General Hospital Wayback: Remember Rick Webber

Chris Robinson isn’t a doctor in real life, but he played one on TV. Veteran General Hospital fans recall the handsome actor as Lesley’s husband, Rick Webber, who, like many characters throughout soap opera history, was both good and bad.

Young Doctors In Love
While in med school, Rick Webber and Monica Baird fell in love and set out to become husband and wife. But Rick sent his fiancée a letter breaking off their engagement. Later, he was presumed dead in a plane crash. Monica wed Rick’s brother, Jeff, on the rebound.

The Way We Were
Rick turned up alive and told Monica he was in love with her after all! While Monica was working on getting a divorce from Jeff, Rick fell in love with Dr. Lesley Williams. They were married, but Rick’s feelings for Monica resurfaced after a case of Lassa fever quarantined them together at the hospital.

Around this time, Rick learned that his parents, Lars and Helene, had separated for a while during which time Steve Hardy impregnated Helene, resulting in Jeff’s birth. Rick opted to stay with Lesley after Laura was in a car wreck. He performed surgery to save her life and stayed with a grateful Lesley. Everything changed, however, when Monica told Rick she was pregnant with his child.

Raze The Roof
Rick was blindsided after Alan announced that Monica’s son, A.J., was his – not Rick’s – courtesy of the rare Bombay phenotype, which resulted in parents (Alan and Monica) with O-type blood having a child with B-type blood. First, Rick left Monica. Then, Lesley slapped her.

Remarrying Lesley
Slowly, but surely, Lesley let Rick back into her life. Rick proposed marriage after Luke and Laura were wed. Rick and Lesley remarried in the Webber home. They along with Laura’s sister, Amy, and Blackie, and newly adopted son Mike formed a family and were happy for a while. Problems came along, like Rick’s heart condition and Lesley’s gambling addiction that she acquired after Laura died.

Mourning Lesley
Laura turned out to be alive, but, after she left town, Rick and Lesley faced a new challenge. Mike’s birth mother, Virginia “Ginny” Blake, came to Port Charles and wanted custody of her son. Before a court battle could ensue, Lesley’s car skidded on an icy road and she was killed.

Rick agreed to wed Ginny to give Mike a home and prevent her from fighting for custody. It took time, but Rick and Ginny grew to love one another. She had a fling with Mike’s birth dad, Derek Barrington, and wound up pregnant. But the baby turned out to be Rick’s. Ginny had done for Rick what both Monica and Lesley never did – give him a biological son, Rick Webber, Jr.

An “F” In History
Years after Rick and Ginny had left town, Lesley turned up alive. She’d been kidnapped by Stefan Cassadine, who went against Helena’s orders to kill Laura’s mother. Years after that, Rick came back to Port Charles when Laura was going to remarry Luke.

Rick feared that Laura would recall that years ago she had accidentally killed his mistress Theresa Carter. (This story was tough to swallow for many longtime viewers as this was all newly created backstory and seemed out of character for Rick.) Scotty killed Rick when he walked in and found Rick and Laura struggling.

Lesley went to General Hospital to deal with her loss as that’s where she and Rick had spent happy times together. Years later, Rick, along with the late Alan and Emily, appeared as spirits to Monica and Tracy, who were fighting, encouraging them to make peace. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.