Theo on GENERAL HOSPITAL — Everything You Need to Know About The Balkan

Theo Hoffman was only on GENERAL HOSPITAL for a few months and he also went by The Balkan, so it’s understandable if viewers either don’t remember the guy or need a few things cleared up. Well, that’s where we come in! The character was played by actor Daniel Benzali from his introduction in December 2010 until his violent exit from GH in March 2011.

When Theo Hoffman first arrived in Port Charles, he was a very infirm man in a wheelchair who was desperate for the doctors at GH to help him. When no one could figure out what was wrong with him, he threatened to sue the hospital so Robin Scorpio Drake stepped in to help. She diagnosed him with hypochondria, and he was happy to have a doctor actually do their job and so the matter was settled.

Theo then went to see Diane Miller and she hired him to work at her firm of Mason, Petrovich, and Miller because they had a wrongful death lawsuit against Brenda Barrett and Dante Falconeri. But while he became Brenda’s attorney, it was all a ruse to get closer to her as Theo had filed the suit himself because Brenda had been responsible for the death of his son, Aleksander. Theo was revealed to be the international criminal known as The Balkan, but this was personal revenge. On Brenda and Sonny’s wedding day, Theo set off a bomb in their limo to make everyone think Brenda had been killed, but he actually kidnapped her to find out what had happened to the child she and Aleksander had.

Suzanne Stanwyck, who had been posing as Brenda’s friend and running her charity, turned out to be Theo’s wife and she backed up Brenda’s claim that she’d lost the baby. But the truth was that Suzanne had drugged Brenda and stolen the infant so that she could have her grandson and keep him away from Theo. Brenda was rescued by Sonny, Jason, and Dante, and Theo used his wife as a human shield to escape. He tracked his grandson to Louisiana, but Theo’s search was cut short — literally — when Suzanne slit his throat! Brenda was ultimately reunited with her son, Alec, and they left for Europe together.