General Hospital Mourns Chris Robinson—Third Love Triangle Star to Pass Away in Months

“I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.”

In a Vicks Formula 44 TV ad in 1985, actor Chris Robinson, then at the peak of his “General Hospital” fame, uttered that immortal line. It was just one aspect of a multi-faceted career that stretched across 65 years.

The actor died at 86 on June 9 on his Arizona ranch, a friend confirmed on Facebook this week. With his passing, Robinson (Dr. Rick Webber) became the third and final member of a fan-fave “General Hospital” love triangle to die in the first half of 2025, after Leslie Charleson (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) in January and Denise Alexander (Dr. Lesley Webber) in March.

Robinson, born November 5, 1938, in West Palm Beach, Florida, had a life and career as complex as any in a soap opera. In 2009, his namesake son Chris shot a doc short on his dad’s obsessive collecting of Beanie Babies. The following year, he posted a doc on his dad being the father of nine children from six different women, most of them out of wedlock, and some of them strangers to each other until adulthood.

He lost his coveted spokesman spot with Vicks due to an income tax evasion conviction.

On the screen, though his Vicks ad may have been the project that reached the most eyes, he had plenty to brag about. After debuting (uncredited) in films in 1957, he played a spider creature in Gene Corman’s “Beast from Haunted Cave” (1959), starred with Burt Lancaster in “The Young Savages” (1961) and “Birdman of Alcatraz” (1962), and made dozens of TV guest appearances.

Robinson had a splashy part on the TV series “12 O’Clock High” (1965-1967) ahead of his fame as a soap lead. On “General Hospital” (1978-1986; 2002), it was his character who gave Genie Francis’ Laura away at her iconic 1981 wedding to Luke (Tony Geary).

Francis took time out to mourn Robinson on X, writing, “I am so sad, he will be missed.”

He had another successful daytime gig on “The Bold and the Beautiful” (1992-2002; 2005).

Some of his other features included “Because They’re Young” (1960), “The Hawaiians” (1970), “Savannah Smiles” (1982), and “Just for a Week” (2022).

He wrote, directed, and starred in “Catch the Black Sunshine,” a 1974 thriller in which he played an escaped albino slave in the pre-Civil War South, also serving as the creator of “Thunder County” (1974), “The Intruder” (1975), and “The Great Balloon Race” (1977).

Robinson worked steadily, amassing 100 credits, only stepping away from films in 2022.

He is survived by his fourth wife, Jacquie, his children, and his grandchildren.

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