Catching up With General Hospital Actor Steve Bond

The FEI World Equestrian Games, held every four years in the middle of the Olympic cycle, combines eight equestrian world championship-caliber events for an exciting global sporting experience. When it was held in September at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, NC, GENERAL HOSPITAL alumnus Steve Bond (ex-Jimmy Lee) was there! But not astride one of his favorite horses. Rather, he was cheering on his daughter, champion show jumper Ashlee Bond. “I was born in Israel and Ashlee just changed nationalities, so now she’ll compete for the Israeli Olympic team,” Bond told Soaps In Depth proudly. She had previously represented the American team and has won five gold medals in national and international competition.”

Actually, Bond does a whole lot more than merely cheer his daughter on from the sidelines. “We have a professional barn called Little Valley Farms,” he explained. “So that’s part of my life: training the horses.“I’m sort of what you call the mechanic,” he adds, “and she’s the driver.”

“I’ve always been into horses.” (Photo Courtesy of Steve Bond)

Having left GH in 1986 in the hope of pursuing a movie career, Bond later played SANTA BARBARA’s Mack Blake before, as he explained, “the good Lord led me in another direction.” In addition to the equestrian realm, he’s also made his living in commercial real estate. “I’ve built two buildings in Santa Monica that we rent out, and I’m in the process of building another,” he said, adding that it’s not too different from filmmaking. “The architect is sort of the writer, and then the developer is like the director, and I conduct the whole deal like a producer.”

The famously blue-eyed actor has fond memories of playing Jimmy Lee, the “interloper” who went after the Quartermaine fortune as well as distant cousin Celia in the early ’80s. “I always portrayed him as a guy who justified what he did,” Bond recalled. “Edward was his dad, and he disowned him — he deserved what he got.”

“Those times were very special.” (Photo Credit: ABC Photo Archives)

The actor said that he has been very happily “retired from show business” for a long time. Or at least he was until wife Cindy convinced him to appear in Enchanted Christmas, the TV-movie that she produced last year. “I played Alexa PenaVega’s boss,” he shared. “If Cindy does another one and there’s a part in it [for me], then I’d do it again. It’s nice to hang out with her when she’s working.”

For more on your favorite GH stars — past and present — keep reading the ABC edition of Soaps In Depth magazine!

Love GH? Be sure to join our We Love General Hospital Facebook group to chat about all the latest storylines and juicy gossip!