Chris Robinson, the General Hospital star who coined a television catchphrase when he delivered the line “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV...” in an advert, has died. He was 86.
The Florida-born actor was also known for his appearances on the long-running soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. In total, he appeared in more than 100 roles in television and film between 1957 and 2022.
His death was announced in a Facebook post by the indie director MJ Allen, who directed Robinson in his final screen appearance in 2022’s Just For A Week.
Allen wrote: “Jacquie (Chris' wife) just called me a bit ago and informed me that my good friend and collaborator Hollywood legend Chris Robinson has passed away. We knew this was coming, but it always sucks. We just had lunch a few weeks ago, but he was in bad shape.”
According to a press release provided by Allen, Robinson “peacefully passed in his sleep at his ranch near Sedona, Arizona at 12:30am on June 9, 2025. He had been in heart failure for some time, and is his official cause of death.”
Allen was born in West Palm Beach on November 5, 1938. He began his career as an actor and stuntman in the 1950s in films such as Diary of a High School Bride and Beast from Haunted Cave.
He came to mainstream attention when he was cast as Dr Rick Webber on ABC’s popular and long-running drama General Hospital. He initially played the role from 1978 to 1986, and was best known as the adoptive father of Genie Francis’s character, Laura. Laura’s marriage to her boyfriend Luke produced one of the most highly-rated daytime episodes of the era.
Robinson’s fame as a television doctor led him to be hired as the spokesperson in a Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup commercial in the mid-1980s. His delivery of the line, “I’m not a doctor, but I do play one on TV,” became famous and the catchphrase turned into a popular punchline.
He appeared on The Bold and the Beautiful as Jack Hamilton, beginning in the early 1990s. He left after three years but regularly reappeared as a guest in subsequent episodes.
Robinson returned to General Hospital in 2002 for a controversial stint that ended with the character being bludgeoned to death.
In 2013, Robinson was the subject of the short documentary Bankrupt By Beanies, directed by his son, also named Chris. Robinson spent $100,000 buying up Beanie Babies as an investment, but lost the money when the value of the toys plummeted.
