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