General Hospital star Robyn Bernard spent her final years ranting about how her Hollywood career ruined her life, while also battling alcohol and meth addictions and serious mental health issues, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The actress, 64, was discovered dead in a field behind a 7/11 gas station in San Jacinto, Calif., at 4:08 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Although toxicology tests are pending, friends who knew the actress well in her final years said the scrubby area was a popular meeting place for the city’s homeless population – which Bernard was part of for the past 12 months.
Close friend and former neighbor Norma Teyechea, 74, told DailyMail.com: ‘She used to drink a lot and take drugs.
‘I’m surprised she went this far to be honest with you. She wanted to drink nice vodka – it gets you eventually.’
Robyn Bernard fell from soap star diva to a life addicted to alcohol and meth before her death aged 64, according to friends
“She used to talk about Hollywood – she said she was abused a lot in Hollywood,” her former neighbor Norma Teyechea told DailyMail.com. She is pictured at a 2014 General Hospital reunion with actor Guy Mack
Bernard’s character (second left) was involved in a major murder-mystery plot during his time on General Hospital
The actress was found in a field behind this 7/11 in San Jacinto, California early Tuesday
She added: “She used to talk about Hollywood – she said she was abused a lot in Hollywood and it just pretty much destroyed her from what I heard.”
Bernard’s lonely death in a field flanked by trailer parks and a gas station, and seen in exclusive DailyMail.com pictures, marks a sad end to a life that once held much promise.
The daughter of Texan television personality Jerry Wayne Bernard and his teacher wife Gaylon, Bernard was the eldest of four girls: the others were Crystal, a successful actress herself who starred in Happy Days and Wings, and the youngest sisters Scarlett and Angelique .
She got her break in television in the 1980s, when the beautiful brunette landed occasional guest roles on shows including The Facts Of Life, Simon & Simon and Whiz Kids.
They led up to her biggest role as Terry Brock, the daughter of one of General Hospital’s villains of that period – DL Brock, portrayed by David Groh.
She appeared regularly on the program for 145 episodes over six years before moving on in 1990.
She later took small roles in a number of French films, most directed by the late Jean-Jacques Beineix, including Diva (1981), his 1986 international hit Betty Blue and 1989’s Roselyne And The Lions.
Betty Blue would go on to secure nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and a Bafta.
Her last credit was in the 2002 direct-to-video adaptation of the play Voices From The High School.
She got her break in television in the 1980s, when the beautiful brunette landed occasional guest roles in shows including The Facts Of Life, Simon & Simon and Whiz Kids
In addition to working on General Hospital, Bernard appeared in the French Oscar-nominated film Betty Blue
Her biggest role was as Terry Brock, the daughter of one of General Hospital’s villains – DL Brock, portrayed by David Groh
Friends Norma Teyechea, 74, Dan Berlin, 62, and Robert Berlin, 61, stand in front of the lot where Bernard’s trailer burned down in 2015
But behind the scenes, friends said, Bernard had long struggled with alcohol addiction and had also been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Ex-boyfriend Dan Berlin, 62, said: ‘This had been going on for a long time. I have happy memories of her. Some. But she was hard to be around.’
Bernard’s problems accelerated in 2014 after she moved to San Jacinto, a small town of 45,000 about 85 miles east of LA.
Bernard’s problems accelerated in 2014 after she moved to San Jacinto, a small town of 45,000 about 85 miles east of LA
There she moved into a trailer park for senior citizens, became part of the community and impressed fellow residents with her incredible singing voice.
“She loved to sing,” Teyechea told DailyMail.com. ‘She was a good singer. We used to go to karaoke together.’
Margot Nichols, another close friend, added: ‘She was something else. She was a girlfriend. But what can you say?
“She had an addiction, and if you’re schizophrenic and you don’t take your medicine…”
A year after she moved in, tragedy struck when her trailer home burned down in April 2015, killing seven of her eight cats and destroying all of her belongings.
According to Berlin’s brother Robert, 61, the eighth cat died four days later of smoke inhalation – leaving her distraught.
Robert added: ‘She stayed in the park here with different people for a while after it happened.
“But our old management that we had here, when she came in, they wanted to run her away. She was really kind of a pariah. It was sad. And it used to make me really sad.”
At the same time, according to Teyechea, she had fallen out with her family, and her relationship with Berlin was also in trouble.
Bernard then moved into her last home—a small trailer in a community called Parkview Estates, facilitated by Riverside County’s Department of Adult Protective Services—where her addiction continued to spiral.
Bernard was the daughter of television personality Jerry Wayne Bernard and the sister of Wings actress Crystal Bernard
Bernard originally lived in this mobile home park in San Jacinto, but her trailer burned down in 2015, killing her eight cats
Towards the end of her life, Bernard had lived hard and had become a familiar sight outside the Stater Bros grocery store, where locals would see her pushing her meager possessions around in shopping carts
The plot of land where Bernard’s body was found was known as a hangout for San Jacinto’s homeless
Court records seen by DailyMail.com show repeated arrests, beginning with one in November 2017 for driving under the influence of drugs and being under the influence of drugs in public.
In April 2018, she was arrested for being on drugs for the second time, and in October 2018, Bernard was collared for being drunk in public and for stealing a shopping cart.
She was arrested again on identical charges in February 2019 and for a third time on the exact same charge in May of the same year.
Neither case had come to trial at the time of her death, although a hearing in the May 2019 case was scheduled for next month.
According to Teyechea, Bernard would buy vodka from the local branch of RiteAid in large bottles and drink it day and night.
Although she made attempts to clean up, she invariably relapsed and had lived hard as a result – becoming a familiar sight outside the Stater Bros grocery store, where locals would see her pushing her meager possessions around in shopping carts.
Joni Woods, 66, lives across the street from the empty space where Bernard’s trailer used to be. She told DailyMail.com: ‘I used to see her around town all the time pushing her shopping carts. She always had four or five of them and I always felt so sorry for her.
‘She was quite weathered. She had been in the sun a lot, and she always had four or five shopping carts full of things, which she took with her everywhere she went.’
Berlin says he last saw his ex-girlfriend about two years ago. He said: ‘At that point she had just let herself go.
‘She was out there talking to herself in a nonsensical way. She was schizophrenic.’
Richard added: ‘I don’t know if it was the drugs or the alcohol, but she was pretty mentally unwell – she used to say that Hollywood screwed her over.
‘They made her dirty and that’s why she ended up living in San Jacinto of all places.’
Of all her friends, Nichols was the last to see Bernard just six months ago outside the popular local diner J&J’s.
“It was me and William (her husband) – we saw her walking past and went outside to talk to her,” she told DailyMail.com.
“She recognized us and remembered our names.”