Who was this teen idol from the 70s?

Robby was discharged from the hospital after a month – but it wasn’t over.

Sadly, Robby’s chronic heart condition would become a recurring source of worry and trouble. During his first surgery in 1984, he received a bovine valve transplant – but it had to be replaced after 15 years. He had a second surgery in 2000, but not long after that, the former teen star started having trouble breathing.

Today, Robby has undergone four open-heart surgery to fix the recurring problems and to correct previous damage to his heart. The recurring problems with Robby’s heart took a toll on him – both privately and career-wise. Balancing those two things while fearing for his life wasn’t easy. And this was hardly helped by Robby’s initial attempts to hide his health problems.

But much thanks to his wife of 40 years, he pulled through.

”She helped me find doctors, she made sure I was getting the best treatment, the right medicine,” he told USA Today. ”I’m alive because of her.”

Robby married rock singer Karla DeVito in 1982. The couple fell in love after meeting on the set of The Pirates of Penzance. Together, Robby and Karla have raised two  children, daughter Lyric (b.1983) and son Zephyr (b.1992).

We’ve been married 40 years! I am the luckiest man on the planet Earth – or as lawyers say, “and in all universes and galaxies in perpetuity!”

Robby has also had a successful career outside of show business. He worked as a teacher at the University of South Carolina for two years, where he also lived for a period. When Robby and his wife DeVito moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s, Robby began working as a teacher at UCLA. He later became a professor of film production but retired in 2016.

In 2019, Robby, who is now a grandparent, reappeared on the screen in Apple Seed. He also starred as the father in a Hallmark Channel film called A Feeling of Home.

“I’ve loved the relationship of the father I play and his daughter because as a parent, you always want to make sure there’s an open and honest relationship with your children. Even if they’re in their 20s or 30s, you wake up in the middle of the night still worried and hoping everything’s OK.