Barbara Tarbuck

Prolific actor Barbara Tarbuck was perhaps best well known for her portrayal of Jane Jacks on the long running soap opera "General Hospital" (ABC, 1963-). Born in Detroit, Michigan, Tarbuck began her career as a performer at the tender age of nine, when she joined the cast of the children's radio program "Storyland" on her local Detroit station WWJ. She would go on to earn her bachelor's in acting at Wayne State University and a master's in theater from the University of Michigan, before attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright Scholarship. She eventually moved to New York and launched her professional acting career, performing mostly in regional theater, though she would finally break through to Broadway as an understudy to three separate roles in a 1972 production of "The Crucible." TV work would soon follow, with Tarbuck racking up countless guest appearances on shows like "Lou Grant" (CBS, 1977-1982), "Newhart" (CBS, 1982-1990), "M*A*S*H" (CBS, 1972-1983), and "Police Squad!" (ABC, 1982). Tarbuck would continue to work in theater as well, appearing in the original Broadway cast of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" in 1983. She would also take on increasingly prominent TV work, memorably portraying the recurring character of Dr. Randall on "Falcon Crest" (CBS, 1981-1990). She eventually joined the cast of "General Hospital" in 1996, sticking with the show for fourteen years. She then switched gears and took on the role of Mother Superior Claudia on the massively popular series "American Horror Story" (FX, 2011-) in 2010. Tarbuck would make her final appearance in the comedy "Come Simi" (2015) before she died in 2016. She was 74 years old.