Rick Springfield's acting and music careers ran parallel. In the 1970s, he released four modestly successful albums and made appearances on
The Six Million Dollar Man,
Battlestar Galactica,
Wonder Woman and various other shows. In February 1981 he released his breakout album
Working Class Dog (with "
Jessie's Girl"), and a month later started appearing regularly on the soap opera
General Hospital playing Dr. Noah Drake. He stayed on the show until 1983.
Springfield was born outside of Sydney, Australia, and split time growing up between Australia and England. He moved to the United States in 1972 when he was 22.
Springfield recorded four of his albums, including Working Class Dog, at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. During this time, he was managed by Joe Gottfried, the studio's co-owner.
Sound City had a console that many who recorded there thought was enchanted, producing a sound that couldn't be duplicated anywhere. The studio fell on hard times in the digital age because it stayed stubbornly analog, but Dave Grohl, who recorded the Nevermind album there with Nirvana, made a documentary about it called Sound City that was released in 2013. Springfield is a big part of the film and was part of the "Sound City Players," a group of musicians with ties to the studio that played some concerts and made some TV appearances. Stevie Nicks and Paul McCartney were also Sound City Players.
He married Barbara Porter, whom he met when she was working at Sound City Studios, in 1984. The couple have two children together, sons Liam and Joshua.
Rick and Barbara hit a rough patch that inspired his 2004 album Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance, but they worked through it and stayed together. "Through her good graces, I'm still around," he told Songfacts.
"Jessie's Girl" was the #1 song in America when MTV went on the air August 1, 1981. Fortunately, Springfield made a video for the song that went in hot rotation right away.
Rick owns up to some boorish behavior, especially in his treatment of women. "Musicians think it's their right to go out and spread their seed around – if I may put it bluntly," he said in a
Songfacts interview. "I was young, and it was just part of fame. And my wife was the one that woke me up to the fact that maybe it wasn't the best course to be taking if I wanted to have a relationship that lasted more than three months."
He got banged up in a 1988 motorcycle accident that put him out of action for a while and required another surgery in 2011. He had released 11 albums by this point, but didn't put out another until 1999 with Karma. He also started performing again around this time, becoming a popular attraction at casinos and state fairs.
Springfield has struggled with depression throughout his life. In his autobiography Late, Late At Night, he tells a story about how he tried to hang himself when he was 17 and nearly succeeded. A poorly tied knot saved him.
He dated the actress Linda Blair in the mid-'70s, a few years after she played Regan in The Exorcist. They bonded over their love of dogs.
Springfield and Blair remained friends and he helps support her efforts to save abandoned dogs.
Springfield is a fitness fanatic. When he's on tour, head to the nearest Planet Fitness and you might see him working out. He tries to exercise every day.
Springfield wasn't the only
General Hospital actor to land a hit in the '80s. Soon after he left the show in 1983 they introduced a new character: a singer named Frisco Jones played by Jack Wagner. In 1984 he sang a song called "
All I Need" on the show as Frisco and used it to launch a real-life music career. The song climbed to #2, held back by Madonna's "
Like A Virgin."
