Sonny Corinthos is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. Maurice Benard has played the role of the manic depressive mob kingpin, living in Port Charles, since the character's storyline originated on August 13, 1993. Sonny is also known for supercouple pairings with Brenda Barrett and Carly Corinthos. Since joining the show, he has become a central character, with many storylines focusing on his family, friends, and criminal enterprise.
Creation
Background The character was originally scripted as being of Italian descent. However, it later revealed that Sonny is raised in the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. On his father's side, Sonny is of Greek and Irish descent. On his mother's side, Sonny is of Cuban descent. Michael Corinthos Jr. is born on April 20, 1965, to Michael and Adela Corinthos. In 2012, Sonny's birth year was revised to 1969 when his aged was listed as forty-two on his arrest records. After Mike abandons his family, Adela becomes involved with her boss, Trevor Lansing. Trevor is very understanding of the single mother, allowing Sonny to come to work with Adela, and even taking them on vacations to Martha's Vineyard. However, Trevor despises the young Sonny and when Adela gets pregnant Trevor proposes; however, he forces Adela to choose between Sonny and their unborn child when Sonny accidentally causes a pregnant Adela to fall down a flight of stairs.
Adela gives up rights to her son shortly after birth and when Sonny is seven years old, she marries New York Police officer Deke Woods. However, Deke is extremely abusive to mother and son. Sonny is claustrophobic due to being locked in the closet as a child by Deke. To direct Deke's attention away from his mother, Sonny begins acting out. Sonny uses his friends to escape his home life. He grows up with Lois Cerullo and is best friends with her brother, Louie. Raised by Adela, a devout Catholic, Sonny attends catholic school and is also very religious. In his early teen years Sonny briefly dates Olivia Falconeri. Following the end of their relationship, Sonny becomes involved with Olivia's cousin, Connie Falconeri. Noticing Sonny and Deke's fights are getting more violent, and fearing one of them would end up dead, Adela asks Sonny to leave home when he is sixteen. For a while, Sonny is homeless and visits Adela when Deke is working.
After stealing his car, local mob boss, Joe Scully takes Sonny under his wing giving him a place to live while Sonny works odd jobs for him. When Sonny goes to visit Adela on her birthday, he finds her severely beaten and unconscious. Sonny confides in Scully who has Deke killed the next day. Adela passes away a few years later, when Sonny is nineteen. Sonny and Connie make plans to run away together once she is eighteen. However, once Connie skips town without him, Sonny goes to work for Scully full-time. Scully sends Sonny to Atlantic City to run a strip club called The Sea Breeze when his son, Joe Jr. proves to be incompetent. Sonny befriends one of the strippers, Theresa, whom Joe Jr. is infatuated with. In a jealous rage, Joe Jr. kills Theresa. Scully helps him disappear while Sonny lies to the cops about Theresa's murder, one of which is Theresa's brother, then FBI agent, John McBain.
Casting According to General Hospital casting director, Mark Teschner, Benard was one of the few actors being considered for the role. Benard came in for a meeting with Wendy Riche, and the two immediately clicked. It was only a matter of how long it would take to get Benard on screen. Initially, the character was only supposed to last for six months as Benard was not interested in anything more than a year. Benard revealed that after his stint on All My Children, he was not interested in doing another soap. He joined the cast of General Hospital because he had gone broke and acting was all he knew at the time. The producers offered him two separate roles, that of mobster Damian Smith, with a two-year contract, and that of Sonny. In addition the role being short term, Benard also chose the role because he liked the character's name. Benard revealed that just two weeks after starting work, he suffered a manic depressive breakdown. At one point he had stopped coming in to work but expressed his gratitude to the network for keeping faith in him instead of firing him immediately.
The role of Sonny Corinthos originated in the final weeks of Bill Levinson's tenure as head writer, in August 1993, prior to Levinson's replacement by Claire Labine. The role was originally intended as a six-month stint. After four years with the series, Benard vacated the role on September 24, 1997. After a brief return from May 15 to July 8, 1998, Benard returned to the role full-time on December 18, 1998. In December 2014, Benard confirmed he had re-signed with the series, for an undisclosed amount of time.
Characterization Like the character of Sonny, Maurice Benard also has bipolar disorder. Benard stated, "When I let it be known I was bipolar, we wrote it into the character." During 2006, Corinthos had an onscreen breakdown due to his bipolar disorder. The parallels between the story and Benard's real life experiences had Benard believing he was having his own "fourth break down," though Benard credits staying on his medication as keeping him grounded. His willingness to integrate his real life medical condition into Sonny's storylines have raised visibility of the disease, leading to Benard appearing on shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the disease as well as being the spokesman for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.
The name of Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, as well as his occupation, is a reference to The Godfather characters Michael Corleone and Sonny Corleone. These characters have a sister named Connie Corleone, which is alluded to in Kate Howard's real name, Connie Falconeri. Similarities have also been noted between Sonny and Tony Soprano from The Sopranos and the characters that surround them both. Vincent Pastore, who portrayed Big Pussy Bonpensiero on The Sopranos, came on the show to portray Maximus Giambetti, father of Sonny's bodyguards Milo Giambetti and Max Giambetti.
Benard has described Sonny as "unpredictable," and stated that: "You never know from one second to the next what he is thinking, feeling or planning. He's a man in personal conflict who maintains an outward appearance of calm at all times, at any cost."
Storylines
1990s Sonny came to Port Charles in 1993, running a strip club for Frank Smith. He becomes involved with Karen Wexler, and gets her addicted to drugs to get her to work for him. Meanwhile, Sonny begins dating the young Brenda Barrett, the beginning of a popular Supercouple for the soap. He also befriends Stone Cates, Robin Scorpio and Frank's longtime employee, Luke Spencer. Brenda, who is more attracted to Sonny than to his mob ties, introduces him to an old Bensonhurst friend, Lois Cerullo, who needed Sonny's money to finance a record label. The romance of Sonny and Brenda takes off amidst their new business relationship as partners of the record label, L&B. Sonny travels to Puerto Rico to work security for L&B artist Miguel Morez. He informs the locals that Miguel is under the protection of Frank Smith's organization. Miguel soon begins flirting with a now-model Brenda, which makes Sonny jealous. While Brenda and Miguel bond, Sonny opens up to her about his abusive childhood at the hands of his step-father, Deke. The two reconcile.
Luke kills Frank to protect Sonny, and Sonny informs Frank's partner, Hernando Rivera, that he is taking over Frank's organization. Rivera kidnaps his daughter, Lily, Miguel, Sonny and Brenda; they later escape and return to the U.S. After they are rushed to safety, Sonny plots his next move, pretending to leave the mafia. Due to mafia ties, Sonny and Luke's club is blown up; that same night, Sonny discovers that Luke's driver, Mike Corbin, is actually his father, Michael Corinthos, Sr. After Stone is diagnosed with AIDS, Sonny takes him in. Sonny learned that Frank's son, Damian, is working with Joe Scully to sabotage shipments from Deception cosmetics. Sonny is reticent to take action against Scully, as he is the man responsible for saving Sonny from his abusive step father. During a confrontation at the docks, Mike is shot, and Sonny kills Scully, who was attempting to finish Mike off. Scully's henchmen go after Brenda, Stone and the Spencers, looking for revenge. Lily learns that Brenda is planning to record Sonny discussing his mob business and hand it over to the police. Sonny furiously throws Brenda out and begins dating Lily, though they take their relationship slowly. Sonny wants to forgive Brenda because her intent was never to turn him in.
Stone dies from AIDS, and his girlfriend Robin learns she has contracted HIV. After Stone's death, Sonny illegally pays for Stone's hospital bills. Sonny is arrested and Lily turns to her father, reconciling with him in exchange for his help. Rivera makes a deal that he will keep Sonny out of prison if he marries Lily. Sonny marries Lily, though Lily realizes that Sonny still loves Brenda and offers a divorce. Sonny refuses to leave Lily because he fears reprisals from Rivera, though he finds it hard to deny his feelings for Brenda. Instead, he takes Lily on a second honeymoon. After being trapped in an avalanche at a ski resort on the honeymoon, Brenda and Sonny agree to reconcile. However, Lily reveals she's pregnant before Sonny can ask for a divorce. Brenda lets Sonny go, acknowledging his need to be an available father. Sonny and Brenda kiss passionately and declare their undying love for each other. Much to Sonny's dismay, Brenda moves on with Jasper "Jax" Jacks. Sadly, Lily dies in a car bombing targeting Sonny, killing her and the baby. Sonny finds out Rivera was responsible, and helps him die, later taking over Rivera's organization. Upon Lily's death, Sonny inherited 30 million dollars, which he donated to General Hospital to create a hospital wing in Stone's name.
When Jason Morgan suffers brain damage after a car accident, he confides in Sonny. Jason would later become Sonny's enforcer and closest friend. On Jax and Brenda's wedding day, Sonny shows up with Jax's wife, Miranda Jameson, who was believed to be dead. After Jax leaves Brenda to make sense of it all, Brenda and Sonny reconcile. When attempting to save Brenda, Sonny is drugged. When Sonny is brought to the hospital, Sonny tells Brenda he loves her. Believing her marriage with Jax can work, she rejects Sonny. Sonny's former henchman, Harry Silver, arrives in town causing problems for Brenda and Sonny, leading Sonny to kill him. Fearing the mob life is too dangerous for him and Brenda, he offers to marry her and leave town together. Sonny declares that he loves his life and has worked hard for it, but he loves Brenda more. After a nightmare where Brenda is blown up in a car bomb, Sonny decides he'd rather lose Brenda than see her die. Sonny sends Jason to the altar to end things for him. Sonny leaves town soon after his aborted wedding with Brenda.
Sonny returns to Port Charles, and is devastated to learn Brenda died months before. He is later approached by Robin, who wants his help getting Carly Quartermaine, the wife of Jason's brother, A.J., away from Jason. He soon begins dating waitress Hannah Scott, who looks a lot like Brenda. Sonny is devastated to learn that his new love is actually an undercover FBI agent and he feeds her false information before breaking up with her. Sonny and Carly later have a one-night stand, and she becomes pregnant.
2000s