Jennifer Savidge on Falling for ‘Laramie’ Star Robert Fuller and a Very Memorable ‘St. Elsewhere’ Scene

Robert Fuller and Jennifer Savidge have been married since 2001. — Everett Collection

Jennifer Savidge is best known for her six years on the beloved hospital drama St. Elsewhere as well as five years on Jag. But everyone in Olive Branch, Mississippi, at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival knows her as the lucky woman who nabbed screen icon Robert Fuller.

Legions of Fuller fans — mostly women — attend the festival annually to pay homage to the star of Laramie, Wagon Train and Emergency! During a June 5, 2025, panel, Jenn, 72, told the crowd what’s it like to live with Robert Fuller, 91; the two have been married since 2001 and living happily in Texas.

Robert Fuller in Laramie, Wagon Train and Emergency!

Everett Collection

“Bob was the special guest at an event,” she shares, “when someone asked where we met. Bob said ‘I met her when she was a pole dancer.’ I blanched; and the Baptist minister’s wife almost passed out. Bob tells everybody in Gainesville, Texas, that that’s how we met. The truth is I picked him up in a bar! We started dancing and our belt buckles got hooked together, I kid you not.”

Jennifer Savidge and Robert Fuller dancing at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival on June 5, 2025. Credit: Laurie Jacobson/ReMIND

Jenn Savidge and Robert Fuller dancing at MidSouth Nostalgia Festival on June 5, 2025.

Laurie Jacobson/ReMIND

Jen also shared how she got her start in show business. “I did theater in high school and college. Then I went to Los Angeles and started pounding the pavement. I just kept knocking on doors. Finally, I started getting small parts.

“Then my teacher talked to somebody who was doing the pilot for St. Elsewhere. I got an audition — one line in a surgical mask — but they started using me as one of the nurses. The part got bigger. A relationship began with Ed Begley‘s character, and I became a regular.

“Ed and I had a lot of kissing scenes. I’m not good at that stuff. I get nervous. We had a bathtub scene and I’d never done that before. They make lots of bubbles. I have this nude strapless body thing on. So, we’re in the tub and the bubbles keep going lower. If the top of the body suit shows, we’ll have to do this blasted scene all over again. So, what the heck, I just discreetly pull it down. Begley is supposed to shove me with his foot … and when he does, let’s just say his eyes popped with surprise!” Savidge recalled.

ST. ELSEWHERE, from left: Jennifer Savidge, Ed Begley Jr., 'A Room with a View' (season 5, episode 3, aired October 8, 1986), 1982-1988, ©NBC/courtesy Everett Collection

©NBC/Everett Collection

“I always had a little crush on Ed,” Savidge reminisced about her costar. “He was so freaking funny. He’d just look at me and I’d start laughing. but Richard Chamberlain made me weak in the knees when we worked together on Broadway in Night of the Iguana.” But no one compares with who she’s got.

“Bob is the best husband I could ever possibly want,” Jennifer says. “He’s caring. He’s the best nurse in the world. I’m accident prone and he’s always playing Dr. Brackett. And all you women,” she laughs pointing at the audience, “I know you’ve all kissed him. That’s OK. He’s a good man and I love him to pieces.”