with his former attorney, Alexis Davis. Alexis kept the paternity of her daughter secret for years to protect her from Sonny. The night before they had both said “ Alexis: I never said I was "OK" with my feelings, Kristina. I never said I was "comfortable" with my feelings. I said I didn't want to share them with you or Ned or Jax or anyone else. Shouldn't that be my choice? Shouldn't that be my prerogative? Is that so hard for all of you to understand? You know what I think? I think that --- that you don't care at all about my relationship with Sonny. In fact, I don't think you give a damn about my feelings at all. I think you're all so damn mad at me because I'm in love with a man you can't stand! ”
Alexis continued to try to hide her true feelings from Sonny - and everyone else - as they searched for Courtney. When they finally did locate Sonny's sister, they discovered she was now married to A.J. who then made his offer of an exchange of Courtney for Michael, to Sonny. Sonny, who was worried about his sister's future decided to have A.J. killed. But, he canceled the order at the behest of Alexis. This decision made Sonny realize he really care for Alexis:
“ Sonny: You know what you are to me now? Someone who matters, someone I need too much to push away. What am I to you? I mean, what are we to each other? You're like a dance, Alexis, and I'm not talking about drunk on rum in Puerto Rico. You -- you -- you like to dance around me, and that's fine because I -- I like to dance with you, too. But not tonight. You forced me to choose, and I -- I chose you. I wonder, if the positions were reversed, would you choose me? ”
That night, Sonny and Alexis made love, which, unbeknownst to them, was witnessed by Carly. The next morning, they learned that Carly had disappeared and had possibly been in a car accident after seeing them in bed. Sonny and Alexis were both distraught over this and later when Carly turned up alive and well, Alexis told Sonny he should go back to his wife, which he did.
She was forced to tell Sonny the truth when Kristina developed leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. As Alexis Davis was battling lung cancer, asked Sonny to let Ric raise Kristina in the event of her death. In order to get Alexis to consider chemotherapy as treatment for her cancer, Sonny threatened to gain custody of his daughter. Since Alexis' separation from Ric Lansing, Sonny and Alexis have rekindled their friendship. His lawyer, Diane, is working on Alexis' custody case with Ric and has provided a strong shoulder for her to lean on as she is dealing with the effects of chemotherapy and battling with lung cancer.
[edit] Sonny and Sam
Sonny also had a stillborn daughter with Samantha "Sam" McCall. Sam later turned out to be the daughter Alexis gave up for adoption as a teenager. Sonny was disturbed when he learned he had slept with (and impregnated) a mother and daughter. Sonny cried in Jason's arms when the baby was a stillborn in 2004. He allowed the baby's stem cells to save her sister/aunt, Kristina, when she was dying. Sam once told Jason, while she was pregnant, she would like to name her daughter Lila, after Jason's grandmother who had died shortly beforehand. Their relationship has become strainned after Sonny and Carly learned that Sam watched Jason's son Jake kidnapped and did nothing about it.
[edit] Sonny and Emily
Sonny was involved with Emily Bowen-Quartermaine, the adoptive sister of his right hand man, Jason Morgan. Emily persuaded him to get treatment for his bipolar disorder. Jason turned on Sonny and slowly took over Sonny's business as a way to break up them up. Sonny ended the relationship out of fear that his lifestyle would hurt Emily. Sonny's half-brother, Ric Lansing, hoped to use Sonny's bipolar disorder to gain advantage over Sonny, but his plot was foiled. As a result, Ric schemed with Lorenzo Alcazar to kill Sonny and his right-hand man Jason Morgan.
Sonny was devastated when Emily died.
[edit] References to popular culture and criticisms
The name of Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, as well as his occupation, is a reference to The Godfather's characters of Michael Corleone and Santino "Sonny" Corleone. These characters have a sister named Connie Corleone, which is allusive to Kate Howard's real name, Connie Falconeri.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ During a christmas episode in 2000, Sonny was shot by Police and was in the hospital fighting for his life. He saw Lily and Lily introduced an 8 year old boy and an infant to Sonny saying that they are his kids.
- ^ ABC Soaps in Depth February 11, 2008
- ^ Media Village: Savoring Soaps by Marlena De Lacroix, May 17, 2007.
