Eight-time Daytime Emmy Award winner Anthony Geary -- who played Luke Spencer on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital, for decades -- has died at the age of 78.

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"It was a shock to me and our families and our friends," Geary's spouse, Claudio Gama, told TV Insider. "For more than 30 years, Tony has been my friend, my companion, my husband."

Geary's publicist also confirmed the sad news to KABC-TV Monday.

TMZ reported the Utah native died in Amsterdam on Sunday of complications from scheduled surgery three days earlier.

Soap Opera Digest noted Geary retired from acting in 2015.

He guest starred on All in the Family, The Partridge Family, Marcus Welby, M.D., Bright Promise, The Mod Squad and The Young and the Restless before joining GH in 1978 as the antihero Luke who romanced Genie Francis' Laura.

Their 1981 afternoon wedding was watched by more than 30 million viewers, a daytime television record that stands today.

Tristan Rogers, who played Luke's best friend Robert Scorpio on the soap, died in August at the age of 79.