Veteran daytime actor Chris Robinson, best known as compassionate surgeon Dr. Rick Webber on General Hospital, died in his sleep at his ranch near Sedona, Ariz., on June 9 at age 86 after a lengthy struggle with heart failure. Born in West Palm Beach on Nov. 5, 1938, Robinson began working in low-budget features and as a stuntman in the 1950s before landing a recurring combat role on ABC’s Twelve O’Clock High in the mid-1960s.
Soap audiences embraced him when he assumed the Rick Webber role in 1978, anchoring some of the era’s most-watched triangle storylines until 1986 and returning for pivotal arcs in 2002 and for the show’s 50th anniversary in 2013.
Robinson’s daytime résumé also included Jason Frame on NBC’s Another World (1988-89) and Jack Hamilton on CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful in the early 1990s. Away from soaps he briefly became a pop-culture catch-phrase when, fronting Vicks Formula 44 commercials, he assured viewers, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV” — a line that, as industry chronicler Arthur Axelman recalled, “entered television culture” and still echoes decades later.
Robinson’s career weathered turbulence. In 1985 he was convicted of income-tax evasion but avoided leaving General Hospital by serving his sentence on nights and weekends so taping could continue. Soon after, he retreated from Hollywood to Sedona, raising five sons and pursuing Native American cultural studies, returning only for selected acting work. In 2011 he married artist and actress Jacquie Shane, calling the partnership “the most honest” of his life.
News of Robinson’s death prompted an outpouring from fans who remember the Webber family as central to GH history. “Rest in peace, Dr. Webber,” one longtime viewer wrote on the show’s Reddit forum, urging producers to stage an on-air tribute.
Writers are already crafting memorial episodes for other recently lost cast members, notes TV Insider, and insiders say Robinson is expected to be honored alongside them when production schedules permit. The actor’s passing also rekindled appreciation for his pioneering portrayal of a medical professional who, co-star Genie Francis once recalled, helped define Port Charles’ moral center during the soap’s record-setting ratings run.
Although Robinson stepped back from the limelight years ago, his birthday was still marked in radio “Today in History” segments as recently as November, underscoring the affection that followed him well into his ninth decade. With his death, daytime television loses one of its stalwart leading men, but the doctor audiences trusted at three o’clock each afternoon lives on in syndication and in the memories of generations of soap fans.