General Hospital

Longtime soap opera actor Jay Pickett has died -- this while he was actually doing his job in front of the camera.

Jay passed Thursday on the set of a new film he was working on called "Treasure Valley" in Idaho -- so says his costar and co-producer for the flick, Jim Heffel, who shared the tragic news on Facebook ... explaining he actually died while they were preparing to shoot a scene.

He writes, "Jay died sitting on a horse ready to rope a steer in the movie Treasure Valley in Idaho. The way of a true cowboy." Not much more was discussed as to how he ended up toppling over, but it sounds like it was sudden ... and an official cause of death isn't out yet.

Another star from the movie, Travis Mills, took to his own FB page to speculate it appeared to be a heart attack of some sort, while also noting everyone around at the time tried hard to keep him alive ... going on to call it a shocking tragedy.

This is a project that Jay was all in on -- he was writing, producing and starring in it as the lead man. It sounds like a good old-fashioned Western movie ... and was due to be released next year.

Jay certainly has had some movie experience over the length of his long career, but he's definitely more famous for his TV work ... or daytime TV, we should say -- which he got started in the '90s with "Days of Our Lives," on which he played Dr. Chip Lakin.

He was only on 'Days' for about a year, but then moved on to even more legendary soaps ... where he had prolonged roles. Jay was in over 700 episodes of "Port Charles" for several years between the late '90s and early 2000s, playing Frank Scanlon to much fanfare.

After that, Jay went on to star in "General Hospital" for a couple years -- at which point, he was acting in a ton of different stuff ... like "Dexter," "Desperate Housewives," "Hot Line," "Saving Grace" ... and later, "NCIS," "The Mentalist" and other shows and movies up until very recently.

He's survived by his wife, Elena, and their children. Jay was only 60.

Erin Hershey, a soap actress famous for "General Hospital," didn't want her kids tuning into Joe Biden's inauguration ... telling a teacher she'd never let them "watch a criminal."

Erin's got a daughter in elementary school in California, and after the little girl's teacher sent an email to parents Wednesday inviting kids to skip class to watch Inauguration Day, she replied with some nasty comments about the new Prez.

According to the email chain, obtained by TMZ, Erin blasted this out to the teacher and her fellow parents ... "Why watch a criminal on television? I’d never do that to my children. But thank you."

Another parent then rushed to the teacher's defense in the email chain, thanking her for considering the families who wanted to watch the historical moment and drawing Erin's ire by writing, "no matter the person taking office, we are lucky to be able to watch moments like this."

Erin quickly responded with another reply all, saying ... "I don't think we are lucky at all to watch a flat out joke."

Tyler Christopher -- best known for his appearances on "General Hospital" over the course of 20 years -- may have had too much fun celebrating turning 47 ... because he ended up in jail.

The soap star was arrested in Martinsville, Indiana Monday night -- on his 47th birthday -- and booked for public intoxication. According to Morgan County Jail records ... he's being held on $225 cash and $1,000 bond.

As far as we can tell ... Tyler hasn't been released yet.

Based on his mug shot, Christopher's changed his look quite a bit since he left his role on another popular soap opera, "Days of Our Lives," earlier this year ... and not for the better.

Tyler played Stefan DiMera on 'Days' from December 2017 until leaving the series this past March. Before that, he played Nikolas Cassadine on 'GH' off and on from 1996 to 2016.

All that pales in comparison to the best fun fact about Tyler though -- he was married to Eva Longoria from 2002 to 2004.

Happy birthday, bud?

Peter Hansen -- who played Lee Baldwin for 5 decades on the iconic soap opera "General Hospital" -- died Sunday in Santa Clarita, California.

Peter's character started out as an addiction counselor at the hospital, and then the role morphed into Mayor of Port Charles.

Hansen won an Emmy for his alcoholism story line in 1979.

Hansen was also known for his role in the movies "When Worlds Collide" and "Dragonfly" ... and has over 100 acting credits to his name over an almost 70-year career.

He is survived by his son and daughter and 3 grandkids.

He was 95.