Beth Spaulding Bauer

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Elizabeth Raines Bauer
Guiding Light
Portrayed by Beth Chamberlin
First appearance 1983
Created by Pam Long
Profile
Nickname(s) Beth
Date of birth March 16, 1965 (revised to February 14, 1961 in 1989)
Date of death Presumed deceased (July 1986-December 1989) Presumed deceased (August 2001-February 2002)
Occupation Executive at Spaulding Enterprises
Residence Bauer Cabin-Lodge

Elizabeth "Beth" Spaulding Bauer (née Raines, formerly Lemay, Winslow, and Lewis) is a character in the long-running American soap opera Guiding Light, daughter of the late Bradley and Lillian Raines.

Actress Judi Evans won a Best Supporting Actress daytime Emmy Award in 1984 for her portrayal of the character.

Actress Beth Chamberlain was named Soap Opera Digest Awards Hottest Female Star of 1990. In 2007 he secured the Daytime Emmys Pre-nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Chamberlain also authored the tie-in novel Lorelei's Guiding Light: An Intimate Diary using the pen name of her character.

Beth's alterego was Lorelei Hills. Lorelei was Beth's identiy when she had amnesia and she later pretended to be Lorelei again. Lorelie kept a diary which was later realeased in real life as a tie-in book.

The book, Lorelei's Guiding Light: An Intimate Diary, was written by Beth Chamberlain under the pen name of Lorelei Hills. Published by St. Martin's Press, it was released during the summer of 2002. The Cincinnati Enquirer listed the book as number one on their best seller list for July 02, 2002.

The character of Beth Raines has been half of two supercouples. Beth and Lujack and Beth and Philip Spaulding. Beth has also been married to Philip's father, Alan Spaulding and Philip's best friend Rick Bauer. Beth, Philip, Rick and Mindy called themselves The Four Musketeers in the 1980's. Together they were four best friends with a watertight bond.

Contents

[edit] Actor History

Playing Beth Raines was the first television/daytime role for now veterine actress Judy Evans. She stated that three of the four actors who played the four musketeers where all hired around the same time and that the four of them were very close. She also said that her time on Guiding Light was magical. It was when she realized that she was finally living her dream. (Soap Opera Digest March 23, 1999 "Daytime Stars Open Their Career Scrapbooks" by Naomi Rabinowitz)

[edit] Character History

Judy Evans years: 1983-1986

From the start, the character of Beth Raines was a recognized fan favorite. Soap Opera Digest named her 1984's Most Beleagered Heroine, called her a part of "one of the top triangles ever to grace daytime" and compared later storylines to General Hospital's romantic/adventure couple Luke and Laura.

Beth Raines first appeared on Guiding Light in the spring of 1983. She was admited to Cedars Hospital as an unconscious victim of an abusive stepfather. Her roommate was Melinda (Mindy) Lewis. Mindy was friends with two orderlies, Philip Spaulding and Rick Bauer. The four of them formed a fast friendship, nicknamed "The Four Musketeers" which quickly developed into a romantic quadrangle.

Beth was a shy, artistic teenager. Philip and Mindy, both heirs to two of Springfield's premier families, were dating when Philip fell for Beth who was dating Rick. Fate seemed to be pushing Philip and Beth together. When a traumatized Beth became nearly catatonic after being raped by her step-father, the two of them ran away to New York City.

The New York City storyline, took place at Christmas time and introduced the character of Nick, a Santa-like figure who would make later appearances on the show throughout the years around the holiday season. The location shoot was plagued by bad weather and a need for many reshoots. However, the result was a charming memorable love story that Grant Alexander (Philip) said was worth the extra effort.

They returned to be married, but discovered that Mindy, Beth's maid of honor, was pregnant with Philip's child, and Philip married Mindy instead.

Beth moved on with a gangleader named LuJack, in a star-crossed romance. It was discovered he was the long lost son of a baroness by marriage (Philip's aunt Alexandra Spaulding). LuJack's ex-girlfriend also held Beth, LuJack and his mother hostage. Meanwhile, Mindy miscarried. After Philip and Mindy divorced, Philip tried to win Beth back. Beth was temporarily blinded in an explosion, when a jealous Philip hired someone to blow up LuJack's diner.

LuJack was accused of the murder of Andy Ferris, and the couple became amateur detectives to clear his name. LuJack was killed, leaving a heartbroken Beth to eventually reunite with Philip briefly before being kidnapped and presumed dead in 1986.


Beth's Return-Beth Chamberlin

In 1989, paintings of Beth surface and Philip becomes convinced that she is still alive. Meanwhile, Beth has returned to Springfield with Neil Everest, but with amnesia and unable to speak. A run-in with Bradley leads to her recovering her memory and eventually making amends with her step-father. That December, Philip and Beth are reunited at the Willow Hills Sanitarium, where Philip stops Beth's marriage to Neil and Beth regains her speech.

In 1990, Neil helps Beth recall what really happened when she was believed to be dead. She reveals that she killed her abductor, Professor Blackburn, when he tried to attack her. She sleeps with Philip who is at this time married to Blake, who refuses to grant him a divorce. When she finds out she's pregnant, she's unsure of the baby's paternity. She thinks it is Neil but later find's out that it's Philip.

Neil is killed in an explosion that Philip is accused of causing. Philip, with the help of Rick and Beth, fakes his death to escape jail time. Beth and Rick marry to throw off suspicion related to Philip's fake death. Philip returns in October, and Beth gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Spualding (Lizzie) in November. In December, Beth and Rick divorce. Rick becomes Lizzie's godfather. The following year (1991) Philip and Beth marry and move to Arizona with Lizzie.

Beth Chamberlin left the show for six years before returning to reprise her role as Beth Raines. During this time, the character of Philip Spaulding had returned and resumed his life in Springfield.

In 1996, Philip and Beth were divorced off-screen.

In 1997, Beth returns to Springfield with Lizzie (played by Hayden Panetiere). Philip is dating Harley Cooper. Beth begins to date Ben Warren and announces to Philip that she intends to stay in town. In 1998, she teams up with Annie Dutton to try to win Philip back from Harley. She is named as a suspect in the murder of Carl Stevens. It is later revealed that young Lizzie shot and killed Carl because he had abused her mother. She protects Lizzie and unhappily allows her to be in Philip and Harley's wedding.

In 1998, Beth makes a play for Matt Reardon, but later dates Jim Lemay (legal father to Harley's daughter Susan, who she gave up for adoption as a teen mom). When Beth, Philip and Jim are in a plane crash, Jim escapes to find help. Beth and Philip, thinking they are about to die make love. After being rescued, Beth accepts Jim Lemay's proposal.

In 2000, Beth found out that she was pregnant with Philip's baby. She convinced Philip to allow her to pass the baby off as Jim's, in order to preserve both of their marriages. However, that same year, Lizzie is diagnosed with leukemia. Jim refuses to allow the doctors to induce labor in order to use the stem cells from the cord blood to save Lizzie's life. Lizzie survived, but Beth and Jim's relationship did not. After breaking up and then reconciling, Jim saves Lizzie and baby James from a fire.

In 2001, Beth allows herself to be seduced by Prince Edmond Winslow of San Christobel and conspires with him to overthrow his brother, Prince Richard Winslow. She became a princess but divorced Edmond when she found out that he was holding Cassie prisoner.

In 2002, Beth is presumed dead again when she is caught up in a flash flood in San Christobel. Edmond later meets a country girl named Lorelei Hills who looks exactly like Beth. He convinces her to come to Springfield and scam the Spauldings out of Beth's fortune by convincing them that Beth wasn't really dead. The con is successful and Philip begans to fall in love with "Beth." When he realizes that she is an imposter, Lorelei and Edmond are jailed.

In jail, Lorelei has flashback's of Beth's life and it is revealed that she really is Beth, only she that had amnesia all this time. Her fingerprints match and it is confirmed that she is the real Beth. Lorelei/Beth now struggles with her split personality. Lorelei dominates temporarily and runs off with Edmond. Eventually Beth's personality wins out and she is reunited with Philip and Lizzie. Just as they start to get back on track, a lover from Lorelei's past comes to Springfield in the unlikely person of Bill Lewis, the son of Billy Lewis and Vanessa Chamberlin Reardon, who was last seen as a teenager and is now a young college student.

In 2004, Philip was presumed dead, after having been shot by his father, Alan. In 2006 Beth was shocked to learn that Rick not only helped him fake his death, but had kept that information from her and everyone in Springfield. Beth married Philip's father Alan to obtain security for herself and her children. When she miscarried their baby, he became obsessed with a Lizzie's pregnancy and trying to gain custody of the child, fathered by Jonathan Randall, son of Alan's one-time wife, Reva Shayne. Beth divorced Alan Spaulding, but despite his short-lived marriage to Doris Wolf, and his near death at the hands of her daughter Ashley, Beth and Alan continued to bounce back and forth in their relationship. At one point, during the investigation to find out who shot Alan, Beth attempted to seduce Alan's other son, Alan-Michael, but was unsuccessful.

Beth focused, on protecting Lizzie and her baby from Alan and reconnected with Rick, who was at the time married to Mel Boudreaux and father to their daughter Leah. Beth, Rick and Alan formed an on-again/off-again triangle. The affair was revealed by Jonathan Randall in an angry outburst. Rick and Mel divorced and Beth became pregnant, but paternity was uncertain.

A distraught Cassie tampered with the paternity test to show that Rick was the father of Beth's baby, and Beth was married to Rick on the fourth of July by Josh Lewis, who had become a preacher. Cassie blamed Alan for the death of her daughter Tammy, and wanted ostensibly to "protect Beth's child from having Alan-Spaulding as a father." Lizzie was dismayed and angry that she hadn't been invited and was one of the last people to find out. Thinking the baby was a Bauer, Beth named the baby Bernadette as a tribute to Bert Bauer, Rick's grandmother. At Bernadette's baptism, Reva blurted out the truth in order to save her own son from Alan's wrath. Beth decided instead after some additional thought to rename her daughter Peyton Raines instead of Bernadette Bauer. Beth currently remains with Rick, although Alan continues to try to win back her affections.



[edit] Legal name

  • Upon Beth Raines marriage to Alan Spaulding in 2005, she legally changed her name to Elizabeth Raines Spaulding. She signed her divorce papers in 2007 with the surname Spaulding as to drop her middle name "Ann". Upon her July 5, 2007 marriage to Dr. Frederick Bauer it is unknown the name that Beth carries, but it is still said she is referred to as Elizabeth Spaulding. She calls herself Beth Bauer.
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