Michael “Sonny” Corinthos, Jr. (Maurice Bernard) is a prominent character on the ABC daytime drama, General Hospital. Sonny, a manic depressive mob crime boss who runs a “coffee import/export” business in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York. The character has been an iconic character since August 13, 1993 and has been popularly paired with such characters, Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) and Carly Benson (Sarah Brown, Tamara Braun, Laura Wright).
Creation
Raised in a Italian neighborhood, Bensonhurst Brooklyn, Sonny is of Greek and Italian heritage on his father's side and Cuban descent on his mother's side. Sonny was born on April 21, 1965 to Michael and Adela Corinthos. Adela takes up with her boss, Trevor Lansing after Michael abandons them. When Trevor proposes marriage, Adela is forced to choose between Trevor and Sonny and Sonny accidentally causes Adela to fall from a flight of stairs.
Adela is forced to give up rights to her son when Sonny is seven years old and marries Deke Woods, who is extremely abusive to both Adela and Sonny, even locking Sonny in the closet, which results in Sonny becoming claustrophic. Sonny begins to act out to take Deke's abusive behavior off his mother. Sonny hangs with his friends, Lois Cerullo (Rena Sofer) and her brother, Louie to escape his abusive home life. Raised as a devout Catholic by Adela, Sonny is very religious. He briefly dates Olivia Falconeri (Lisa Lo Cicero) and when that ends, he takes up with her cousin, Connie Falconeri (Megan Ward, Kellie Sullivan). Adela asks Sonny to leave when Sonny and Deke's fights become more violent and she fears for his life at the tender age of sixteen. Homeless for awhile, Sonny visits Adela when Deke isn't around.
Sonny is offered odd jobs by local mob boss, Joe Scully, who takes him after Sonny steals Joe's car. When Sonny finds Adela severely beaten and unconscious by Deke, Joe has Deke killed the following day. Adela passes on when Sonny is only nineteen, and soon after, Sonny makes plans to run off with Connie as soon as she reaches eighteen. After Connie skips town without notice, Sonny ends up working for Joe Scully full-time. Sonny is sent to Atlantic City to run his strip club, The Sea Breeze when Joe's son, Joe, Jr., is a disappointment to him. Sonny begins a friendship with one of the strippers, Theresa, but Joe, Jr. also has eyes for the stripper and in a jealous rage, kills her. Joe Sr. has Joe Jr. sent out of town, leaving Sonny to explain to authorities Theresa's murder to none other than her brother, John McBain (Michael Easton, OLTL).
Casting
General Hospital, Casting director Mark Teschner, had really only considered Maurice Bernard for the role of Sonny Corinthos. During an interview with Wendy Riche, the two clicked instantly. All that had to happen was to get Bernard onscreen. Slated for a six-month role, Bernard was only interested in the role for up to a year. After his All My Children role (Nico Kelly), Bernard initially joined General Hospital to make some money as he was broke and acting was all that he knew. Bernard was also offered the role of Damian Smith and a two-year contract as well as that of Sonny Corinthos, but he chose Sonny Corinthos because he liked the name. Two weeks after starting in the role, Bernard suffered a manic depressive episode and didn't come into work for while. Bernard is thankful for the shows faith in him and not letting him go.
Bernard's character was created during the final weeks of Bill Levinson's tenure as head writer. Claire Labine succeeded him in August 1993. Bernard's role was originally supposed to be six months, but Bernard stayed with GH for four years and left September 24, 1997. After a brief appearance from May 15 to July 8, 1998, Bernard assumed the part of Sonny Corinthos full-time on December 18, 1998.
Characterization
Like Bernard, Sonny suffers from bipolar disorder. Incorporating Bernard's disorder into Sonny's life when Sonny had a breakdown in 2006, and the parallels between Bernard and Corinthos experiences gives Bernard the feeling of a “fourth breakdown.” Bernard has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as a spokesperson for Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance to discuss the disorder.
Michael “Sonny” Corinthos, Jr. as well as his occupation, has been referenced to The Godfather's Michael Corleone and Santino “Sonny” Corleone. Even Connie is referenced to their sister, Connie Coreleone. There are also similarities between Sonny and Tony Soprano from the The Sopranos. Vincent Pastore, who played Big Pussy Bonpensiero, played Maximus Giambetti, the father of Max (Deke Cheetwood) and Milo (Drew Cheetwood) Giambetti.
Sonny can be somewhat unpredictable, often not knowing what he is thinking, feeling, or planning. While Sonny is a man of personable conflict, Sonny keeps that air of calmness at any cost.
Storylines
1990s
Sonny comes to Port Charles in 1993 after the Atlantic City murder. He runs a strip club for Frank Smith and becomes involved with Karen Wexler (Cari Shayne), who he starts supplying with drugs in order to get her to work for him. Sonny begins a relationship with Brenda Barrett (one of GH's popular super-couples) and also befriends Stone Cates (Michael Sutton), Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Frank Smith's long-time employee, Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). Brenda introduces Sonny to Bensonhurst friend, Lois Cerullo, who needs money to fund a record label, L&B Records (Lois's husband (Eddie Maine aka Ned Ashton [Wally Kurth] is their first client). Sonny and Brenda begin a romance when Sonny heads to Puerto Rico to work security L&B, Miguel Moritz (Ricky Martin), who Sonny informs that L&B has a new client under the protection of Frank Smith's organization. Sonny becomes jealous when Miguel starts flirting with Brenda. But after Sonny reveals his abusive childhood at Deke's hands, the two reconcile.
Luke kills Frank in November 1994 to protect Sonny and takes over Frank's organization, his Frank's partner, Hernando Rivera. Rivera has Lily and Miguel as well as Sonny and Brenda. After they return to the US and to safety, Sonny plots his next move pretending to leave the mafia.
Mafia ties cause Sonny and Luke's club to be blown up in 1995, the same night Sonny learns that Luke's driver, Michael Corinthos, Sr. is his real father. Sonny takes in Stone when Stone is diagnosed with AIDS.
When it is discovered that Frank Smith's son, Damian, is sabotaging shipments at Deception for Joe Scully, Sonny is reluctant to take action as Scully saved him from Deke's abuse. When Mike is shot during a confrontation on the docks by Scully, Sonny kills Scully. Scully's men go after Stone, Brenda, and the Spencers for revenge.
Sonny breaks up with Brenda and starts dating Lily after she learns that Brenda was going to secretly record Sonny and his mob business and hand it over to Mac Scorpio (John J. York). Sonny takes his relationship slowly with Lily, with the intent of forgiving Brenda when he learns that her intent was never to turn him in.
When Stone dies in November 1995, his girlfriend, Robin, learns she has contracted HIV. When Sonny is arrested for illegally paying for Stone's hospital bill, Lilly reconciles with her father in order to seek help, but Rivera will only agree if Sonny marries Lily. Sonny and Lily marry in February 2006 and soon after learns that Sonny is still in love with Brenda and agrees to a divorce. Although unable to deny his feelings for Brenda, Sonny refuses to grant Lily a divorce due to complications with Lily's father, taking Lily on a second honeymoon instead. When Sonny and Brenda are trapped in an avalanche at a ski resort during the honeymoon, Sonny and Brenda reconcile, but Lily tells Sonny she is pregnant before Sonny can get a divorce. Brenda agrees to let Sonny go, but not before the two kiss and declare their undying love for each other. Brenda moves on with Jasper “Jax” Jacks (Ingo Rademacher), much to Sonny's chagrin.
During Jax and Brenda's wedding, Lily takes the keys to Sonny's car and is blown up as soon as she starts the car, killing her and the baby; a move masterminded by Lily's father, to kill Sonny. Sonny retaliates by killing Rivera and then searches out Lily and Miguel's son, Juan Santiago (Michael Saucedo). Sonny inherits 30 million dollars upon Lily's death and has it donated to a General Hospital wing in memory of Stone Cates.
Amnesiac Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), who lost his memory due to a drunk driving accident with his brother, AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan), gives control of his ELQ stock to Sonny and becomes apart of the Corinthos-Rivera Organization. Sonny laters recruits Jason as his hitmen as they form a bond and become friends. Sonny becomes involved in business at ELQ, as well as Jax Jacks, who is working with Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Eliot) to take over the company. Sonny goes after Jax when he tries to take over the company through nefarious means, not to mention that he feels Jax doesn't deserve Brenda.
Sonny evens finds Jax's not-so-divorced-wife, Miranda Jameson, as Jax and Brenda attempt to remarry. Sonny and Brenda reconcile when Jax leaves Brenda to try to come to terms with his wife. As Sonny tries to save Brenda, he is drugged. While in the hospital, Sonny tells Brenda he loves her, but Brenda still thinks she can be happy with Jax and rejects Sonny. When Lily's ex-lover arrives in Port Charles and causes problems for Sonny and Brenda, Sonny kills him. Sonny offers to leave the mob and marry Brenda leave town when he senses his lifestyle is too fearful for Brenda, citing that while he loves his life, he loves Brenda more. But upon having a dream where Brenda is blown up in a car bomb, Sonny decides he'd rather see Brenda alive than dead and sends Jason to the alter to tell Brenda, which leaves Brenda suffering a mental breakdown and back into Jax's arms. Sonny leaves Port Charles shortly after leaving Brenda at the altar.
Learning that Brenda has died, Sonny returns to Port Charles to help Robin get Carly Quartermaine (Sarah Brown), AJ's wife, away from Jason. Sonny begins dating Hannah Scott, but feeds her false information and dumps when he finds out she is an undercover FBI agent. After a one-night-stand, Carly finds she is pregnant.
2000s
In order to get AJ to grant Carly a divorce, Sonny digs up dirt on AJ, forcing AJ to grant a divorce as well as give up his rights to his and Carly's son, Michael. Sonny and Carly become close and marry in September 2000. They renew their vows in February 2001, but Sonny soon divorces Carly after she tries to get him to leave the mob and Sonny sleeps with his attorney, Alexis Davis. After Sonny and Carly reconcile and remarry in 2002, AJ retaliates by marrying Sonny's long-lost sister, Courtney Matthews (Alicia Willis) hoping to use Ms. Matthews to get Michael back. Luis Alcazar (Ted King) arrives in Port Charles along with a not-so-dead-Brenda. Luis, who is jealous of Sonny's past with Brenda, almost kills Sonny outside the church where Sonny nearly married Brenda. After Ric Lansing gets Jason and Brenda acquitted of Luis' murder, he reveals himself to be Sonny's half-brother by Adela, who gave him up for adoption. After his wife, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) miscarries their child, Rick blames Sonny (it was Faith Rosco who pushed Elizabeth down a flight of stairs) and kidnaps a pregnant Carly, hoping to give the child to Elizabeth in the Fall of 2003. Rescued by Luis, Alcazar intends to use Carly as leverage against Sonny, but Sonny rescues Carly, accidentally shooting her and causing her to go into a coma. Sonny begins an affair with Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) who turns out pregnant. After Carly recovers from her coma, Sam moves in with Jason so it will look like Jason is the father instead of Sonny. When it appears that both Carly and Sonny have been keeping secrets from each other―she knew Alexis' daughter, Kristina was Sonny's daughter, as Sam's daughter, Lila McCall, is still born in November 2004―whose stem cells are used to save a sickly Kristina. Sonny must have Carly committed after she suffers a severe mental breakdown at the hands of AJ, who seeks Faith's assistance to kidnap and fake Michael's death. When Jason finds out that Sonny has been secretly dating his sister, Emily Quartermaine (Amber Tamblyn, Natalia Livingston), he forces Sonny to choose between his organization and Emily. Sonny chooses Emily, leaving Jason head of the organization and Sonny forced to retire, but Sonny stages a kiss between him and Carly forcing Emily to leave him.
Courtney dies shortly after giving birth to Spencer after an encephalitis outbreak. Sonny becomes jealous when Carly becomes engaged to Jax Jacks, but in January 2007, Alcazar forces Carly to marry him so she can't testify against him. In February 2007, the MetroCourt guests are taken hostage by James Craig, who turns out to be Jax' brother, Jerry Jacks (Sebastian Roche), who, with the help of Franco (James Franco), rigged the hotel to explode. Sonny tells Carly he loves her and the duo make love, but due to Michael's devastation over the death of his grandfather, Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon) in the MetroCourt crisis, she divorces Sonny to marry Jax. By now, Sonny has reconnected with his first love, Connie Falconeri (Kate Howard) with him going by the alias Alan Quartermaine after Alan's death. Ric's father, Trevor shows up in Port Charles with Anthony Zacchara (Bruce Weitz) and his son, Johnny (Brandon Barash). When Diego Alcazar (Ignacio Serrichio) kills several Port Charles residents, including Sonny's nanny, Leticia, Emily and Georgie Jones (Lindze Letherman), as revenge against him and Sonny, Kate says no to Sonny's marriage proposal, fearing for her life, which causes Sonny to sleep with Anthony's daughter, Claudia (Sarah Brown). Sonny's attempts to keep Michael out of his mob life is thwarted when Michael is shot and relapses in a coma. When Carly forces Sonny to sign over his parental rights in order to keep her children safe, Sonny turns over the organization over to Jason. Sonny becomes engaged to Kate, bringing her cousin, Olivia (Lisa Lo Cicero) to Port Charles for their ceremony. But Anthony shoots Kate at their ceremony and has Andrei Karpov framed for the shooting, resulting in Sonny shooting Karpov in November 2008. In December 2008, Sonny marries Claudia in order for him to gain his power back, but Jason tells him that Claudia may have been involved in Michael's shooting.
Sonny and Claudia bond and make love, but fearing Jason may expose her secret, concocts a plan to get pregnant in order to save her marriage to Sonny. Michael comes out of his coma after a successful surgery and moves in with Sonny and Claudia to prevent Carly stress on her high-risk pregnancy. Claudia becomes pregnant, but miscarries when a teenage Kristina runs her off the road. Sonny hires Dominic Pirelli, aka Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) as a bodyguard for his kids and begins to trust him when he saves Sonny from a bullet and Morgan from speeding car. Just before Claudia's birthday party in October 2009, Jason gets proof that Claudia was indeed the one who shot Michael and confronts her with it. Trying to take Carly's newborn daughter, Josslyn, Michael kills Claudia by hitting her on the head with an ax handle. In order to protect Michael from murder, Sonny takes the blame for Claudia's death, but his niece, Molly (Haley Pullos) frames her cousin when she suspects Michael actually did it.
2010s
In January 2010, Sonny learns that Dominic is an undercover cop when he comes to arrests him. After Sonny shoots Dominic, Sonny learns that Dominic is actually his and Olivia's son, Dante Falconeri. Although Dante survives, Dante continues to despise Sonny. Michael wants to confess to Claudia's murder when Sonny faces charges, but Sonny, Carly, and Jason send him to Sonny's island to prevent him from confessing. Hell-bent on putting Sonny away for good, Jax brings in Claire Walsh (Dahlia Salem) to prosecute him. Devastated by Kristina's beating, Sonny attempts to kill Luke's son, Ethan (Nathan Parsons) when she claims he was the one who attacked her, but Dante manages to stop him after a plea from Kristina. Kristina's boyfriend, Keifer Bauer (Christian Alexander), is revealed to be the one who attacked her. In May 2010, Dante is intent to put Michael on the stand just before a verdict is reached in Sonny's trial. Sonny, Carly, and Jason are devastated when Michael reveals that he killed Claudia and is sentenced to five years in Statesville. When Kristina starts acting out and starts dating Johnny as a cover, Sonny has a bomb planted in Johnny's car that nearly kills Kristina. Alexis agree to co-parent in attempt to have Kristina get to know her father better. Johnny then enlists Claire to in an attempt to put Sonny behind bars, but it goes awry when Claire starts dating Sonny. The union is short-lived when Sonny again reconciles with Brenda in December 2010 and announce their engagement at Jerry's shooting at pier 52.
Sonny and Brenda are finally married in February 2011, but is short-lived when Carly reveals that Dante had a child with Brenda back in 2007. But Dante reveals that he only pretended to be the father to keep the child away from the crimelord grandfather, Theo Hoffman and Brenda claiming she miscarried the child. Just as they are about to leave on their honeymoon, Sonny watches in horror as the limo explodes and Brenda's body nowhere to be found. Eventually, Sonny, Jason, and Dante rescue Brenda from Hoffman just as Suzanne Stanwyck arrives with Brenda's son, Lucian, causing problems for the newlyweds. When Sonny forces Brenda to get a DNA test, Suzanne kidnaps Lucian and Carly, Dante, and Sonny rescue him and bring Brenda's real son, Alec back. Despite Brenda's wishes, Sonny refuses to adopt Alec. In June 2011, convinced that Kristina is about to marry Ethan, they rush to the Dominican Republic to stop them, but only find out that Ethan is actually divorcing his current wife. As Carly engage in a heated custody battle, Sonny enlists help as he sends someone to plant drugs in Jax' hotel room. When Brenda learns of Sonny's betrayal, she leaves town with Alec and Jax, prompting Sonny to cause Jax' helicopter to crash as everyone believes Jax' is dead. A devastated Carly sends Morgan to military school in an effort to keep him away from Sonny. After his divorce from Brenda, Sonny reconnects with Kate (Kelly Sullivan), and at a New Year's Eve Party, Michael reveals that Jax is alive and that Carly knew.
Sonny is shot in early 2012 and in retaliation, blames Johnny and shocking everyone that Claudia is actually Johnny's birth mother, not his sister. February 2012, Sonny saves Dante from being shot, believing that Anthony was behind it. Dante arrests Sonny after he is accused of shooting out Anthony's tires, causing the deaths of Cole Thornhart (Van Hughes) and Hope Manning-Thornhart (Caitlyn Buton), the boyfriend and daughter, Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson). Despite maintaining his innocence, Sonny goes on trial and granted bail. Starr's father, Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) shows up in Port Charles with the intention of killing Sonny, but is stopped by Sonny's nemesis, John McBain (Michael Easton), who blames Sonny for his sister, Theresa's death after Robin' s death. After Sonny is acquitted, Michael is able to talk Starr down while she is holding a gun on Sonny. Meanwhile, as Kate disappears during a birthday part for Sonny, as Sonny finds her in bed with Johnny. In attempt to release Starr, Todd blackmails Michael and Sonny into changing their statements. Sonny later learns that it was Kate's alternate personality, Connie, who slept with Johnny in and attempt to ruin their romance. Sonny eventually comes cleans with John McBain about Theresa's murder and supports Kate during her mental illness when she confesses that Joe Scully, Jr. raped her, resulting in her pregnancy.
Kristina returns from Yale in the summer of 2012, angry at both Sonny and Alexis for their act to get her into Yale. Her plans to quit school and act in her own reality series, “Mob Princess,” shocks both Sonny and Alexis, as they meet Kristina's new boyfriend and the shows director, Trey Mitchell (Erik Valdez). As Sonny and Kate plan a wedding in September 2012, Connie is revealed to be in control and married to Johnny. As Sonny fights to get Kate back in control, Connie remains the one in control. Jason is shot and thrown into harbor by Cesar Faison (Anders Hove) and presumed dead after Jason shoots and kills Joe Scully, Jr., just before the return of the Nurses' Ball. Despite being devastated by the loss, he attempts to get closer to Connie. In February 2012, after Sonny and Connie sleep together, Kate comes back, angry at Sonny for sleeping with Connie, forcing Sonny to admit he is in love with both Kate and Connie and begs her to get integrated. Brenda returns just before the Nurses' Ball to see Sonny and announce that she is marrying Jax, who thins she is only doing it as revenge for not reading her letter. Sure that Brenda wants Sonny, Carly finds Brenda in bed with Michael after the Nurses' Ball. After Michael confesses to Sonny about being in bed with Brenda, she admits she only made it look like she slept with Michael as revenge against Carly for ending her engagement. Brenda confirms her love to Sonny and asks her to move to Rome, but he responds that they will have a chance one day and kisses her good bye. When Franco (Roger Howarth) is revealed to be alive, Sonny and Carly order Shawn Butler (Sean Blakemore) to kill him. When Sonny comes to his senses and calls off the hit, Carly goes behind his back and does it herself. Olivia takes the bullet meant for Franco, making Shawn think he missed his target. Later it was revealed that there was another shooter who did it―Ava Jerome (Maura West).
Rejected by Connie and taking care of Olivia through her recovery, Sonny bonds with Olivia. Despite telling Sonny that she can't be with him because of her integration, Connie becomes jealous of Sonny and Olivia's closeness. Connie reveals to Sonny on his birthday, that Morgan (Bryan Craig) has run up a huge gambling debt with bookies. Sonny finds Morgan hiding out with his girlfriend, Kiki Jerome (Kristen Alderson), After Sonny manages to bring Morgan back, Kiki follows with her mother, Ava Jerome. Sonny becomes suspicious that Ava is tied to the Jerome mob family. Olivia amicably steps aside as Connie asks Sonny to take her back, but she is killed shortly after. A distraught Sonny contemplates suicide, but Michael and Morgan are able to talk him out of it. Morgan marries Kiki, but it is short-lived when Morgan blames Sonny for not wanting to lose Kiki to Michael. When Sonny tries to get Morgan away, he begins an affair with Ava. Morgan blows Sonny off as Sonny learns that Ava is Julian Jerome's (William DeVry) sister and targeting his business. In an attempt to get revenge on Sonny, Morgan starts working for Julian and Ava, but eventually quits when he realizes how dangerous mob life really is. Neither Sonny nor Shawn can't rescue his friend Robin from their enemies, who was being held against her will and prevented from seeing her friends and family. Starting anew with Olivia, she convinces Sonny to nix his plot to stop the Jeromes and work things out with Morgan instead. Morgan tries to convince Ava to work for Sonny when she refuses to end the relationship, but manages to send Sonny information from Julian's laptop revealing he has a financial backer funding his organization. After Sonny is arrested for shooting Max covering for Morgan at the warehouse, Sonny meets with Dr. Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati), who is responsible for holding Robin hostage. And Michael decides to live Kiki with the Quartermaines, AJ and Monica.
Sonny and Olivia are proud grandparents when Elizabeth and Dante find out that Britt Westbourne's (Kelly Thiebud) son, Ben is actually Dante and Lulu's son, who they rename Rocco, despite not being able to say good bye to Robin who reluctantly goes off with Nikolas Cassadine's (Tyler Christopher) grandfather, Victor (Thaao Penghlis) to save Helena and Stavros, thinking she is saving Jason Morgan (Billy Miller). Attending the Nurses' Ball after cheating on Olivia with Ava after AJ's funeral. As Ava heads for Puerto Rico, Carly and Franco try to erase the recording of AJ revealing it was Ava who shot and killed Connie, Sonny goes looking for Ava, intent on killing her, but she reveals she is pregnant with his either his child or grandchild. He brings Ava back to Port Charles to watch over her until the baby is born, with the intention of killing her after the baby is born as he learns that Michael is named CEO of ELQ after Tracy and Luke is ousted on Ned Ashton's orders.
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