| Gloria Bardwell | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judith Chapman as Gloria Bardwell (2007) | |||||||||||||
| The Young and the Restless | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Joan Van Ark (2004–05) Judith Chapman (2005-) |
||||||||||||
| Duration | 2004-05, 2005— | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | April 6, 2004 | ||||||||||||
| Created by | John F. Smith Kay Alden |
||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Glo | ||||||||||||
| Aliases | Gloria Abbott Gloria Fisher Gloria Simmons |
||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||
| Occupation |
|
||||||||||||
| Residence | Genoa City Athletic Club Genoa City, Wisconsin |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Gloria Bardwell (née Simmons; formerly Baldwin, Fisher and Abbott) is a fictional character, a resident of Genoa City on the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless. The role was originated by Joan Van Ark who played the role from April 6, 2004[1] to January 7, 2005,[2] and is currently portrayed by Judith Chapman, who assumed the role on January 14, 2005.[2]
By 2011, Judith Chapman was dropped as a series regular to a recurring character. Most of the storylines regarding Gloria involve her marriages to John Abbott, and brothers William and Jeffrey Bardwell, and schemes involving her sons Michael Baldwin and Kevin Fisher. She also developed a strong rivalry with her former stepson Jack and Ashley Abbott. More recently, she and Jeffrey opened the city's favorite club, Gloworm.
Gloria Fisher comes to town after her younger son, Kevin Fisher, goes to her for help. She becomes romantically involved with John Abbott, Sr. They soon marry. She hides the identities of her sons Kevin and Michael Baldwin because John does not like them, particularly Kevin who is an internet predator who attempted to murder John's granddaughter Colleen Carlton, among other crimes. John eventually finds out and is angry. After Kevin saves John's life he comes to accept his wife's family. Gloria has to contend with John's two oldest children, who reside in the Abbott Mansion. His daughter Ashley does not like Gloria, viewing her as a schemer and scam artist, only after John's money, while his son Jack, realizing that Gloria makes his father happy, is more accepting.
Tom Fisher, Gloria's second husband and Kevin's father, comes to town, revealing that, unbeknownst to Gloria, their divorce was never finalized, and they are, in fact, still married (thus invalidating Gloria's marriage to John). Tom begins blackmailing Gloria by threatening to reveal to John that she and Tom are still married. She gives into the blackmail, which includes giving him money and occasionally helping him romantically pursue John's daughter Ashley Abbott. John finds out about this and confronts Tom with a gun. He accidentally shoots and kills him. After a bout of memory loss of the event (during which Ashley falsely confesses to thd crime to protect her father), John remembers the events and confesses that it was, in fact, he who killed Tom. He is conficted, despite the extenuating circumstance, and is sent to prison. Before his incarceration, he leaves Gloria his Jabot proxy.
While Ashley has never cared for Gloria, after John's incarceration, his son Jack begins to also resent her, blaming her for his father's troubles and his imprisonment. In an attempt to prove herself to John's children, Gloria set up a scheme to taint a Jabot product Ashley created, the face cream 'GloAgain', and then pretend to catch the faulty product before it is released, and in so doing, appear to save Jabot. However, unbeknownst to Gloria, Jack sends samples of the product out retailers before Gloria can pretend to save the day. The samples hurt many people, including John's granddaughter Abby, and are initially thought to result in the death of a woman named Emma Gibson (whom it is much later determined actually had another medical condition that caused her death). Emma's husband sues Jabot and Gloria convinces him to stipulate in the settlement that Jack can not have anything to do with the company again.
While in prison, John suffers a massive stroke that puts him into a coma, and he is placed on life support. When it is revealed that he will never reemerge from his coma, Jack and Ashley want to take John off of life support, while Gloria wishes to keep him alive. Gloria and John's children fight bitterly over this, before Gloria eventually relents and allows John to die peacfully. After John's death, Jack, still angry at Gloria, lies about the time of John's funeral, causing her to miss it, and later kicks her out of the Abbott Mansion, leaving her to move in with Michael and Lauren. It is revealed that Jack also tricked John (preying upon his temporary dementia) into writing a will that left Gloria with nothing. Katherine Chancellor and Jill Abbott give Gloria a job at Jabot. She romantically pursues district attorney William Bardwell who has recently inherited a fortune due to his uncle's death. Gloria eventually marries William, who then discovers the truth about Gloria and the face cream. He then suffers a stroke, and is taken to hospital. After holding him against his will while she attempts to change his mind about reporting her activities surrounding the face cream, she decides to turn herself in for contaminating the 'GloAgain' face cream so that he will stop stressing himself and his condition will improve. Seeing that she truly loves him, William Bardwell stops Gloria from turning herself in, but eventually succumbs to his stroke and dies anyway. After William dies he inherits his uncle's money, fifty million dollars, and the money goes to Gloria. The truth about John's fake will is also revealed, and Gloria inherits half of the Abbott estate, per John's original will.
William's identical twin Jeffrey arrives in Genoa City and schemes to get William's money. Jeffrey presents Gloria with a box of mementos that William sent him before he died. The box contains a jar of the contaminated face cream. Gloria then becomes convinced that Jeffrey knows of her crime. Gloria plays a game of cat-and-mouse with Jeffrey. Their manipulations of each other lead to two marriages and to the two of them falling in love.
The truth about John's will comes out and Gloria is awarded half of Abbott Manor. Since Gloria and Jeffrey move in and Jack and Sharon refuse to move out, they are time-sharing by area. Both couples are doing everything they can to make the other leave. Gloria redecorates in outlandish style, and Sharon & Jack with Jeff's help, hire an actor, Alistair Wallingford, to play John's ghost to scare Gloria into selling her share of the mansion and leaving. Gloria figures it out and threatens to file a lawsuit, but Jack, influenced by his conscience in the form of his dead father John, gives up and gives her the house. He and Sharon move out. Gloria, influenced by Jana and her beliefs in karma, decides to turn her life around and gives the mansion back to Jack. Jeffery and Gloria to live in the Abbott pool house.
Jeffrey and Gloria join forces with John's children to regain control of Jabot. With Kevin's help, Gloria manipulates Katherine into leaving her some Jabot shares in her will. Meanwhile, she and Jeffrey set up a dummy corporation to buy Jabot shares. After Kay dies and Gloria gains control of the shares she left her, she, Jeffrey, and the Abbott children take over Jabot.
Michael's father River Baldwin comes back into their lives. Jeff is jealous of him. River needs Gloria to testify in his favor in order to so he will not got to prison. Jeffrey blackmails her into not doing it. He says he will expose her for tainting the 'GloAgain' cream. After struggling with her conscience, Gloria does testify for River and is arrested tainting the cream.
Gloria is released from prison, when it is determined that her face cream tampering did not result in any deaths. She attempts to reconcile with Jeffrey, but ends their relationship when she sees him with Jill.
In late 2009, Jeffrey and Gloria reunite, first moving into the Genoa City Athletic Club, and eventually renting Phyllis Abbott's penthouse condo. They remain in the penthouse until summer 2010, when Phyllis abruptly evicts them, as she wants to reclaim the condo for Sharon Newman. Jeffrey and Gloria move back into the GCAC.
In August 2010, Gloria opens a nightclub called Gloworm (in the location of Neil Winters' former Indigo club), and has Jeffrey be her date to the grand opening. The event is also featured on Abby Newman's reality show "The Naked Heiress". Abby even gives the club her "Naked Heiress" seal of approval, which delights Gloria.
Gloria also gets her real estate license & makes her first sale, selling a home to her ex-stepson Billy Abbott & his now-wife Victoria Newman.
In December 2010, Gloria warns her former daughter-in-law Jana Hawkes to stay away from Kevin, knowing that they have reconnected. Gloria is very angry at Jana for cheating on Kevin with his half-brother Ryder Callahan. When Jana begins stalking and harassing Kevin and his new girlfriend Chloe Mitchell, Gloria and Choloe join forces to expose Jana's schemes, eventually getting arrested after breaking into Jana's apartment. The charges are eventually dropped.
Beginning in late 2010 and continuing into 2011, Jeffrey begins using Gloworm as a front for an illegal gambling and money laundering operation, eventually involving Kevin in the scheme (under the guise of his being the club's bookkeeper); Chloe also becomes indirectly involved, but Gloria is not made aware of her nightclub's involvement in illegal activities for some time. She presumes Jeffrey and Kevin's mobster associates to be legitimate patrons of Gloworm. Eventually, Jeffrey is able to pay off the money he ows to the mobsters and sever their times with them.
On Valentine's Day Gloria teams up with Katherine Chancellor (Chloe's godmother) to bring an estranged Kevin and Chloe back together. The plan works as Kevin and Chloe have sex in Gloria's office at Gloworm.
In September 2011 Jeffrey breaks up with Gloria over the phone; revealing that he has absconded with all of her money, much of it gambled away in Las Vegas, where he now intends to reside. With no money and little recourse, Gloria teams up with Angelo, a mobster who had previously done business with Jeffrey, and Angelo becomes a partner in Gloworm.