Television

PORTLAND, Ore. — Actress Shell Kepler, who for years played the gossipy nurse Amy Vining on the TV soap opera General Hospital, has died. She was 49. Kepler died Friday at Oregon Health & Science University hospital. The medical examiner's office said she died of renal failure.

FILE 1992/AP

Shell Kepler

Kepler's busybody character on General Hospital was a fan favorite and enjoyed a long run, 1979-2002.

In addition to her run on General Hospital, she was also in a 1982 Joan Collins film, Homework, and a couple of episodes of the situation comedy Three's Company.

On the side, she was a businesswoman, marketing clothing on the former Home Shopping Club. She said in a 1994 Associated Press interview that her "Lacy Afternoon" collection had sales topping $20 million that year alone.

Kepler was born in Ohio and the family moved to California when she was 10. She recalled in 1994 that she didn't yet have a driver's license when she began trying out for film roles.

"I managed to get my girlfriends to drive me to auditions because I wasn't old enough to drive. I was a rather ambitious kid," she said.

She moved to Portland after her TV career and became involved in charity fundraising.

The Associated Press