Noah Drake | |||||||||||||||
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General Hospital character | |||||||||||||||
Portrayed by | Rick Springfield | ||||||||||||||
Duration |
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First appearance | March 25, 1981 | ||||||||||||||
Last appearance | April 15, 2013 | ||||||||||||||
Classification | Former; recurring | ||||||||||||||
Created by | Pat Falken Smith Margaret DePriest | ||||||||||||||
Introduced by | Gloria Monty (1981) Jill Farren Phelps (2005) Frank Valentini (2012) | ||||||||||||||
Book appearances | The Secret Life of Damian Spinelli | ||||||||||||||
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Noah Drake M.D. is a fictional character on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital . The role has been portrayed by Australian musician and actor Rick Springfield. In 2007, Springfield also played Drake's look-alike, fictional rock star Eli Love [1] and at the 2013 Nurses Ball, Springfield portrayed himself during a performance of "Jessie's Girl".
Rick Springfield originated the role of Noah Drake on March 25, 1981, and played the character for two years before leaving to pursue his music career, last airing on January 27, 1983. [2] Springfield was asked to return to the show in 2005 and first appeared on December 2. [3] The stay was originally planned to be four episodes, but the series asked Springfield to stay on longer. [4] He continued appearing until August 24, 2007. He returned again for a summer story arc the following year, [5] from July 8 through September 22, 2008. In 2012, Springfield made a guest appearance during Kimberly McCullough's exit storyline. [6] In 2013, Springfield made an appearance to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. [7] Springfield also played himself, singing "Jessie's Girl" at the 2013 Nurses' Ball. [8]
Soon after Dr. Noah Drake arrives at General Hospital in 1981, he gains a reputation of being a playboy. He becomes involved with nurse Bobbie Spencer, but she realizes he is unable to commit to her. She fakes blindness in order to keep him by her side, but the lies contribute to the end of their relationship. Dr. Noah Drake leaves Port Charles and General Hospital to take a new position at a hospital in Atlanta, GA as a way to give himself a fresh start in life.
Drake returns to the show in late 2005. The character is no longer practicing medicine as he has become an alcoholic [9] after his wife died on his operating table. Drake returns to town at the request of Robin Scorpio [9] to aid her friend Jason Morgan, who had sustained severe brain damage. It is established that he is the father of Patrick Drake, a new, hot-shot doctor at General Hospital. Patrick helps to get his father sober and Noah begins practicing medicine again. Patrick also goes against his father's wishes and donates part of his liver when Drake falls ill and needs a liver transplant due to the years of heavy drinking.
Drake appears sporadically from 2005 until 2007. In 2007, rock star Eli Love (also played by Springfield) is brought to General Hospital needing emergency surgery, and coincidentally looks just like Drake. Love refuses surgery due to his upcoming charity concert for LifeBEAT, a real-life charity that uses the music industry to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS. [10] Anna Devane convinces Drake to stand in for Love at the concert so that he can have the surgery. [11] On August 23, 2007, Springfield sings on the show for the first time. [1]
Drake appears again in 2008 when he is revealed to have had an affair that resulted in another son, Matt Hunter. In March 2012, Noah was working with Doctors Without Borders and upon the death of his daughter-in-law Robin Scorpio, he briefly returns to Port Charles to console Patrick. [6] [12] He returns again in April 2013 to attend the revived Nurses' Ball, being held in honor of his presumed-dead daughter-in-law Robin. He arranges for celebrity Rick Springfield to perform at the ball. [8] Once the Nurse's Ball concludes, Drake runs into former girlfriend Bobbie Spencer as both board the same flight to Seattle, at which point Drake reveals to Spencer that he has accepted a job at the same hospital as her.
Springfield had signed on to his role on General Hospital in 1981 before his widespread music fame, [9] when his song "Jessie's Girl" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 that summer. [13] Some credit his appearance on GH as the reason behind his rise in popularity; [9] [12] [14] the summer of 1981 was a peak time for General Hospital, pulling in 14 million viewers daily. [9] Others credit the show and song simultaneously boosted the popularity of each other. [15] Springfield told PopMatters.com that the soap opera most likely had more to do with his popularity than his MTV appearances. [2] Springfield did not sing on the show during his 1980s stint, as the producers did not think it fit with the character. [16]
During Springfield's reprisal in 2005, executive producer at the time Jill Farren Phelps said to the New York Times , "Rick is a special kind of a character, because he has this other career. There's a tremendous amount of nostalgia that surrounds Noah Drake and Rick Springfield." [9] Springfield described the character's lasting popularity to E! Entertainment: "Thirty, 40 times a day I must get questions when I'm on the road about General Hospital or Noah Drake. It's constant," Springfield once told Soap Opera Weekly. "It amazes me that it's still so prevalent in the fans' minds." [2]
Richard Lewis Springthorpe, known professionally as Rick Springfield, is an Australian-American musician and actor. He was a member of the pop rock group Zoot from 1969 to 1971, then started his solo career with his debut single, "Speak to the Sky", which reached the top 10 in Australia in mid-1972. When he moved to the United States, he had a No. 1 hit with "Jessie's Girl" in 1981 in both Australia and the US, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed with four more top 10 US hits: "I've Done Everything for You", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Affair of the Heart" and "Love Somebody". Springfield's two US top 10 albums are Working Class Dog (1981) and Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982).
Ric Lansing is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network. The role has been portrayed by Rick Hearst, who joined the series on November 8, 2002, and exited the series on June 25, 2009. Following a five-year absence, Hearst returned to the series on February 24, 2014, with a hiatus from June to December of the same year. He exited the role in July 2016. In July 2024, it was announced Hearst would reprise the role, with Ric returning on August 22, 2024.
Jason Craig Thompson is a Canadian actor. He joined the cast of the American daytime drama General Hospital in December 2005 as neurosurgeon Dr. Patrick Drake. In 2007, Thompson became an original cast member of the General Hospital prime-time spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift while maintaining his day job on GH. On April 1, 2015, Thompson also portrayed original GH character Steve Hardy in a flashback for the show's 52nd anniversary. He has portrayed Billy Abbott on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless since 2016.
Patrick Drake is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital, a protagonist in both seasons of its prime time SOAPnet spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift and one half of on-screen couple Patrick Drake and Robin Scorpio. Jason Thompson originated the role in 2005. From April 23 to 28, 2008, the role of Patrick Drake was played by Ethan Erickson while Thompson was having minor surgery. In October 2015, it was announced that Thompson will be departing from the show, last appearing on January 7, 2016.
Jasper "Jax" Jacks is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network. He has been portrayed mainly by actor Ingo Rademacher since 1996. The role was temporarily played by Gideon Emery during Rademacher's absence from the show in January 2008. The character gained popularity due to a love triangle storyline involving him and supercouple Sonny Corinthos and Brenda Barrett. When Brenda left the show, the love triangle was continued with Sonny and Carly Benson.
The history of General Hospital refers to the ABC Daytime soap opera, General Hospital, a daytime American television soap opera. It ranks as one of the world's longest-running soap operas, and was in continuous production until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Set in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York, the show primarily revolves around the lives and relationships of the people connected to the town's hospital. The show has aired over 15,000 episodes as of May 22, 2022, and has spawned several spin-offs since it was originally broadcast.
Steve Hardy is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera General Hospital. Former Major League Baseball infielder John Beradino originated the role of Steve Hardy on the show's April 1, 1963, premiere, portraying the character for 33 years until taken ill and last appearing on April 23, 1996. A leading presence on the series in over 4,300 episodes, Beradino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, the same year GH celebrated its 30th anniversary. Jason Thompson portrayed the character in a flashback episode for the show's 52nd anniversary.
Elizabeth Webber is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network, played by Rebecca Herbst. Elizabeth is the granddaughter of the show's original lead character, Steve Hardy and daughter of Jeff Webber. Introduced on August 1, 1997, as a rebellious teenager, Elizabeth comes to live with her grandmother Audrey Hardy and sister Sarah Webber. Feeling abandoned by her parents, Elizabeth is a wild child with no regard for her life. In 1998, after she is raped, Elizabeth goes from a rebellious teenager to a terrified timid girl. She finds comfort with Lucky Spencer and they fall in love. The duo's endearing young love story propels them into supercouple status in the same vein as Lucky's famous parents, Luke and Laura. Elizabeth and Lucky's rocky marriages ultimately end in divorce. Their failed reunion in 2009 results in Elizabeth's affair with Lucky's half-brother Nikolas Cassadine, and her giving birth to Lucky's son, Aiden. In 2006, in the midst of her chaotic marriage to Lucky, Elizabeth has an affair with her long time friend, mob hitman Jason Morgan which leads to the birth of her middle son, Jake whom Lucky initially raises as his own. Jason and Elizabeth would also achieve supercouple status. Elizabeth later marries reformed serial killer Franco Baldwin in 2019, but the marriage ends when he is killed.
Jessie Brewer R.N. is a fictional character from the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital. She was played by actress Emily McLaughlin, from the show's premiere on April 1, 1963, until McLaughlin's death in 1991. On April 1, 2015, Rebecca Herbst portrayed the character in a flashback for the show's 52nd anniversary.
The Scorpio and Jones families are fictional families on the American soap opera General Hospital, which is set in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York. Over time, the two families intertwined and became one large blended family, often referred to as the Scorpio/Jones family. The Scorpio family was introduced in December 1980 by head writers Pat Falken Smith and Margaret DePriest, when Robert Scorpio arrived in town to assist Luke Spencer in locating a rare diamond called the Ice Princess. Four years later, the Jones family was introduced in 1984 by Gloria Monty when Frisco Jones arrived in town after he is hired to be the lead singer for "Blackie and the Riff Raff". The Scorpio and Jones families are known for their many adventures, with members of both families working as secret agents with the fictional World Security Bureau (WSB).
Barbara Jean "Bobbie" Spencer, RN is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera General Hospital, portrayed by Jacklyn Zeman. She debuted in December 1977, 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.
Lucas Lorenzo "Lucky" Spencer Jr. and Elizabeth Imogene Webber are fictional characters and a supercouple from the ABC Daytime soap opera, General Hospital. Lucky Spencer is the son of legendary supercouple, Luke and Laura, played by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis. Elizabeth Webber is the granddaughter of original General Hospital character, Steve Hardy, and long-time character Audrey March Hardy. Lucky was originated by Jonathan Jackson in 1993, who continued to play the role when Rebecca Herbst originated Elizabeth in 1997. Jackson left the series in 1999, and Lucky was played by Jacob Young and later Greg Vaughan, who was let go in 2009 to allow Jackson to reprise the role. Jackson left the series in December 2011 and the role was not recast. Herbst portrayed the couple with each actor, and has been the only contract actress to play Elizabeth.
Jason Morgan and Elizabeth Webber are fictional characters from the long running ABC Daytime soap opera, General Hospital and a popular supercouple pairing, according to TV Guide. Jason was portrayed by Steve Burton. Elizabeth is portrayed by Rebecca Herbst.
Sabrina Santiago is a fictional character from the original ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital, played by Teresa Castillo.
General Hospital's 50th anniversary on April 1, 2013, was a milestone for the American soap opera series and has been commemorated with several events in the media and storylines on the show. Declining ratings and the cancellation of other soap operas in the late 2000s and early 2010s prompted concern that the show would not reach the milestone until new management led to a turn-around. Other events were organized to commemorate the occasion, with media promoting the milestone and commemorative memorabilia being released by ABC.