Popular actor shot dead

A long-time veteran of the TV soap, General Hospital, Johnny Wactor, has been shot dead in Los Angeles.

Wactor was killed on Saturday in a robbery that turned horribly wrong.

He died at age 37.

The actor reportedly mistook masked thieves stealing his car for tow truck drivers and intervened before they opened fire, Dailymail reports.

Wactor was said to be leaving his side job at a rooftop bar with a female colleague at around 3:25 am Saturday in the area of West Pico Boulevard and South Hope Street, when he saw the three men, believing he was being towed.

The Los Angeles police department said that one of the three men, all of whom were wearing masks, shot Wactor before fleeing in a separate vehicle.

Paramedics got to the scene shortly after and took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The masked suspects remain at large and have yet to be identified or described.