Other villains not mentioned include Larry Welch, Eve Donovan, Anjelica Devereaux, Cal Winters, and Nick Corelli.
I thought about Nick. He had two runs on the show. The first time he was kind of the stereotypical sleazy pimp. Then they wrote him off and brought him back a few months later and that time they adjusted the writing to make him more sypathetic towards Eve, like in a strangely romantic way. I think the actor who played him was very good and as repulsive as he was, there was something charming about him too.
Larry Welch was great in the 80s. The actor nailed it.
There were three actresses who played Anjelica, and of course Jane Elliott, the first one, was the best of the bunch.
Charlotte Ross is my favorite Eve. What I loved about the character when she was introduced was how she was a wedge they drove into the Kim-Shane relationship, but Kim became a loving stepmother to her and tried to save her from life on the streets. The mother, Gabrielle, was a definite contrast to Kim and that all played out very well.
Cal Winters was fun to watch. Wortham Krimmer was good looking and such an intense actor. Like all his scenes with even the most mundane material were electrifying to watch. Initially he was brought on to cause trouble for Diana and Roman (who turned out to be John). Then when Genie Francis quit and Diana left Salem, they used Cal for one of Kim's stories. Patsy Pease left for awhile, so Kim broke up with Shane and then came back, and somewhere along the way she took up with Cal. That didn't last, and Patsy left again, and they recast Kimberly. But the recast failed and Kim was written out. And I think Cal just sort of disappeared. But in the beginning, Cal was a very dynamic and very intense villain.
There's someone else we haven't mentioned. A woman named Stella who kidnapped Marlena when Marlena was pregnant with Belle. I can't remember why the woman hated Marlena so much. But she kept Marlena in some pit for weeks. That story just dragged out, and she was so mean to Marlena. I think it ended when Roman (played by Wayne Northrop) and John rescued Marlena, and then Marlena had Belle a short time later. If I remember correctly, Stella was a patient of Marlena's who felt Marlena didn't help her but destroyed her life. Something like that.
And then there was Jack when he was first introduced. Matthew Ashford was actually the third actor to play Jack. The first two played him sort of weak, like he latched on to nurse Kayla because he had some blood disease. But when Ashford came on, they revised the character and he had beaten the disease and was now more aggressive. He was in love with Kayla now and he was going to marry her. But of course, she was in love with Steve who turned out to be his brother. And he forced Kayla to marry him and then he raped her. He was definitely a villain at that time. Then they began to soften and redeem him, and his adoptive father Harper became the main villain of the Deveraux family.
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masgator
8 years ago
Jarrod you are thinking of Stella Lombard and she was on the show shortly before Marlena became pregnant with Belle. The Lombard family were patients of Marlena. Roger and Stella Lombard lost a son a couple years prior. Roger then became an alcoholic and I think he even started abusing Stella and their other son, Jesse. Stella insisted on therapy and Roger reluctantly agreed. After a while, Roger became infatuated with Marlena and even kissed her. When Stella found out, she flipped out and kidnapped Marlena and threw her in a pit. The weather started getting colder and Roger told Stella that he wanted to save their marriage. So Stella, feeling guilty used a phone booth on a side of a road to call the cops and before she could give Marlena's exact location, a truck lost control on black ice and slammed into the phone booth, killing Stella. John somehow found Marlena and trying to get her out, fell in the pit too. Thinking they were going to die, John and Marlena both admitted they still loved each other. Of course Roman and Abe would rescue them shortly afterwards. Then a few weeks later, John tried to leave town to spare Marlena and Roman any more conflict. Marlena stopped him before his plane took off and they ended up having sex. So Belle was either conceived on the plane or on top of a Titan conference table😉. Back to Stella, I think she was more mentally unstable and too clingy to her husband more than an outright villainess but I agree the actress who played her was very good.
And I hope you don't mind my doing so, but I wanted to clarify a couple things on Jack. You're right that Jack didn't become a full-blown villian until Matthew Ashford played the role. But Ashford didn't take over until shortly after he and Kayla were married. When Jack was introduced, he was either a high school or college friend of Kayla's. He ended up sick with Hodgkin's disease and asked Kayla to be his private nurse (and paid her good money I believe). He quickly fell in love with her. Jack was an entitled snob, but that was the extent of his meanness at that point. Then as Jack got worse and was presumably going to die soon, Steve found out from his mother Jo that Jack was his long lost brother Billy. Because Steve wanted Jack to be happy in his last weeks, he broke up with Kayla and told her she should be with Jack instead. Kayla, fed up with Steve pushing her away, accepted Jack's proposal. So Jack didn't force Kayla to marry him. It was Jack #2 that married Kayla. Then he made a miraculous recovery a couple weeks later. Still Kayla felt duty-bound as Jack's wife (even if she did sleep with Steve a couple times). Jack became a full-blown villian when he raped Kayla and hired thugs to beat up Steve when he found out about their affair.
This is a great thread though and I enjoyed reading about everybody's picks. I can't add any names as all my favorites have been chosen. And for me it would be hard to just narrow it down to five people as there were a lot of great villians and villianesses to choose from.
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Zingbot_9000
8 years ago
Days tends to have two types of villains; evil ones like Stefano, Ernesto, Andre, and Megan, who did evil things routinely, like murder people, and then not so evil villains, like Sami, Anna, and Teresa, who mostly did mean things to get their man. I'm not sure where I would put Kate and Victor on the evil scale.
Other villains not mentioned include Larry Welch, Eve Donovan, Anjelica Devereaux, Cal Winters, and Nick Corelli.
Most definitely Victor belongs on the list. He is #2 no doubt. People forget the early Victor. The Victor you see now is the relaxed Victor as an 80 year old man. Victor is a huge villain.
You mentioned Nick Corelli. LOVED that character. because I love Nick so much he ranks top 5. I'll try to rank.
1) Stefano
2) Victor
3) EJ
4) Harper
5) Nick
Tough leaving out Ernesto and Duke Johnson also....even Andre. Also, loved the side villain Jimmy Porterfield..a character who was on when I first started watching. Very minor but liked the character.
No mentions of Lawerence Alamian?????? Also no Clyde mentions. Funny how none of the 3 escapees make the list. I think even Ben Weston deserves mention.
Have no idea who Megan is. (EDITED: WOW, nice throw back name. I remember her now. Totally forgot about Megan.)
Also, I agree Charlotte Ross was great as Eve. Really great part of the Nick storyline that I loved so much. Just can not put her in the top 5 because she was often given the sympathic angle. I can not stand the actress who plays her now.
...............ZING!
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jarrodmcdonald-1
8 years ago
Thanks masgator for the clarifications. The first two actors who played Jack lasted three months apiece, so every time the story started there was a 'hiccup' and they would recast and reset the character. Ashford was definitely the best one in the role. The scenes where Jack raped Kayla (during their marriage, right?) were powerful to watch.
I loved reading your synopsis of the Stella Lombard story. As I said before, it did drag out when Marlena was in the pit so long. But it was a very well-structured story. Obviously the whole thing was devised by the writers to make Marlena vulnerable and needing John, though she had professed to stay with Roman. It was the beginning of the end of Roman & Marlena as a supercouple and from that point forward, it was John & Marlena-- which as you said, led to the pregnancy, Belle's birth and years of Sami's resentment about Marlena tossing Roman aside for John. All of that wouldn't have occurred without the earlier story involving Stella...she was the catalyst. The scenes of Marlena in the pit were hard to watch, because they really had Marlena suffer down there for awhile.
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