Who is Jean Marinelli? All about Joe Marinelli's wife as "General Hospital" actor dies of stomach cancer at 68

Joe Marinelli died after a years-long battle with throat and stomach cancer, his agent Julie Smith said to CNN in an email. The General Hospital actor’s wife, Jean Marinelli, also confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he passed away on Sunday, June 22, 2025, in Burbank, California.

According to his IMDb bio, Joe Marinelli was born on January 21, 1957, in a Meriden, Connecticut-based Italian-American family that later moved to Southern California. He married Jean Marinelli on June 29, 1991, and they remained together until his demise. For those unaware, Jean is a hornist who has performed with many orchestras.

Per Instrumental Casting, Marinelli has played French horn for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Pasadena Pops, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and more. At the same time, she has performed live or recorded with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Lou Rawls, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Seth MacFarlane, among others.

Jean Marinelli has also appeared playing French horn in multiple national commercials, according to Instrumental Casting. Apart from being a hornist, she is a multi-instrumentalist and also plays trumpet, saxophone, and flute. Per Instrumental Casting, Jean was also seen playing a French horn player on Better Things.

Apart from being a hornist, she is also a mother of two children, whom she shares with the late Santa Barbara actor.

Jean Marinelli penned a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, Joe Marinelli

The Morning Show actor was known for making guest appearances on many well-known TV shows, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ray Donovan, Desperate Housewives, Castle, and House, to name a few. On the personal front, Joe Marinelli was married to Jean for more than 34 years.

After her husband's passing, Jean penned an emotional tribute on Instagram. She shared screenshots of lyrics of Finneas’ 2021 song Only a Lifetime and captioned the post,

“Love. It’s what Joe did best. He loved acting , fly fishing, writing short stories and poetry, reading short stories and poetry, telling short and long stories, camping, cooking, philosophy, carpentry, gardening, the Packers, teaching, his family, his friends, his neighbors, his scouts.”

She mentioned how Joe loved Only a Lifetime and continued,

“[H]e loved this song. I can’t put the link on this, but you certainly can google Finneas’song “It’s Only a Lifetime.” But I can put the lyrics. And we can all learn something from these brilliant words.”

Jean concluded with a thanks to everyone for reading the post and “taking a moment to think about the message.” Billie Eilish’s brother also commented under the hornist’s post,

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“Love you Jean, thinking about the Marinellis all day every day.”

Joe Marinelli is survived by Jean and their two kids – Vincent and David. Like their parents, both are also in show business. Vincent is a film editor, while David is a music producer/composer.

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