Jacklyn Zeman, an Emmy-nominated actress who for nearly a half-century played the role of the nurse Bobbie Spencer on the long-running soap opera “General Hospital,” died on Tuesday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She was 70.
Her family said that her death, at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, came after a “short battle” with cancer.
As Barbara Jean Spencer, better known as Bobbie, Ms. Zeman was among the longest-lasting cast members of any soap opera. She first appeared on “General Hospital” in 1977 and was seen in nearly 900 episodes of the show, which since 1963 has centered on the lives of characters who work in a hospital and in the wealthy business community in the fictional New York State town of Port Charles.
Bobbie was originally a student nurse who had moved on from her past life as a prostitute and given up a baby for adoption in Florida, and who vied for the affections of a law student named Scotty Baldwin. She was the younger sister of Luke Spencer, played by Anthony Geary, another of the show’s most popular characters.
Ms. Zeman portrayed Bobbie as a loving but tough nurse who had emerged from a difficult past. In one scene, she defended her hard-knocks upbringing to Scotty, saying she never had anything handed to her.
“I wanted Bobbie to be bouncy and have a positive aura and energy,” she said in an interview last year with TV Insider. “I wanted her to have intelligence, humor and a love of people. Bobbie came from a dysfunctional background, but she wanted to have kids and be a mother.”
“I wanted the character to be perky,” she said, “and to come in like a hurricane.”
Ms. Zeman was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on the show and received a fifth nomination in 2021 for another soap opera, “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 of Richard Zeman, an engineer with IBM, and Rita (Duhart) Zeman, who worked for Scholastic magazine.
She began training in ballet at age 5, her daughter Cassidy Zee Macleod said, and at 15 moved to New York City, where she pursued dancing and briefly attended New York University. She was a cast member of the soap opera “One Life to Live” in 1976 before her move to “General Hospital” in 1977.
In addition to Ms. Macleod, Ms. Zeman, who lived in Calabasas, Calif., is survived by another daughter, Lacey Rose Gorden; two sisters, Lauren Fischetti and Carol Kolb; and two grandchildren. Her marriages to the disc jockey Murray Kaufman (known professionally as Murray the K), Steve Gribbin and Glenn Gorden, the father of her daughters, ended in divorce.
In April, “General Hospital” celebrated 60 years on the air. Ms. Macleod said that one of her mother’s last appearances was on an episode that month featuring a nurses’ ball.
The show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, “Just like her character, the legendary Bobbie Spencer, she was a bright light and true professional that brought so much positive energy with her to work.”
Ms. Macleod said that her mother adored the “strong-willed” role of Bobbie, and that she and her sister saw how deeply their mother’s role had affected people when some of the nurses caring for her described how Bobbie had inspired them.
“We recognized how many lives she touched,” said Ms. Macleod. “They said they became nurses because of her.”
