Jacqueline Zeman, Nurse Poppy at General Hospital, dies at 70

Jacqueline Ziman, the Emmy Award-nominated actress who played Bobbi Spencer, a nurse on the long-running TV series “General Hospital” for nearly half a century, has died in Thousand Oaks, California, at the age of 70.

She died in Los Robles Regional Medical Center, came after a “brief battle” with cancer, according to her family.

Announcing the death of Mrs. Zeman Wednesdaythe show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, wrote on Twitter, “Just like her character, the legendary Bobby Spencer, she was a shining light and a true professional who brought so much positive energy to the work.”

As Barbra Jean (Bobby) Spencer, Ms. Zyman was among the longest-running cast members of the series, which Since 1963 It centered around the lives of the characters working in the hospital and wealthy business community in the fictional New York City of Port Charles. Mrs. Zeman first appeared on the program in 1977 and She has appeared in approximately 900 episodes.

Bobbie was a student nurse who had moved on from her previous life as a prostitute and had given up a child for adoption in Florida; compete for the affections of a law student named Scotty Baldwin; She was the younger sister of Luke Spencer, played by Anthony Geary.

She portrayed her character as a loving but tough nurse who came out of a difficult past. in one scene She defends her difficult upbringing to Mr. Baldwin, saying that she had not delivered anything to her.

she said in an interview last year with TV from the inside. “I wanted her to have wit and humor and love people. Poppy came from a dysfunctional background but she wanted to have kids and be a mother.”

“I wanted the character to be funny and come like a hurricane,” she said.

Ms. Zeman was nominated for Four Daytime Emmy Awards For her work on the program, she received a fifth nomination in 2021 for her acting in the TV series “The Gulf”.

Jacqueline Lee Zeman was born on March 6, 1953, in Englewood, NJ, and raised in Bergenfield. She was the eldest of three daughters born to Richard Zeeman, an engineer at IBM, and Rita (Dohart) Zeeman Ruhlmann, who worked at Scholastic magazine.

Cassidy Z. MacLeod, one of Mrs. Zeeman’s two daughters, said she began training in ballet at the age of five. When she was fifteen, Ms. MacLeod said, she moved to New York City to pursue dance and attended New York University for a brief period. She was cast as Lana McLain in 1976’s “One Life to Live” before she was transferred to “General Hospital” in 1977.

In addition to Mrs. MacLeod and Lacey Rose Jordan, another daughter she had with her third husband, Glenn Gordon (they divorced in 2007), Mrs. Zeeman is survived by two sisters, Lauren Fichte and Carol Culp, and two grandchildren.

In April, “General Hospital” celebrated 60 years of being on the air. Mrs Macleod said one of her mother’s last appearances was on Nurses’ Ball Show in April.

Ms. MacLeod said her mother, who lived in Calabasas, California, loved the “strong-willed” role of Bobby and that she and her sister realized how much their mother’s role affected people when some of the nurses caring for her described how Bobby had inspired them.

“We realize how many lives you’ve touched,” said Mrs. MacLeod. “They said they became nurses because of it.”