Jeff Webber (Richard Dean Anderson)

Dr. Jeffrey "Jeff" Webber, MD is a fictional character on the popular ABC soap opera General Hospital. He is the son of Dr. Steve Hardy and Helene Webber, and the father of Dr. Steven Webber, Sarah Webber, and Elizabeth Webber. He was portrayed by Richard Dean Anderson from 1976 until 1981.

Family tree
Storyline: Dr. Jeff Webber was first introduced in the spring of 1976 when he arrived in Port Charles after graduating from medical school. Newlyweds Jeff and his wife Dr. Monica Bard Webber (then Patsy Rahn) planned 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 tapped the young married Webbers for a bold new experimental program at the hospital called Mr. and Mrs. Intern. For Steve, the Mr. and Mrs. Intern experiment was a noble gamble. He believed Jeff and Monica were a perfect choice. It was six months into their marriage. Steve assumed they were ideally happy, but in actuality, their marriage was a wreck. Jeff feared everyone at GH was comparing him to his dead brother, Rick. He missed his brother greatly, as did his wife Monica, who had once been engaged to Rick.

Suddenly, Rick appeared alive, revealing he had been captured by African revolutionaries during a civil war and held prisoner for ten months. Monica and Rick were still in love. Jeff grew angry and jealous as their feelings developed into an affair. In response, he had an affair with Heather Grant, a scheming nanny who wanted Jeff to herself. She became pregnant but didn't tell anyone, not even Jeff. Suddenly, Jeff disappeared and no one knew where he was for a time, until he showed up at a Port Charles bar called Barney's Place where he was drunk and high on amphetamines. Jeff then stole a gun kept in the back of the bar, and was found unconscious with a bullet in his brain. On his deathbed, he was told by his sister Terri Webber while her own mother Helene was dying, she had revealed the location of a safe deposit box, containing a letter stating Jeff's real father was Steve Hardy.

In 1977, Jeff had a slow recovery from his bullet wound. Out of guilt, Monica reconciled with him. When Heather revealed to Jeff she was pregnant, Jeff told her to abort the baby so he could still be with Monica. Heather responded by faking a suicide attempt and demanding Jeff leave Monica. He refused. Heather then opted to move to New York and give birth to the baby and sell it to Peter and Diana Taylor for $10,000, though she told Jeff the baby had died. Monica, meanwhile, was shaken by the fact her previous lover Rick Webber had asked Lesley Faulkner to marry him, and so Monica asked Jeff for a divorce. On the rebound, Jeff asked Heather to marry him, especially after learning their child had died.

In 1978, Jeff and Heather married, but early into their marriage, the newlyweds saw very little of each other as Heather had become the nanny of her own child, P.J. Taylor and Jeff was studying for his license. Soon, Heather discovered she was pregnant again. Jeff announced if the baby was a boy, he wanted to name him Steven Lars. Heather, however, lost the baby.

In the winter of 1979, Steve Hardy was forced to place General Hospital under quarantine due to an outbreak of the deadly Lassa Fever. He himself fell ill with the fatal disease. Believing Steve was on his deathbed, his wife Audrey Hardy told Jeff that Steve was his real father. Meanwhile, Heather was obsessed to see her son whom she had sold to the Taylors. Heather planned to put LSD in Diana Taylor's drink and make her go insane. However the glasses were switched. Heather drank the LSD. She began to wildly hallucinate. Jeff had no choice but to ship her off to a sanitarium. It was then revealed baby P.J. Taylor was really Jeff Webber's son Steven Lars Webber. Peter Taylor died of a heart attack when he heard. In order to keep from losing her adopted son, Diana Taylor married Jeff, though he still did not know the child was his.

In 1980, while Heather was still in the sanitarium, Jeff fell in love with Audrey Hardy's niece Annie Logan and the duo hoped to wed. In 1981, they had broken up and Jeff had an affair with Diana, who finally revealed to him P.J. was his son. Shortly thereafter Diana was killed by Heather's mother, Alice Grant, who had tried to frame Annie for the murder.

Jeff took his son Steven and left Port Charles, later asking Heather for a divorce because he found someone else. In 1997, Jeff and his new wife traveled to Sarajevo to help in the war effort. They sent their two daughters Sarah Webber and Elizabeth Webber to live with their 'grandmother' Audrey. In 1998, Jeff wrote to his daughter Sarah and had her move to Sarajevo as well.

His children, especially Elizabeth, have stated numerous times Jeff and their mother were not very good parents. With the exception of Sarah, they have limited contact with both of them.