Although the door remains open for a future return to Port Charles, actress Rena Sofer has officially wrapped her two-year return stint on “General Hospital” as her character, Lois Cerullo, shared a goodbye moment with her daughter, Brook Lynn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton) on the Friday, October 24 episode.
According to Soap Opera Digest, which first reported Sofer’s departure from the show, a source told the outlet that Lois’s exit storyline, wherein her character leaves town to head to Seoul, South Korea, after accepting a position of tour manager for Blaze, was built by design to allow the actress to return to Port Charles when the time is right.
First introduced in 1993, Lois had been a much-missed character from the canvas following Sofer’s departure as a contract cast member in 1996 – she returned for a brief stint in 1997.
While the show eventually opted to recast the role with former “As The World Turns” star Lesli Kay (ex-Molly McKinnon) from 2004-2005, Sofer herself didn’t return to the part until 2023. At the time, she had announced plans to move to the East Coast and that her “General Hospital” return would mark one of her final acting jobs in Los Angeles. This summer, that plan came to fruition when she and her husband, Sanford Bookstaver, a director and producer of film and television, moved to New York full-time.
In an October 2023 interview with the Associated Press, Sofer said, “My husband and I are planning a move to the East Coast and, you know, I just thought, when I moved here, one of my first big jobs was ‘General Hospital,’ and it just felt very full circle for one of my last jobs in Los Angeles while I live here to be ‘General Hospital’ and doing this character that I love so much.”
Sofer remarried Bookstaver in May 2024, five years after announcing in an April 2019 Instagram post that the couple had reconciled and were engaged. The pair previously wed in 2003, but after 14 years, they called it quits. The couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Avalon Leone, in 2005. Sofer has another daughter from her previous marriage to “General Hospital” co-star Wally Kurth — Rosabel Rosalind Kurth was born in 1995.
Before returning to “General Hospital,” Sofer spent nine years as Quinn Fuller on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” with her character abruptly leaving in the August 29, 2022 episode of the half-hour soap opera.
Sofer won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Lois Cerullo on “General Hospital.” After leaving the soap, she landed several high-profile roles on such shows as “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “24.”
“I played Lois for just under three years and I still have people walking up to me saying, ‘Lois is my favorite.’ I’m proud of who she is. I’m proud to have played her. I just love Lois,” said Sofer to the Associated Press. “If Lois were a real human being, I would hope she’d want to be my friend.”
This weekend, Sofer will appear in person for the Coffee & Chocolate Festival at the Monroeville Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. She’ll be in attendance signing autographs from 12:00-2:30 p.m. ET and 3:30-7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26.
