Kin Shriner Shares Special Memories of Jacklyn Zeman

When GENERAL HOSPITAL airs the special episodes paying tribute to Bobbie Spencer and her portrayer, Jacklyn Zeman, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, and Thursday, Jan. 11, it’s going to be very emotional for longtime fans to watch just as it was for the actors to shoot.

In a recent interview with Eldredge ATL, Kin Shriner (Scott) admitted that it was very difficult to play the scenes where his character learned of Bobbie’s passing. “It was not fun,” he confided. “As an actor you were thinking, ‘This is too close to home.’ I don’t really want to have to play these scenes but they needed to be played because we had to pay tribute to the Bobbie character. We wanted to make sure it was played for the fans so they knew we understood that Bobbie was gone. It was tough.”

Having both started on GH back in the ‘70s, Shriner and Zeman have shared countless hours of screen time together. “She was just fun,” he recalled. That’s why we were such good friends and hung out so much. She was always ready to jump on the back of my motorcycle or go on my boat. As an actor, she was exactly the same. She was this spirited individual who you could go head to head with and it was always going to be good. You knew she was always going to deliver the goods in any scene you had together. Her game was tight.”

With decades of friendship between them, the pair shared many special memories over the years, but Shriner recalled a couple that stood out to him. “We did a play together for six weeks directed by our acting coach,” he said. “We did Love Letters together. There were a lot of long pieces of dialogue I wanted to cut. Jackie didn’t bat an eye. She went with it.

“When she was living in Marina del Rey, I loved my boat and once a week we’d go to the Chart House [restaurant] and have these beautiful lunches and dinners together,” Shriner added. “Nobody had as much spirit as Jackie. One time when we were together, we saw Johnny Carson at the gas dock by my boat. I said, ‘Jackie, that’s Johnny Carson.’ And she said, ‘Let’s go talk to him!’ So we did. She was one of my favorite people to be around.”

So when Port Charles says goodbye to Bobbie Spencer, the cast and crew will be saying goodbye to their dear friend, Jacklyn Zeman, and the tears will be all too real. “Last New Year’s Eve we sat in my car for an hour and a half talking about the show and the history,” Shriner revealed. “I had no idea that would be the last time we would have that kind of conversation. She loved to remember the fun we had and all of the antics back then. It’s incredibly sad that we don’t have her here with us any longer.

“I just hope her daughters are pleased and that the fans are happy with this tribute we did for her,” he concluded. “If Jackie is up there looking down, I hope she’s happy that we did our best.”