The Early Years — August 1993 to 1997

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Sonny Corinthos arrived on our screens on August 13, 1993.
The character was supposed to temporary, but the audience demanded he stick around
thanks to the amazing talent of his portrayer, Maurice Benard.

With Joe Scully's blessings, Sonny left NYC and the organization and branched out on his own. Joe owned a strip club in Port Charles, NY, which was managed by a man named Harry Silver. Harry wanted to retire, and Sonny moved to Port Charles and took over the management of the club. Eventually, he bought the club from Joe, and also began running various criminal enterprises in town. Sonny took in a runaway teen named Michael Cates under his wing. Mike, who was given the name “Stone” by Sonny (due to his aversion to his father's name), had been living on the streets, eating from garbage cans, and hanging out with drugs users and hustlers. Someone had stolen Sonny's car radio (we found out years later that it was Stone), and Sonny found a group of kids hanging out, trying to stay warm around an oildrum fire. Sonny confronted them, and although they all denied the theft, Sonny took Stone under his wing. He began working for Sonny at the club, and lived with Sonny in the apartment upstairs. Sonny was his legal guardian, but the two also formed a close, brotherly relationship.

The first time we see Sonny on screen was at the Paradise Longue. Stone introduced Sonny to Karen (Carrie) Wexler. Karen was a messed up teen as well. Her mother's boyfriend Ray Conway had sexually molested her as a child. She was involved with Stone's brother Jagger Cates (each didn't know the other was in Port Charles at that time, and Karen didn't know they were brothers), but broke it off with him because she didn't feel worthy. Sonny dared Karen to go on stage and strip during amateur night. She did, and said that she liked it. Sonny liked what he saw, both personally and professionally, and asked Karen out on a date. They began dating, and one night, after Ray showed up at the Paradise Lounge, Karen confided her dark secret to Sonny. Sonny had the man banned from the club and told Karen that he would take care of her. She became quite dependent on him. Sonny gave her some prescription drugs to help her deal with all the stresses in her life, and she became hooked. At the same time, Sonny convinced Karen to become a regular stripper at the club. She was the biggest attraction there. Eventually, Sonny and Karen became lovers.

Karen's ex-boyfriend Jagger wanted to reunite with his long-lost family. Jagger lived and worked at Kelly's Diner, but was also a boxer. He located his sister Gina, and then his brother Stone. When Jagger found out that Stone worked at the Paradise, he tried to convince him to walk away from Sonny. Stone refused, saying that Sonny was more of a brother to him than Jagger had been. One night when Jagger came to see Stone, he saw Karen on the stage and was devastated. He confronted her, and they had a bad argument, which Sonny broke up. Jagger returned the next night to try to talk to her, but found her naked on Sonny's couch. Sonny and Karen had just made love for the first time. Jagger became enraged and punched Sonny out, knocking him unconscious. In retaliation, Sonny later had two of his men grab Jagger and bring him to the club. They tied him up in the basement and beat him. Sonny fully intended to kill him, until Karen went for help. Even Stone's pleas didn't dissuade Sonny from getting satisfaction. She returned with Marco Dane, Jagger's trainer and manager, who made a deal with Sonny to save the kid's life. Marco gave Sonny 50% of Jagger's boxing action, thus making Sonny part “owner” of Jagger. Sonny and Karen's relationship quickly went downhill. The side of Sonny she had witnessed during the Jagger incident shook her, and her life was spinning out of control. Eventually, she left Sonny and got help for her drug addiction. Sonny was furious and tried to get her back. When that didn't work, he told Marco that Jagger had to throw his next fight…or else. When Jagger refused to throw the fight, Sonny threatened Jagger and Karen. Jagger and Karen ran from the boxing match and hid out from Sonny and his men. They eventually went to the police, who arrested Sonny on numerous charges. Faced with going to prison and losing everything, Sonny did something he had been reluctant to do before; he agreed to work for Frank Smith, the biggest mobster on the East Coast. Sonny was to be Frank's underboss, in charge of Port Charles. In this capacity, he met Luke Spencer, who was working for Smith to avoid being killed by the man. Sonny and Luke began carrying out various assignments for Smith, and a classic soap friendship was formed.

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