Heather Webber (General Hospital)

Heather Webber is a fictional character from ABC's original daytime soap opera, General Hospital. The character was first introduced in the summer of 1976. Though played by several actresses, soap veteran Robin Mattson, who stepped into the role in 1980, is most known for her portrayal of Heather.

Mattson received three Soapy Awards as Best Villainess for the role and a nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1983.

Casting

Georganne LaPiere originated the role of Heather Grant on July 29, 1976.^[1] In August 1977, it was reported that After a year with the series, instead of renewing her initial 48 week contract, LaPiere vacated the role of Heather and went on to co-star in a film with her half-sister Cher.^[2][3] She was quickly replaced by Mary O'Brien in September 1977.^[4] O'Brien vacated the role in July 1979 when Heather overdosed on LSD.^[5] O'Brien was offered the chance to reprise the role in 1980 but refused. On October 1, 1980, Robin Mattson, known for her role as Hope Bauer on Guiding Light joined the cast as Heather Webber.^[6][7] Mattson departed from the series indefinitely on September 13, 1983.^[8] Mattson reprised the role for a brief six-month stint which started on June 25, 2004, and concluded on December 3, 2004.^[9] In February 2012, it was announced Mattson would again reprise the role, and made her onscreen return on April 2, 2012.^[10] After some speculation Mattson might be done with the show, she was again seen on-screen in September 2012, making sporadic returns as Heather's various storyline arcs dictated over the next year and a half.^[11] In October 2014, Mattson reprised her role as Heather again, airing into early 2015.^[12] After an absence of over a year, Mattson returned once again the following Spring making periodic appearances through Franco's visits to Heather at her facility.

Storylines

1976–83

The 19-year-old Heather Grant is first introduced in the summer of 1976.^[13] Local nurse, Diana Taylor hires Heather as the nanny of her young daughter, Martha. Desperately wanting the job, Heather gives Diana a forged letter of recommendation. She soon sets her sights on Dr. Monica Webber's husband, Dr. Jeff Webber. After Jeff and Monica have a fight, Heather comforts him and they have sex. When Jeff suddenly disappears, Heather learns she is pregnant.^[14] After Jeff attempts suicide, he is shocked to learn Heather is pregnant. Heather fakes a suicide attempt hoping to win Jeff's affections. However, because Jeff refuses to leave Monica, Heather decides she doesn't want the child. Instead of aborting her child at Jeff's request, she sells the newborn to Diana and her husband, Peter for ten thousand dollars.^[15] In 1977, after giving birth to Steven Lars, Heather takes five hundred dollars from Jeff and goes to New York City in hopes of becoming a famous model. Her landlady, Mrs. Hadley arranges for the Taylors to adopt her son while concealing Heather's identity from the Taylors. However, after Hadley and a lawyer take their cut, Heather is only left with eighteen hundred of the ten thousand dollars. Instead of coming clean, Heather tells Jeff the baby was stillborn. To make up for her loss, Jeff proposes marriage. The two return to Port Charles where Heather gets a job as a nanny to the Taylors' new son, Peter "PJ" Taylor, Jr, who is actually her son.^[15]

In 1978, Heather gets a little carried away with the amount of attention she gives to PJ. The Taylors let her go, believing her obsession is unhealthy. Heather continues seeing her son in secret. Meanwhile, Heather and Jeff finally marry but they see very little of each other, as Jeff is working long hours to get his medical license. Though Heather learns she is pregnant again, she is still miserable. Ironically, Jeff wants to name their new child "Steven Lars" if it's a boy. After suffering a miscarriage right before Thanksgiving, Heather vows to get Steven Lars back once and for all.^[16] In 1979, Heather begins her next scheme attempting to drive Diana Taylor insane in hopes of gaining custody of her son. Due to Heather's manipulations, Diana grows even more dependent on Heather to help with PJ. Heather purchases LSD and puts it in Diana's drinking glass. However, little PJ mixes up the glasses. Heather unknowingly drinks the drug. When Heather begins hallucinating, Jeff is forced to have her committed to Pine Circle Sanitarium in June 1979.^[17] With Heather away, Alice takes over her daughter's manipulations. Diana realizes she will lose PJ if she doesn't marry Jeff.^[17] In the fall of 1980, Heather emerges from her delusional state, fakes catatonia and escapes from Forest Hills Sanitarium. She goes to see Jeff but discovers he is now in love with Anne Logan. Eventually, she is officially released from Forest Hills.^[18] In 1981, Heather fakes hysteria and convinces, Jeff's brother and sister-in-law Rick and Lesley to send her back to Forest Hills. From there, Heather sets her plan in motion to kill Diana Taylor and frame Anne for the murder. She escapes with a gun, only to find Jeff in bed with Diana. Appearing to kill Diana, Heather writes Anne's name in blood next to Diana's body. After Anne rejects him, a heartbroken Jeff leaves town with Steven Lars. Jeff files for divorce while Police Chief Burt Ramsey discovers another gun killed Diana, pointing the finger at Heather. Heather's new admirer, Joe Kelly refuses to believe that she actually killed Diana. It is soon revealed Alice accidentally killed Diana in an attempt to keep Diana from killing Heather.^[19]

In the summer of 1982, Heather convinces her cousin, Susan Moore to go after the Quartermaine fortune for her newborn son, Jason, with Alan Quartermaine. Eventually Scott Baldwin takes on Susan's lawsuit against the Quartermaines. However, Heather and Scott have secretly been planning to steal the cash. Susan and Scott become romantically involved much to Heather's dismay. In December 1982, Heather tricks Susan into giving her permission to raise Jason if anything happens to her. However, Susan soon catches on to Heather's schemes and convinces Scott to marry her so Heather can't get a dime of Jason's million dollar trust fund. Susan soon learns Heather and Scott were working together and bars him from getting any money. After Susan is murdered, Heather teams up with the illegitimate Quartermaine, Jimmy Lee Holt in an effort to get custody of Jason; however she eventually loses this battle to the Quartermaines. While working with Scotty as his secretary on the waterfront redevelopment project, Heather took an instant resentment to his new partner D.L. Brock who treated her with contempt, something Heather instantly resented. The one-upmanship between Heather and Scotty caused them to break up, and after being foiled by the Quartermains in a last ditch attempt to get custody of Jason after the death of her mother, Alice Grant, she quietly left town to look in on an ailing Steven Lars after trying and failing to seduce Alan. .^[20]

2004

In June 2004, Heather returns to Port Charles claiming she wants to reconnect with her family which included the returned from the dead Lesley Webber who insinuated to Bobbie that during her absence, Heather had been in and out of mental institutions. She moves into the Spencer home with Lesley to help take care of Lulu while her parents, Luke and Laura are absent after Lesley was injured in a car accident presumably caused by medications slipped into her drink by Heather. She seduces the recently widowed, Edward Quartermaine, much to the dismay of his daughter Tracy who instantly remembered her nefarious past. When Edward is haunted by his late wife, Lila, Heather keeps her distance, but later she pretends to be possessed by Lila's spirit and tricks the Quartermaines into believing Lila wants Edward to move on with her. Knowing Edward won't be easily convinced, she causes him to have a heart attack and is the only one who attempts to save his life, as the rest of his family believes he is faking. After he is released from the hospital, the two become engaged and they marry on October 20, 2004 at the Quartermaine cabin.

Heather's plans to get rich by killing Edward are stalled when he gives away his entire fortune, to be with her. After Heather and Tracy have Edward committed, Luke helps bring Heather's schemes to light. Edward has the marriage annulled in November 2004. Due to Luke's tricks, Heather accidentally admits to killing police officer Ross Duncan and framing Edward's granddaughter, Skye for the murder. Heather kidnaps Skye. Luke tricks her into releasing Skye by pretending to marry her. Luke tells the authorities of Heather's crimes. She is declared insane and sent off to Ferncliff Sanitarium.

2012—

Heather is seen being held at Ferncliff when Sam Morgan shows up, looking for information on serial killer Franco, who has developed an obsession with her husband, Jason. Heather tells Sam that Franco is Jason's twin brother. Heather is released later with the help of Steve after convincing him that she's changed. However, from the minute she leaves Ferncliff, she stirs up trouble. Heather is shown to be obsessed with Steve, even upset about his girlfriend, Olivia Falconeri. She also is still fixated on Luke, who is now dating Anna Devane. When Steve is arrested for murder, she murders his colleague, Maggie Wurth, and stages it as a suicide so Maggie will be blamed for the murder. Steve doesn't suspect Heather is involved.

Heather also becomes fixated on Sam, intent on ruining her life. She taunts Sam after she finds out Sam's unborn baby is not Jason's, but Franco's. Heather faces the wrath of Monica when she walks into the Quartermain mansion uninvited, having had a restraining order placed against her in order to protect the ailing Edward. When she comes to see Luke, and runs into Tracy Quartermaine and Anthony Zacchara, she realizes Anthony is dead, and later steals his body, thinking she'll help Luke not go down for murder. While she's burying his body, she runs into Todd Manning, who is carrying Téa Delgado's newborn son Victor Lord III. Todd asks for Heather's help, because Victor isn't breathing. Heather later tells Todd that Victor can't be saved. Meanwhile, Sam shows up, looking for help after delivering her newborn son. Sam passes out, and Todd finds her unborn baby. Téa comes by then, and believes Todd is holding her son, and asks for him back. Heather later convinces Todd to let Téa think the baby is hers, and leaves Téa's stillborn baby in place of Sam's. Sam is devastated by her baby's death, as is Jason. It's later revealed that Heather switched Sam's paternity test, and Jason is the father of Sam's baby.

Heather tries to get Luke to return her affections, but when he refuses, she kidnaps him, intending to woo him away from Anna. She also blackmails Todd into giving her a job at his newspaper. Anna finds Anthony's body, but is unable to charge Heather when she comes up with an alibi. However, Heather, furious that Luke turns her down, tries to kill Anna, but ends up drugging Olivia instead. She's caught by Anna after shooting Luke in an attempt to kill Anna. She is sent back to Ferncliff, but later escapes and makes her way to Téa's house, intending to kidnap the baby to raise by herself. By the time she kidnaps "Victor," Jason, with the help of John McBain, has figured out Heather switched the babies, and she has Sam's baby. Heather makes her way to General Hospital, where Jason and Sam get the baby back after a standoff where Heather is left severely injured. She is hospitalized and lapses into a coma.

Heather wakes up and escapes to the Quartermaine mansion, where she tries to escape with Skye. She is knocked out, though, and taken back to Ferncliff. Heather is seen again when Damian Spinelli looks for information on Franco's long-lost daughter. She escapes and tries to kidnap Danny, Jason and Sam's son, again, but is thwarted, first by Stephen Clay, then by Rafe Kovich, Jr. She tries to kill Olivia, but ends up stabbing Steve, instead. She's sent to Miscavige Institute afterwards when she turns herself into the police. She's later visited by a mystery man, who turns out to be Franco, alive and well. Heather later breaks out of Miscavige, and reveals that Franco is actually her son with Scott Baldwin. Intending to have the same connection with Franco that she always wanted with Steve, Heather breaks into his room, and tries to kill his girlfriend, Carly Jacks. Franco catches her, however, and stabs her fatally. He buries her body, though it's later revealed she survived right where Robin Scorpio-Drake who tried to adopt her as her niece was at.

Heather kidnaps Carly, intending to kill her and frame Franco for the crime. However, she's discovered by Luke, who she gets locked up in Miscavige, and takes Carly to the catacombs in Wyndemere. Before she can kill her, though, she's discovered by Franco, whom she shoots, but is stopped by Anna from killing both him and Carly. She's locked up, and Anna finally pressures her to reveal that Luke and Scott are locked up in Miscavige because she convinced the staff to help her out after Heather's last run in with Victor Cassadine. In the Spring of 2016, a troubled Franco visits his mother, and she helps him financially through an unknown source. It is later revealed that Heather had blackmailed Naomi, Hayden Barnes' mother, with the knowledge that her ex-husband, Jeff Webber, was Hayden's father (conceived after his marriage to Elizabeth's mother), and has been receiving monthly payments for years for keeping the secret. Heather later revealed to Franco that because of her fear that he was the hospital serial killer, she had snuck out and drugged both Bobbie and Lucas Jones while he was at the nurse's ball in order to give him an alibi.

References