General Hospital has lost its second former star in two weeks. David Groh (ex-D.L. Brock) died of kidney cancer on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Though Groh will forever be known to daytime audiences as the abusive husband of Bobbie Spencer during a 1983 to 1985 run with the ABC soap, to the masses Groh will be remembered as Joe Gerard, the ex-husband of Valerie Harper on the primetime sitcom Rhoda.
Divorce was not a subject generally addressed on television in the 1970s, so the on-screen split of Rhoda Morgernstern and Joe came as a surprise to viewers. The couple's marriage was one of the series' highest-rated episodes. When the pair divorced, some fans sent condolence cards to the couple.
Groh also appeared in a handful of motion pictures, including Get Shorty, Two Minute Warning and Broken Vow. He also took two turns on Broadway, appearing in Neil Simon's Chapter Two and Jon Tolin's Twilight of the Golds.
Groh attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright scholarship. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he returned to New York to study at the Actors Studio.
On February 1st, former General Hospital star Shell Kepler (Amy Vining) passed away at the age of 49.
