Chris Robinson, the actor who played Dr. Rick Webber in the “General Hospital” and also introduced the United States into a classic phrase in a commercial for cough syrup, died of heart failure. He was 86 years old.
Robinson died while he slept just after midnight on Monday at his home in Sedona, Arizona, according to the filmmaker MJ Allen, who published the news on Facebook.
“Jacquia (Chris's wife) called me a little and informed me that my good friend and collaborator Hollywood, Chris Robinson, died,” wrote the filmmaker, whose full name is Michael Jason Allen, Monday afternoon. “We knew this would come, but always stinks.”
Although Robinson had 100 television and cinema action credits, according to IMDB, his most famous role could be one that many people do not realize that they are referring: he was the actor in a shopping syrup for vicks cough that first spoke the words: “I am not a doctor, but I play one on television.” That 1984 phrase was pronounced again two years later in a second announcement of Vicks Formula 44 with Peter Bergman, “The Young and the Restless” who at that time played Dr. Cliff Warner in “All my children.”
The rest was the history of pop culture.
Born in West Palm Beach, Fla., On Nov. 5, 1938, Robinson Appeared in More than 1,000 “General Hospital” Episodes Between 1978 and 1986, The Returned for About 20 Episodes in 2002 and One In April 2013. He was Also In Almost 250 Episodes As Jack Hamilton on “The Bold and the Beautiful, “Mostly in the Early 1990s but continuous into the early 2000s, and had 20 episodes as Jason Frame on” Another World “in 1988 to 1989.
It was a regular on the pages of the Telenovela Digest and acted with John Stamos, Rick Springfield and Richard Dean Anderson when their races were just beginning.
His episodic television loans began in the 1960s and included “The Donna Reed Show”, “Gunske”, “Wagon Train”, “Perry Mason” and “Hogan's Heroes”, to name a few.
Robinson starred in films with Mickey Rooney, Charlton Heston, Dick Clark, Bruce Dern, Ted Cassidy and Yvonne de Carlo and directed movies and television that include episodes of “Baretta”, “Cannon” and “Barnaby Jones”. He wrote, starred and directed the 1977 film “The Great Ballon Race” with Frank Gifford, Phyllis Diller, Cab Calloway and Bert Parks.
Robinson appeared in three films led by Allen: “Just for a week”, “just dreaming” and “Yancey McCord: the murderer Arizona forgot.”
In 1985, the actor, after he lived in Glendale, California, declared himself guilty of federal tax evasion charges and could have faced two years in prison for submitting false tax statements at $ 490,000 in income from 1980 to 1981. He managed to avoid a sentence that would have forced him to leave “the General Hospital” when he fulfilled his time at night and weekends to remain available for the day. He was also ordered to pay all taxes and interests.
In recent years, Robinson enjoyed time on his ranch with his wife 14-year-old artist, Jacquie Shane-Robinson.
“We spent a holiday together, staying outside in their ranch having buffets next to the stream, and he and Jac meant to my house to discuss projects were always a pleasure,” Allen wrote on Facebook. “Good times … Rip, good friend and legend. I respect Jacchos and the family.”
Rhonda Robinson, one of the actor's former wives, published a vintage photo of a daytime television yearbook of the 1980s on Monday that shows Chris Robinson and his young children, writing: “It seems that he does a lifetime. When we got married, I was sure he would last forever, but unfortunately they did not do it. But we created the best children. They will miss you.
Robinson is survived by his wife Jacquie, as well as his children Shane, Coby, Christian, Taylor, Christopher, Christopher Lance and Robb Walker of his numerous previous marriages. I had five grandchildren.
