Anthony Geary, who rose to fame in the 1970s and ’80s as half the daytime TV super couple Luke and Laura on “General Hospital,” has died. He was 78.

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“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Anthony Geary, whose portrayal of Luke Spencer helped define General Hospital and daytime television,” ABC said in a statement confirming his death.

Geary died Sunday in Amsterdam of complications from a surgical procedure three days prior.

“The entire ‘General Hospital’ family is heartbroken over the news of Tony Geary’s passing,” Frank Valentini, executive producer of the ABC show, said in a statement Monday. “Tony was a brilliant actor and set the bar that we continue to strive for.”

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Geary earned eight Daytime Emmy awards as Luke Spencer after joining the soap in 1978. Luke’s pairing with Genie Francis’ Laura Webber Baldwin (as she was known at the time) propelled the two onto magazine covers and into the cultural mainstream.

The 1981 wedding of Luke and Laura was a pop culture phenom done in two parts, drawing guest appearances that included Elizabeth Taylor. A record 30 million viewers watched.

“He was a powerhouse as an actor. Shoulder to shoulder with the greats. No star burned brighter than Tony Geary. He was one of a kind. As an artist, he was filled with a passion for the truth, no matter how blunt, or even a little rude it might be, but always hilariously funny,” Francis said in a statement.

In addition to his role as Luke, Geary had numerous TV and stage credits, including stints on other soaps: “The Young and the Restless” and “Bright Promise.” Geary played Luke on and off until 2015, though he returned for a cameo in 2017.

He lived a quiet life with husband Claudio Gama in Amsterdam.

In a 1993 interview, Geary spoke of the many highs and lows of playing Luke.

“I felt like I had to be Luke 24 hours a day or people would be disappointed,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they are mythic creatures. They come from two sides of the universe together and have a mutual connection, which is basically lust and appreciation for individuality. They love the eccentricity in each other.”

Geary’s Luke began as a small-time hitman recruited to dismantle the relationship of Laura and her first husband, Scotty Baldwin. Their story arc turned darker when Luke sexually assaulted Laura. The assault led to a redemption trail for Luke, who evolved into a hero and even served as mayor of the show’s small town, Port Charles.

“He was not created to be a heroic character,” Geary told ABC’s “Nightline” in 2015. “He was created to be an anti-hero, and I have treasured the anti-side of the hero and pushed it for a long time. … He’s not a white hat or a black hat, he’s all shades of grey. And that has been the saving grace of playing him all these years.”

Geary was born to Mormon parents in Coalville, Utah. He was discovered while attending the University of Utah and performing on stage. He joined a touring company of “The Subject was Roses,” which brought him to Los Angeles.

Over the years, he appeared frequently in stage productions alongside his screen work.

Geary’s first appearance on TV was as Tom Whalom on an episode of “Room 222.” He went on to appear in “All in the Family,” “The Partridge Family,” “The Mod Squad,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “The Streets of San Francisco” and “Barnaby Jones.”

By ALEXA ST. JOHN

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is pivoting away from its once-ambitious electric vehicle plans amid financial losses and waning consumer demand for the vehicles in lieu of investment in more efficient gasoline-engines and hybrid EVs, the company said Monday.

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The Detroit-based automaker, which has poured billions of dollars into electrification along with most of its industry peers, said it will no longer make the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, instead opting for an extended range version of the vehicle.

Ford will also introduce some manufacturing changes; its Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center — part of the BlueOval City campus and once the future of Ford’s EVs and batteries — is being renamed the Tennessee Truck Plant and will produce new affordable gas-powered trucks instead. Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant will produce a new gas and hybrid van.

The company has lost $13 billion on EVs since 2023 and said it expects to take a $19.5 billion hit largely in the fourth quarter due to the EV business.

“This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business.”

Ford said it now expects half of its global volume will be hybrids, extended-range EVs — which also incorporate a gasoline-powered engine — and full EVs by 2030, up from 17% this year.

“Ford’s elimination of the electric F-150 Lightning is not much of a surprise after the truck failed to come close to filling the plant’s capacity. Ford’s choice to convert an existing gas-powered truck to accept the electric drivetrain helped reduce their upfront costs which, in hindsight, was the right move,” Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press.

“For months, the future of Blue Oval City has been in question and this announcement locks in the direction of this large plant,” Fiorani added. “Adding an affordable vehicle to the Ford lineup fills a glaring gap in the market.”

Several other automakers have made changes to their electrified product plans in recent years as consumer demand for EVs in the U.S. hasn’t quite met expectations.

EVs accounted for about 8% of new vehicles sales in the U.S. last year, but factors such as cost and charging infrastructure remain concerns for mainstream buyers.

The average transaction price for a new EV last month was $58,638, compared with $49,814 for a new vehicle overall, according to auto buying resource Kelley Blue Book.

Meanwhile, while public charging availability has improved, the industry has relied on home charging as a selling point for prospective buyers, and not everyone has access to charging at-home.

Since taking office for a second time, President Donald Trump has drastically shifted U.S. policy away from EVs, calling EV-friendly policy set under former President Joe Biden a “mandate.”

Though Biden-era policies — including generous tax incentives for consumers, and tailpipe and fuel economy rules for automakers — encouraged EV adoption, no policies required the industry to sell or Americans to buy EVs. Biden targeted half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.

The Trump administration has since slashed that target, eliminated EV tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.

“The one-two punch of the public’s slow EV adoption and the Trump administration’s softer stance on fuel economy and emissions has encouraged every automaker to re-think their current direction,” Fiorani added. “Electric vehicles are still the future, but the transition to EVs was always going to take longer than automakers have been promising the public.”

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Workers at a Starbucks coffee shop on West Seventh Street in St. Paul and another in Wayzata have chosen to unionize and join Starbucks Workers United, which has led a coast-to-coast labor strike since Nov. 13.

Both locations remained open Monday. Workers and shift supervisors had not chosen to join the strike over pay and labor practices, which has roped in some 3,800 baristas at more than 180 stores in 130 cities.

The two stores are the 15th and 16th Starbucks in Minnesota — and the 11th and 12th in the Twin Cities — to see their baristas join the worker’s union, which is demanding finalization of its first national labor contract for nearly 11,000 unionized baristas at 560 locations.

Workers at the West Seventh and Davern location in St. Paul voted 18-1 last Wednesday to join the labor union, and baristas at the Wayzata Boulevard and County Road 101 shop voted 11-5 on Thursday to do the same, according to the union.

Under the title “Red Cup Rebellion,” the labor union has demanded better hours to improve staffing, higher take-home pay and the resolution of complaints surrounding alleged unfair labor practices.

The Seattle-based coffeehouse giant has maintained that the company offers the best wages and benefits package in retail. Negotiations broke off after elected union delegates rejected a contract offer in April.

In the Twin Cities, the strike has included workers at a St. Anthony Starbucks at 3704 Silverlake Road, which unionized in 2022, as well as one in Chanhassen at 190 Lake Drive, which unionized a year ago.

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Baristas at a location on Snelling Avenue by Macalester College also unionized in 2022, but the coffeehouse was permanently closed this year when Starbucks shuttered some 520 stores nationwide.

In downtown St. Paul, the online auction of the 25-story U.S. Bank Center that was scheduled to begin Monday has again been delayed, this time to mid-January.

The skyway-connected property, located at 101 E. Fifth St., faces the Green Line light rail corridor’s Central Station and was recently listed as 26% occupied. It fell into foreclosure a year ago, and was initially listed to be up for auction Nov. 10 through Nov. 12.

“Some of the title work and some of the other things weren’t ready,” explained John McCarthy, a listing broker with Colliers International, on Monday. “We had to have seven days for all bidders to look at it. It’s just been so challenging with it being a foreclosed property. … It’s been really challenging to get the property on the market.”

The office tower, previously owned by Madison Equities, has been put up for auction by First Interstate Bank, with a minimum advertised starting bid of $1 million. The minimum bid could yet be lowered closer to the auction date, McCarthy said.

He said he was happy to see 170 interested parties had signed non-disclosure agreements, a first step toward reviewing tenant information and other details in an online data room. McCarthy said “five or six” parties had signed up to be live bidders, which requires proof of funds. That number could still grow by Jan. 12.

Meanwhile, near Mears Park, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office has posted notice it is seizing another former Madison Equities property, the vacant Park Square Court building at 400 Sibley St., on behalf of a lender.

In October 2024, Merchants Bank filed legal action against Rosemary A. Kortgard, widow of former Madison Equities principal James Crockarell, as well as the Park Square Court Building LLC, the Grotto Group and Momentum Design Group LLC, over two unpaid loans totaling $5.7 million and $2.7 million in principal.

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The foreclosure was approved by the courts in February. In November, attorneys for the bank requested that the Ramsey County Court Administrator issue a “writ of execution,” or court action directing the Ramsey County Sheriff to seize the property in its entirety. A notice was posted on the building Friday.