Jack Deveraux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Harcourt Deveraux (born June 14, 1964) is a former resident of the fictional town of Salem on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. He is most famously played by Matthew Ashford from November 1987 to October 1993 and from February 2001 to October 2003 and again from May 2004 to September 2006. Ashford also returned for two episodes in April 2007. Other actors who had played by were Joseph Adams (April 1987-July 1987), James Acheson (July 1987-November 1987), Mark Valley (October 1994 to September 1997) and Steve Wilder (September 1997 to June 1998).
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character history
[edit] 1980s
Jack came to Salem in 1987 where he discovered he was suffering from Hodgkin's disease and was later cured. Although he didn't know it at the time, Jack was really Steve Johnson's long lost brother, and he had a mother (Jo Johnson) and a sister (Adrienne Johnson Kiriakis). Jack's extremely violent biological father, Duke, was dead, having been shot by his daughter after he raped her.
Jack originally came to Salem looking for Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans) - who he had fallen in love with in Hawaii. Kayla and Steve were in love, but when Steve learned Jack was his long lost baby brother (Billy), he pushed Kayla into marrying Jack to give him the will to fight his disease.
Jack married Kayla, even though Kayla was in love with Steve. Kayla was never able to consummate her marriage with Jack, and she kept telling him she wasn't ready. Soon thereafter she got sick (Harper Deveraux was poisoning her) and that gave Kayla additional reason to keep Jack at arms length.
Kayla and Steve began to see each other on the sly and Kayla decided to divorce Jack as soon as his political milestones were met. Unfortunately, the day of Jack won an election, a reporter confronted Jack with pictures of Kayla with Steve. It was obvious from those pictures that something was going on between Steve and Kayla. An enraged Jack confronted Kayla when she got home, and when she couldn't deny that those pictures had been taken during their marriage, he raped her, insisting that he was through waiting.
Jack felt guilty about hurting Kayla, but he kept redirecting his guilt as anger against Kayla and Steve. He refused to let Kayla out of their marriage and hired someone to beat Steve up.
After Kayla confessed to Steve that Jack had raped her, Jack and Steve fought on a rooftop. Jack fell off the rooftop and damaged his kidneys. He needed a new one, and the best match was Steve's. Initially Jack refused the kidney, but Dr. Mike Horton convinced him to accept it. Steve's donation did not change how Jack felt about Steve and he embarked on a campaign of harassment against Steve and Kayla.
Kayla finally had enough and she pressed charges for rape. Jack agreed to plead guilty for assault, but he maintained he was only doing it because he was being railroaded.
Jack tried to hurt Steve by helping Adrienne find long lost brother Billy. Billy and Steve had been placed in an orphanage by a desperate Jo because she felt sure her husband Duke would one day kill the children. Baby Jack had been adopted and five-year-old Steve grew up in an orphanage.
When Jack broke into Steve's apartment he found a baby picture of himself. Eventually he discovered that he was Billy, and he was horrified. Not long after, his adoptive father Harper was revealed as the riverfront knifer.
Kayla ended up developing a case of hysterical deafness/muteness during this time due to the stress of what Jack had done and was continuing to do, and what Harper had done. Jack felt guilty and his involvement in hurting her and he very sadly gave her a no contest divorce. To his dismay, Kayla married Steve.
Meanwhile, Jack had been having a relationship with Melissa Horton - she was blind to his faults due to her deep feelings of love for him.
He became engaged to Melissa, but when she realized he had been using her to help clean up his name and to further his political career, she turned him down at the altar and she left town.
Jacks entire foundation had crumbled. He wasn't who he thought he was and his 'father' was a sociopathic killer.
Jack could not let go of his hatred of Steve and he resented his biological mother for giving him away. He refused to accept the Johnsons and continued to harass Steve and Kayla, although his behavior was less menacing than before.
As time went on, Jack stopped harassing Steve and Kayla (now married) and started to reluctantly travel a hero's journey. He wanted to transform himself into the kind of man his brother was, but he was racked with guilt over what he had done, and filled with resentment at people's inability to give him a second chance.
[edit] 1990s
Eventually, he was able to accept full responsibility for the things he had done, and was able to integrate himself into the Johnson family. Right as this happened, Steve was supposedly killed, and leaving Jack heartbroken at losing the brother he finally had learned to love.
During his transformation into a decent man, Jack began to work with college intern Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves) at a newspaper that he now co-owned with Diana Colville. He had originally purchased a controlling interest in the Spectator to stop her from running an expose on his dirty dealings and he discovered a love of the business.
Jennifer, Melissa's cousin was extremely wary of Jack in the beginning, knowing him by his deeds. They bonded while Jennifer was trying to help a jailed mother by fostering her newborn baby, and soon Jennifer began to trust Jack. Jack was clearly attracted to her and attempted to throw monkeywrenches in Jennifer's budding relationship with Emilio Ramirez. Jennifer didn't seem to return the romantic interest, but she enjoyed sparring verbally with Jack.
Jack began embroiled in 'The toscano affair' in an attempt to help Steve and Kayla when Steve's old lover Marina came to town. Jack was trying to make up for tearing the two apart, and while they didn't trust his motives, he threw himself wholeheartedly into trying to get Marina out of Steve's life by finding a key that Marina and her sister Isabella wanted to find. Jack had rescued Isabella from BayView sanitarium and Isabella trusted Jack completely. Her trust for him sparked a warm friendship between the two and helped Jack along his path towards becoming a better person. Slowly Jack began to take full blame for the things he had done to hurt Steve and Kayla.
Jack and Isabella seemed to be growing closer and Jennifer realized how much she loved Jack. Jack started pushing Jennifer away during this time when he realized how dangerous the hunt for the key was. He also feared that if Jennifer and he got together, he would ultimately hurt her as he did Kayla and Melissa.
Jack and Jennifer embarked on 'The Cruise of Deception' during which time Isabella Toscano was found to be Victor Kiriakis's daughter. Ernesto Toscano had killed his wife when he found out she was unfaithful and he tried to kill everyone on board the cruise. He failed, and they all ended up on his island.
It was during this time that Jennifer finally convinced Jack that their love made sense and they consummated their love - a first for Jennifer. Jack was haunted by the thought that he would end up like Harper or Duke - evidenced by his own rape of Kayla and he was still wary of a relationship with Jennifer after they were all rescued by Steve and Shane.
Now closer to his brother, Jack accidentally killed escapee Harper as Harper tried to kill Steve on the day of his second wedding to Kayla - an event in which Jack was to be best man.
Labelling himself a rapist and killer, Jack once again began pushing Jennifer away. Eventually Jennifer got fed up with him and embroiled herself in a large deception whereby she was trying to convince Lawrence Alamain that she was his arranged-bride-to-be Katarina Von Leuschner - Jennifer's best friend from boarding school.
Jack tried to get Jennifer to abandon her ruse, fearing that Lawrence was a deadly enemy. He admitted his love to her and promised never to push her away again. Jennifer accepted his apologies but insisted on seeing her plan through. Lawrence had Steve killed and blackmailed Jennifer into marrying him by revealing that her former boyfriend Frankie was his prisoner Francois Von Leuschner. Lawrence knew she wasn't Katarina and he himself had had an affair with Katarina (Carly Manning) years ago, but all he wanted was the VL fortune. Jack, who was also in Lawrence's country along with Jennifer, Lawrence, Grandma Horton and Frankie, had been imprisoned the day of the wedding, and was unable to meet with Jennifer as planned near the elevator in Lawrence's bedroom.
Lawrence came upon his bride in his bedroom the night of his wedding and confused her in his mind with Carly. He raped Jennifer, causing Jennifer to pull away from Jack. Shane, Kayla,Bo, Carly and Julie arrived and Jack managed to convince Jennifer to escape with them. Once home, Jennifer flinched and pulled away every time Jack tried to get close to her, and eventually slapped him and called him a rapist when he tried to kiss her passionately to remind her of what they had together.
Believing Jennifer had developed issues with his past deeds, a heartbroken and angry Jack pushed himself away from Jennifer and married Eve Donovan to secure Nick Corelli's inheritance money so that he could save his paper from Lawrence who ironically was mirroring Jack's own behavior when Jack was walking a darker path.
Finally during yet another escapade (The Train escapade), Jennifer admitted to Jack about the rape. His reaction was initially to run away from her - but he realized that she needed him, and fought his own guilty demons in order to support her through her pain and through her decision to press charges against Lawrence.
Very shortly after Lawrence was convicted of fifth degree rape, Jack married Jennifer in July 1991. Jennifer gave birth to a daughter, Abigail in October 1992. In 1993, Jack and Jennifer learned that Abigail was diagnosed with a disease and Jack said farewell to them leaving town because he felt guilty for his involvement in a company which had dumped chemicals in the river, possibly causing his daughter to have this disease.
In 1994, Jack returned to town where he saw Jennifer becoming involved with Peter Blake (Jason Brooks) and she married him. Jennifer and Peter's marriage started to crumbled and Jack, Jennifer and Abigail left town to live in Africa in 1998.
[edit] 2000s
In February 2001, Jack was again reunited with Jennifer in Europe, when she attended the coronation of Princess Greta Von Amburg (Julianne Morris). He began to use Greta to make Jennifer jealous, but when the kind hearted princess developed real feelings for Jack, he told her he was gay to spare her feelings. When Greta learned the truth she left town in April 2002, and Jennifer turned her back on her ex-husband. However, in May 2003, Jack and Jennifer reunited and remarried.
In October 2003, Jack began working with police officer Abe Carver, leading to both men supposedly being murdered by the Salem Stalker (Marlena Evans). Jennifer was forced to disconnect a brain dead Jack's life support, but she was comforted by the fact that she was pregnant with Jack's baby.
In May 2004, it was revealed that Jack and all of Marlena's victims were alive and being held on a tropical island by Tony Dimera (Thaao Penghlis), who had faked all of the murders. Jennifer eventually found her way to the island, and gave birth to a son named Jack Patrick. While escaping Tony's island, Jack was again presumed dead after a tsunami, but was again Tony's prisoner along with Marlena, Roman Brady, Caroline Brady, Cassie Brady, and Victor Kiriakis. In April 2005, Jack and Jennifer were reunited at an injured Abigail's bedside after Jack and his friends escaped.
In June 2005, Jack received news that he was dying and only had about 3 months left to live due to a rare blood disease. Instead of trying to find out more about his illness, Jack worked to set Jennifer up with her old boyfriend, Frankie Brady (Billy Warlock) in order to protect her from the mysterious Patrick Lockhart (Brody Hutzler). Jack was again presumed dead after a car accident, although his body was never found.
In actuality, Jack was dying in a hospice outside of Salem, and had no intention of returning to Salem. Jennifer had moved on with Frankie and was preparing to marry him, despite Abigail's objections. Jack's plans changed when one of his hospice workers turned out to be his presumed dead brother Steve Johnson. Steve had no memory of who he was and was living under the name Nick Stockton. After confirming they were brothers by a DNA test, Jack agreed to return to Salem if Steve accompanied him. The duo returned to Salem in spring 2006 during Jennifer and Frankie's wedding ceremony, and the brothers were reunited with their widows. Frankie discovered an experimental therapy that would save Jack's life. Jack and Jennifer reunited, and moved to England in September 2006 with their son after Jack was offered a journalistic position in London.
In April of 2007, Jack returned to the states to take Abby on a spring vacation to New York City. In between tours of Time Square and getting her an autograph from Gwen Stefani, Jack found time to talk to Abby about her burgeoning relationship with Max Brady, warning her against getting involved with a guy much older and more experienced than her.
[edit] Family, marriages, romantic entanglements
[edit] Family
- Harper Deveraux (adopted father; deceased)
- Duke Johnson (biological father; deceased)
- Jo Johnson (biological mother)
- Steve "Patch" Johnson (biological brother)
- Adrienne Johnson Kiriakis (biological sister)
- Earl Johnson (biological uncle)
- Stephanie Johnson (biological niece)
- Joseph Kiriakis (adopted biological nephew)
- Victor Kiriakis II (adopted biological nephew)
- Jackson Kiriakis (biological nephew)
[edit] Marriages
Marital status:
- Jennifer Horton (May 2003-present)
- Jennifer Horton (July 1991-October 1993; divorced)
- Eve Donovan (February 1991-May 1991; annulled)
- Kayla Brady (1987-June 1988; divorced)
[edit] Significant relationships
- Melissa Horton (affair)
- Laura Spencer Horton (lovers)
- Greta Von Amburg (flirtation)
[edit] Children
- Abigail "Abby" Deveraux (Daughter, with Jennifer Horton)
- Jack "JJ" Deveraux Jr. (Son, with Jennifer Horton)
