Finola Hughes

Hughes was born 29 October 1959.^[1] She was born and educated in London.^[2] Hughes trained in dance and performing arts at the Arts Educational Schools London.^[3]

In 1981, Hughes originated the role of Victoria the White Cat in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.^[1][4] In 1983, she starred with John Travolta in the musical film Staying Alive, a sequel to Saturday Night Fever.^[5] She played the role of Laura, an English dancer who is the romantic interest of Travolta's character Tony Manero.

From 1985 to 1992, Hughes played Anna Devane on General Hospital.^[6][7][8] She won a Daytime Emmy in 1991, for Outstanding Lead Actress on General Hospital. Hughes was nominated for the same category in 1990 for Anna, in 2000 for All My Children as Alex, and, in 2002, as Anna. After establishing herself as a daytime television star, she was cast in a feature film cameo as a soap opera actress who loses an award to Sally Field in the satirical film Soapdish (1991).^[1] Two years later, she played a leading role in the film Aspen Extreme (1993).^[9]

Hughes also appeared on the sitcom Blossom in 1993 to 1995^[10] and as the X-Men character Emma Frost in the television movie Generation X (1996).^[11] In 1997, she starred in Aaron Spelling's short-lived primetime soap opera Pacific Palisades.^[1] She was a frequent guest star on the television series Charmed, playing the mother of the Halliwell girls, Patricia "Patty" Halliwell.

She provided the voice of Lara, Superman's biological mother, in Superman: The Animated Series. Another voice-over role she had was Miss Robertson on an episode of Fox's animated comedy series Life with Louie.^{[citation needed]}

Hughes briefly returned from November 13 to 22, 1995 as Anna's spirit to comfort the character's daughter Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough), who is dealing with the loss of her boyfriend to AIDS-related illness and is herself HIV-positive.^[12]

Hughes was cast as Alexandra Devane in 1999 on All My Children. At first, it was unknown what character she would portray.^[13] Alexandra debuted on July 23, 1999.^[14] Hughes left in the fall of 2000 for maternity leave and returned in February 2001.^[15] Alex left on July 9, 2001, to Budapest, Hungary.^[16]

In 2001, Hughes started playing Anna on All My Children.^[17] In 2003, Hughes left All My Children.^[18]

It was announced in April 2006 that Hughes would be returning to GH.^[19] In May 2006, as part of the May Sweeps period, three GH veterans would return. Finola Hughes would be reunited with Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) and Emma Samms (Holly Sutton). Following a rise in ratings from her sweeps return, Hughes returned to General Hospital for a limited run through August 2006.^[20] She returned the following year on 13 July 2007 and once again on 15 April 2008.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2008, Hughes guest-starred in the General Hospital spinoff series General Hospital: Night Shift. In 2010, she also appeared in the CSI: NY, Make It or Break It and Melissa & Joey.

Finola made a permanent return to General Hospital in 2012.^{[21][22][23][24]} On April 6, 2012, executive producer, Frank Valentini announced on Twitter that Hughes had been placed on contract with the series.^[25]

In 2013, Hughes made her feature-film directing debut with indie comedy-drama The Bet.^[26] She later starred with Kathryn McCormick in the dance movie Platinum the Dance Movie.^[27] In 2015, Hughes directed her second film, Byrd and the Bees a romantic comedy starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Tracy Spiridakos.^[28][29]

Hughes reprised her role as Alexandra on General Hospital, beginning April 5, 2017, masquerading as Anna; the duplicity wasn't revealed until May 12, 2017.^[30] Hughes ended her reprisal role of Alexandra on June 8, 2017.^[31] Hughes reprised the role from March 18 to 21, 2019.^[32][33][34]

In 2020, Hughes once again reprised the role of Alex while portraying Anna from October 30 to November 9.^[35]

Hughes married artist Russell Young in 1992 and divorced in 2021. Together they have two sons, Dylan and Cash, and one daughter Sadie.^[3]