Joe Marinelli, Soap Star on General Hospital and Santa Barbara, Dead at 68

Joe Marinelli, a character actor best known for his work on various soap operas, has died. He was 68.

Marinelli died of stomach cancer on Sunday, June 22, in Burbank, Calif., his wife Jean Marinelli told The Hollywood Reporter. His agent, Julie Smith, told CNN that Marinelli had been diagnosed and was living with throat and stomach cancer for a few years.

Marinelli was known for his roles on NBC’s Santa Barbara, CBS’ Guiding Light, ABC’s General Hospital, Alexander Payne’s 2004 film Sideways and more recently on AppleTV+’s The Morning Show.

“I really loved him and what he stood for,” his Morning Show castmate Mark Duplass said in a statement to THR. “We didn’t spend 10,000 hours together, but we were spiritually aligned in many ways.”

“The great Joe Marinelli acted in my very first movie at film school 40 years ago and again in Sideways,” Payne said of the late actor. “Aside from being an extraordinary artist, he was a uniquely magnificent human being with a heart as big as the ocean.”

Marinelli was born on Jan. 21, 1957, in Meriden, Conn., and moved to Southern California at 4 years old. He attended Arcadia High School in Los Angeles and Reno High School in Nevada. He received his higher education at Loyola Marymount University and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

After returning to the U.S., he performed in local L.A. productions, all while working as a carpenter. By 1984, he landed roles in Cagney & Lacey, Paper Dolls, Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. The latter of which eventually introduced him to the executive producer of Santa Barbara, Jill Farren Phelps, who hired him to portray cross-dressing mobster Bunny Tagliatti.

“One thing I learned is that pants are a lot more comfortable than nylons. I also learned that other people thought I was very courageous,” Marinelli told Santa Barbara Online in 2013. “While getting my makeup put on one day, a woman’s voice whispered in my ear, ‘You must be very comfortable in your sexuality.’ When I turned, they were gone. However, that stuck with me.”

“A sweeter man or a dearer friend you could not find than Joe Marinelli,” Marinelli’s friend and Santa Barbara castmate Leigh J. McCloskey wrote in a tribute on Facebook. He then referred to Marinelli as “a great acting partner, teacher, philosophical friend, passionate believer in people, and a storyteller extraordinaire that with laughter and depth revealed the human spirit so beautifully and in so many different ways.”

“[It] saddens me greatly to say goodbye to my old friend and his belief in the goodness, and even the possible greatness of the human adventure,” McCloskey wrote. “I’m glad I walked this earth with you Joe.”

Marinelli starred on the series from 1988 to 1990, until his contract was not renewed. However, he told Santa Barbara Online that he “didn’t stop working for a long time” and “the next 10 years were absolute bliss.”

He would then star as bank robber Pauly Hardman on Guiding Light in 1993 and as another criminal, Joseph Sorel, on General Hospital from 1999 to 2001.

Throughout his career, he accumulated over 50 film and TV credits, including work on One Last Ride, Hunter, ER, The King of Queens, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, The Practice, House, Castle, Desperate Housewives, Parenthood, The Offer, Ray Donovan and many more.

He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Jean, and sons Vincent and David.

His son David’s childhood friend, musician Finneas, told THR that when he was 14, he was “a beneficiary of the same things anyone lucky enough to know Joe was; countless great stories accompanied by thoughtful questions, a million small lessons and dozens of large ones… Even at the times in my own life when I did not fully understand myself, Joe always seemed to.”