Barbara Jean "Bobbie" Spencer, RN is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera General Hospital, portrayed by Jacklyn Zeman. She debuted in January 1978, after playing Lana McClain on the sister-soap One Life to Live. Zeman went on to appear on General Hospital until 13 July 2010. The character is the sister of Luke Spencer and mother of Carly Corinthos. In February 2013, it was announced that Zeman would be returning to the role; she first appeared on March 22 and once again vacated the role on April 15. However, on October 22, it was confirmed that Zeman would be returning to the show, with her first airdate slated to be on November 27. Zeman continued in the role until her last appearance on April 27, 2023, shortly before her death on May 9 of that year.
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Backstory
Barbara Jean “Bobbie” Spencer, was born in Port Charles on July 8, 1957 and raised in a poor family living near the docks, along with her big brother, Luke. The streetwise Luke was very protective of his baby sister growing up. Their father, Tim, was an abusive alcoholic. One day, when Bobbie was a little girl, their mother, Lena, suffered an appendicitis attack. Tim watched as Lena lay dying. Finally he allowed Luke to call an ambulance, but it was too late. Lena died, and Tim walked out on his kids. But the truth was revealed by Luke and Bobbie's older sister Patricia Spencer many years later. The truth was that on April 1, 1963, Luke accidentally killed his mother and then his father in a fit of rage. Luke had been blocking out the memory for over 50 years, with Pat and Bill Eckert helping keep it a secret. Luke befriended Lila Quartermaine, who was planning to adopt both Bobbie and Luke, but they left town to move in with their aunt Ruby Anderson, in Jacksonville, Florida. Ruby was a prostitute and to make ends meet, Bobbie had to become a "working girl" too. At age 16, she was forced to give her baby (Carly Corinthos) up for adoption.
Storylines
1978–2001
Bobbie re-entered Port Charles as a prostitute-turned-nurse. The bubbly nurse made an immediate impression on the staff with her disposition. Nurse Jessie Brewer, who had been through much tragedy, became Bobbie's confidante, and offered Bobbie her spare bedroom. Bobbie came to adore Jessie, who treated her like the daughter she had previously lost, and Bobbie helped her through hard times as well, also trying to push Jessie to accept the marriage proposal of the gold-hearted hospital administrator Dan Rooney. To Steve and Audrey Hardy, Jessie and Dan, Bobbie seemed like a compassionate person, but Bobbie had another side to her that she kept hidden from them. She wanted desperately to marry Scotty Baldwin but although he visited her bed from time to time, he was in love with Laura Webber. So Bobbie got her brother to come to town as part of a plan to break up Scotty and Laura whom Bobbie was intensely jealous of. Bobbie had tormented Laura every chance she got, and when Laura had enough of it and pushed Bobbie out of anger towards her, Bobbie accused her of attacking her without provocation. Their fight had been interrupted by Monica Quartermaine who suspected that Bobbie had been harassing Laura and supported Laura over Bobbie. When the plan didn't work to get Laura sent to reform school for missing her curfew, Bobbie pretended to be pregnant with Scotty's child, but Scotty ended up marrying Laura after Bobbie's lies were exposed. Bobbie's only happiness came from the arrival of Ruby Anderson, her aging aunt who had given up "the life" and became part of the cleaning staff at General Hospital.
Bobbie next fell in love with Roy DiLucca, a mobster and Luke's partner at the Campus Disco, who treated Bobbie like a queen and planned to marry her. He died in her arms after being shot while fleeing from his attempted assassination of Senator Mitch Williams. Once again, Bobbie blamed Laura for her misery since Laura had thrown Luke's keys away while he was on his way to assassinate Mitch, thus sending Roy to his death. Bobbie's feud with Laura not only stemmed from the fact that Laura had won Scotty, but also the love of her brother, Luke, whom Bobbie knew was Laura's rapist. Bobbie remained antagonistic towards Laura, even making a drunken play for Scotty during a time he was having issues in his marriage to Laura, but for the most part, was a loyal nurse and friend to those around her. When Luke and Laura went on the run from Frank Smith's mob, Bobbie's attitudes towards Laura began to change for the better. Bobbie was horrified when Joe Kelly's father, Paddy, was killed after an attack by one of Smith's men, and prevented Joe from going after Frank, thus saving his life. When Luke and Laura came back from their summer on the run, Bobbie made an attempt to understand why she had treated Laura with such resentment, and on Thanksgiving Day, urged Luke to call Laura so they, along with Aunt Ruby, could go on with their dinner. Months later, she fell in love with Dr. Noah Drake and even went as far as to pretend to be blind in order to keep him. Noah made it clear he did not want to make a commitment, also dating sexy blonde nurse Stacey Rawlins.
2002–2010
In early 2002, Bobbie and Scott rekindled their relationship after Scott and Laura parted ways. Around this time, Carly was presumed dead after driving her car off a cliff, and Bobbie remained in denial until a body believed to be that of Carly was found in the harbor. This sorrow later turned to joy as Carly was revealed to be alive at her memorial service. Bobbie and Scott's relationship continued until Scott began using unscrupulous tactics to win the District Attorney election. Scott began harassing Carly for information on Alexis Davis, the candidate running against him, and this is what fizzled the relationship between the duo. Bobbie laid low for a while and spent much of her time trying to keep Lucas in line. He wasn't doing well in school but they later learned that he had dyslexia.
In 2003, Carly announced that she was pregnant to family and friends. On the dark side of things, various conflicts put Carly's pregnancy in jeopardy on many occasions and caused reasons for friends and family to worry. In April, Carly fell through ice while walking Michael off of a frozen pond. In June, Carly was kidnapped by psychotic Ric Lansing (who wanted to present Carly's baby to his wife, Liz, who had just miscarried theirs). In July, a captive Carly accidentally electrocuted herself while trying to communicate with Jason from the panic room. These conflicts affected Sonny the most; towards the end of Carly's pregnancy, Sonny was so worried that something would happen to Carly and the unborn baby that he practically forced Carly to leave a baby shower Bobbie threw for her (where she was surrounded by her family). During a thunderstorm, Carly was looking over a house and was at the top of the stairs when she fell down them and went into labor. Luckily, Lorenzo Alcazar (who had grown obsessed with Carly) was there to help Carly. Lorenzo was helping Carly through labor when Sonny burst in, and, thinking that Lorenzo was harming Carly (because she was experiencing labor pains and screaming), shot him. The bullet went through Lorenzo and hit Carly in the head. Carly gave birth to a baby boy before passing out. She was quickly rushed to the hospital. There, Carly remained in a coma for several weeks. Bobbie wanted to take her grandkids home with her. But Sonny told her that Jason and Courtney could take care of them until Carly finally recovered. Carly did recover, but confided in Bobbie that her feelings for everyone around her were buried beneath the dream sequences she had during her coma. Bobbie did her best to support her daughter in her recovery. Carly finally regained the memory of her feelings for her loved ones a few weeks later.
In 2004, there was a huge fire at the Port Charles Hotel that trapped some of Bobbie's loved ones. Though Bobbie was thankful that Carly and Luke made it out of the fire alive, she was saddened to learn that Scott ended up dying in it. She later found out that he was alive and on the run from Internal Affairs. Bobbie was not happy when Carly started asking more and more questions about her biological father. Bobbie gently urged Carly to drop it, but when she didn't, Bobbie strongly told Carly to stop asking and trying to hurt her. So Carly stole Bobbie's diary and found several entries referencing a man as "J.D." When Bobbie found out, she went to Sonny and implored him to stop Carly's search for her father. He agreed but then told Carly that the best way to get information from Bobbie was to keep her guard down. Sensing that Carly wouldn't stop, Bobbie hired a man to steal the diary back. Carly continued her search by looking through Ruby's old things from the days of the brothel. Carly's search led her to a powerful prosecutor in New York named John Durant.
2013–2023
Bobbie is mentioned by Luke and Lulu after Lulu receives a gift from her aunt. After getting the news that Lulu has been kidnapped, Bobbie returns to Port Charles. She comforts Luke and Laura over Lulu's disappearance and supports Laura after her son Nikolas is shot. Later, she reconnects with Scott Baldwin and her daughter, Carly. After attending the Nurse's Ball and with word that Luke and Laura are safe, Bobbie leaves Port Charles to return to her life as a surgical nurse in Seattle. As she boards her plane she runs into former boyfriend, surgeon Noah Drake, who tells her he's moving to Seattle to work at the same hospital she does. Bobbie came back to Port Charles when Carly was kidnapped by crazy Heather Webber. She also tried to hide from Lucas the fact that his father, Julian Jerome, was alive and in town. In April 2014, Bobbie told Scott that she broke up with Noah after he reunited with his former flame Anne Logan. After Bobbie collapsed at the 2016 nurse's ball and had to be admitted as a patient, she was attacked and drugged, presumably by the hospital serial killer. But after she was released and Paul Hornsby was arrested for the crime, Franco learned from his mother, Heather Webber, that she had done the deed to protect him from being arrested, since she assumed that he was the killer and wanted to give him an alibi.
Bobbie was immediately suspicious of Nelle Hayes who had come to town claiming to be Josslyn's kidney donor. She never let up with her suspicions. Nelle was later forced to admit that she lied to Carly about who she was (the biological daughter of Carly's adopted father) and that she had "slept" with Sonny.
In July 2017, Bobbie came home from GH one night and discovered that her granddaughter Josslyn had thrown a huge party. She confronted Josslyn and told her the dangers of having a party while her mother (Carly) was out of town. Bobbie kept Josslyn's party a secret for about a week, before Josslyn accidentally spilled the beans to her mother.
In September 2017, Bobbie continued to investigate Nelle. Bobbie went as far to hire her best friend Felicia Scorpio to help her investigate. As Bobbie was just about to tell Felicia that she didn't need her to investigate Nelle anymore, Felicia discovered that Nelle was under suspicion for murder. Bobbie then battled how to tell her family about Nelle's latest bombshell of a secret!
On Election Day 2020, It was revealed that Bobbie's grandmother, Beatrice Eckert was a suffragist who helped secure the women's right to vote in New York State in 1917.
Reception
In 2023, Charlie Mason from Soaps She Knows placed Bobbie #17 on his ranked list of General Hospital’s 40+ Greatest Characters of All Time, commenting that she had "come a long way" and "The scheming ex-hooker was transformed over the decades from desperate to dependable — miraculously, without losing the mischievous twinkle in her eye."