Jacklyn Zeman, Nurse Bobbie on ‘General Hospital,’ Dies at 70

Jacklyn Zeman, an Emmy-nominated actress who for practically a half-century performed the position of Bobbie Spencer, a nurse on the long-running cleaning soap opera “General Hospital,” died on Tuesday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She was 70.

Her demise, at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, got here after a “brief battle” with most cancers, in keeping with her household.

In asserting Ms. Zeman’s demise on Wednesday, the present’s government producer, Frank Valentini, wrote on Twitter, “Just like her character, the legendary Bobbie Spencer, she was a vibrant gentle and true skilled that introduced a lot constructive vitality together with her to work.”

As Barbara Jean (Bobbie) Spencer, Ms. Zeman was among the many longest-lasting forged members on the sequence, which since 1963 has centered across the lives of characters who work within the hospital and within the rich enterprise group within the fictional New York city of Port Charles. Ms. Zeman first appeared on the present in 1977 and was featured in nearly 900 episodes.

Bobbie was a pupil nurse who had moved on from her previous life as a prostitute who gave up a child for adoption in Florida; vied for the affections of a legislation pupil named Scotty Baldwin; and was the youthful sister of Luke Spencer, performed by Anthony Geary.

She portrayed her character as a loving however robust nurse who had emerged from a tough previous. In one scene, she defends her hard-knocks upbringing to Mr. Baldwin, saying she by no means had something handed to her.

“I needed Bobbie to be bouncy and have a constructive aura and vitality,” she stated in an interview final 12 months with TV Insider. “I needed her to have intelligence, humor and a love of individuals. Bobbie got here from a dysfunctional background however she needed to have children and be a mom.”

“I needed the character to be perky and to return in like a hurricane,” she stated.

Ms. Zeman was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on the present and obtained a fifth nomination in 2021 for her appearing on the tv sequence “The Bay.”

Jacklyn Lee Zeman was born on March 6, 1953, in Englewood, N.J., and grew up in Bergenfield. She was the oldest of three daughters born to Richard Zeman, an engineer with IBM, and Rita (Duhart) Zeman Rohlman, who labored for Scholastic Magazine.

She started coaching in ballet on the age of 5, stated Cassidy Zee Macleod, considered one of Ms. Zeman’s two daughters. When she was 15, she moved to New York City to pursue dancing and attended New York University briefly, Ms. Macleod stated. She was forged as Lana McLain in 1976 on “One Life to Live” earlier than her transfer to “General Hospital” in 1977.

In addition to Ms. Macleod and Lacey Rose Gorden, one other daughter whom she had together with her third husband, Glenn Gorden (they divorced in 2007), Ms. Zeman is survived by two sisters, Lauren Fischetti and Carol Kolb, and two grandchildren.

In April, “General Hospital” celebrated 60 years on the air. Ms. Macleod stated that considered one of her mom’s final appearances was on the show’s nurses’ ball in April.

Ms. Macleod stated that her mom, who lived in Calabasas, Calif., adored the “strong-willed” position of Bobbie and that she and her sister acknowledged how deeply their mom’s position had affected individuals when among the nurses caring for her described how Bobbie had impressed them.

“We acknowledged what number of lives she touched,” stated Ms. Macleod. “They stated they turned nurses due to her.”