Jeff Webber | |||||||||||||||||||||
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General Hospital character | |||||||||||||||||||||
Portrayed by | Richard Dean Anderson | ||||||||||||||||||||
Duration | 1976–81 | ||||||||||||||||||||
First appearance | 1976 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Last appearance | March 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Created by | Eileen Pollock and Robert Mason Pollock | ||||||||||||||||||||
Introduced by | Tom Donovan | ||||||||||||||||||||
Classification | Former, regular | ||||||||||||||||||||
Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Physician | ||||||||||||||||||||
Residence | Asia | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Dr. Jeffrey "Jeff" Webber is a fictional character from the ABC daytime drama General Hospital. Eventually, he is revealed to be the biological son of the series' patriarch, Dr. Steve Hardy. He was portrayed by Richard Dean Anderson from 1976 until 1981.
Dr. Jeff Webber arrives in the spring of 1976 after graduating from medical school. Newlyweds Jeff and Dr. Monica Bard Webber (then Patsy Rahn) plan to join the staff of General Hospital following in the footsteps of Jeff's older brother, Rick Webber, who had reportedly been killed in a plane crash over Africa. Steve Hardy uses the couple in an experimental program at the hospital called Mr. and Mrs. Intern. Steve assumes they are ideally happy, but in actuality, their marriage is facing trouble. Jeff fears everyone at the hospital is comparing him to his brother Rick. Rick appears alive, still in love with Monica. Jeff is angry and jealous as their feelings develop into an affair. In response, he has an affair with Heather Grant, a scheming nanny who wants Jeff to herself. Heather becomes pregnant but does not tell Jeff. Jeff disappears for a time until he shows up at a bar called Barney's Place where he is drunk and high on amphetamines. Jeff steals a gun and is found unconscious with a bullet in his brain. Thinking Jeff is on his deathbed, his sister Terri Webber tells Steve Hardy that while her mother, Helene, was dying she had revealed a letter stating Steve was Jeff's father. Jeff lives and they decide not to tell him the truth. In 1977, Jeff has a slow recovery from his bullet wound and Monica reconciles with him out of guilt. When Heather reveals she is pregnant, Jeff tells her to have an abortion. Heather fakes a suicide attempt and demands Jeff leave Monica, but he refuses. Heather moves to New York to give birth, then sells the baby to Peter and Diana Taylor for $10,000 and tells Jeff the baby died. When Monica learns that Rick had asked Lesley Faulkner to marry him, she asks Jeff for a divorce. On the rebound, Jeff asks Heather to marry him. They marry in 1978, and Heather becomes the nanny of her own child, named P.J. Taylor. Heather becomes pregnant again but looses the baby. In the winter of 1979, General Hospital is placed under quarantine due to an outbreak of Lassa Fever and Steve falls ill. Believing Steve is on his deathbed, his wife Audrey Hardy tells Jeff that Steve is his biological father. Jeff is upset by the news but eventually forms a close relationship with Steve. Meanwhile, Heather is obsessed with her son whom she had sold to the Taylors, and plans to put LSD in Diana Taylor's drink to make her go insane. The glasses are switched and Heather drinks the LSD. She begins to wildly hallucinate and Jeff has to send her to a sanitarium. It is then revealed baby P.J. Taylor is really Jeff's son Steven Lars Webber. Peter Taylor dies of a heart attack when he hears this, and in order to keep from losing her adopted son, Diana Taylor marries Jeff, who still does not know the child is his. In 1980, Jeff falls in love with Audrey Hardy's niece Annie Logan and they plan to wed. In 1981, they break up and Jeff has an affair with Diana, who finally tells Jeff that P.J. is his son. Shortly thereafter Diana is killed by Heather's mother, Alice Grant, who tries to frame Annie for the murder. Jeff takes his son Steven and moves to Carson City.
Jeff later asks Heather for a divorce, stating he found someone else. Jeff and his wife have two daughters, Elizabeth Webber and Sarah Webber, who they raise in Colorado. The girls move to Port Charles to live with Audrey in 1997 while Jeff and his wife are traveling in Sarajevo to help in the war effort. In April 2013, he and his wife are mentioned, by Elizabeth, to be in Asia.
Read more about this topic: Tom Hardy Sr.
Famous quotes containing the word jeff:
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they must appear in short clothes or no engagement. Below a Gospel Guide column headed, Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow, was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winneys California Concert Hall, patrons bucked the tiger under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular lady gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)