Kathleen Gati marks 10th anniversary at General Hospital

General Hospital's Kathleen Gati is celebrating an action-packed ten years as Dr. Liesl Obrecht, which she reveals was originally supposed to be a "quick stint" in the summer of 2012.

Congratulations are in order for Kathleen Gati, who has been playing the role of love-to-hate Port Charles villain Dr. Liesl Obrecht for a whopping ten years.

The actress marked the milestone moment by posting a photo on Twitter that shows her standing outside the GH studios.

"Ten years this week @GeneralHospital," she shares. "First day at this studio was July 31, 2012 for a quick stint! Thank you @valentinifrank @TeschnerMark and to all cast and crew, and of course to all you amazing #GH fans for the ten years of love and kindness! #gratitude #actorslife"

Though Gati first began taping the role of Dr. Obrecht on July 31, she made her on-screen debut on August 24 in a story that had Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) and Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) traveling to a medical clinic in Lucerne, Switzerland, in search of Anna's presumed-deceased daughter, Robin (Kimberly McCullough). Dr. Obrecht was a doctor at the clinic who was later revealed to be in cahoots with villain Cesar Faison (Anders Hove), together with whom she was secretly holding Robin and also Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan).

In a 2013 interview with Soaps In Depth magazine, Gati revealed that her role as Dr. Obrecht came to be because "they needed a German doctor to say a few things and then go."

The character was expanded after Anthony Geary (ex-Luke Spencer) sang Gati's praises to GH executive producer Frank Valentini, who agreed with Geary's assessment and asked then-head writer Ron Carlivati to create more material for the character. He did, and viewers have watched Gati's initial run as Obrecht turn into a decade of fun stories that have seen the character revealed to be the mother of Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and Nathan West (Ryan Paevey), as well as the sister of Madeline Reeves (Donna Mills). Obrecht also became chief of staff at General Hospital, among other major storylines.

As for her status at GH changing from a short storyline arc to years of material, Gati revealed in 2013 that her time on the ABC soap "was always precious and still is." She also enthused that being on GH felt like being home. "I've been in Los Angeles for 15 years, and for the first time, I actually feel like I belong to a family."

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Would you like to congratulate Kathleen Gati on her ten-year anniversary as General Hospital's Dr. Obrecht? What have been some of your favorite moments from her decade of stories in Port Charles? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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