| Sami Brady | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alison Sweeney as Sami Brady | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Days of our Lives | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Alison Sweeney (1993-present) Dan Wells (temp; 2005) |
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| Duration | 1984, 1985–1992, 1992— | ||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | October 16, 1984 (birth) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Margaret DePriest | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Sami Peanut, Little Pumpkin (by Roman & John) Sweet Girl, Baby Girl, Girlie Girl (by Marlena) Sam (by Alan, Franco, & Brady) |
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| Aliases | Stan (male alter ego) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Residence | Apartment 4B (25 River Street) Salem, USA |
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Samantha Gene "Sami" Brady Hernandez (previously Reed, Walker, Roberts, and DiMera) is a fictional character on the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives. She was born onscreen on October 16, 1984, though was later SORASed to October 16, 1977. Created by head writer Margaret DePriest, Sami has been portrayed by Alison Sweeney since January 22, 1993.[1].
Sami is the mother of Will Horton, Allie Horton, Johnny DiMera, Sydney DiMera, and Grace Rafaela Brady (deceased). She is the wife of Rafe Hernandez[2] and the ex-wife of Austin Reed, Brandon Walker, Lucas Horton, and EJ DiMera.[3]
For her work in the role, Sweeney has won Daytime Emmy Awards for "Best Performance in a Daytime Drama — Young Actress" (1997), "Best Youth Actress in a Soap Opera" (1994) and "America's Favorite Villain" (2002). Sweeney has also won seven Soap Opera Digest Awards, including three wins for "Outstanding Villainess" in 1996, 1998 and 1999.[4]
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The character was previously portrayed by seven child actresses. Since Sweeney stepped into the role in 1993,[5] Sami has been showcased as the series' primary troublemaker and "the girl you loved to hate"[6] through her lying and scheming. In recent years, Sweeney has established herself as a leading heroine, with the show centering on the popular and controversial relationships between Sami and her love interests Lucas, EJ and Rafe. Sweeney’s portrayal of "Salem’s resident bad girl"[6] has earned her various fan awards during her run, including five Soap Opera Digest Awards[7] and a Special Fan Award for "America's Favorite Villain" at the 2002 Daytime Emmy Award ceremony.[6] In 2005, the role was briefly recast with Dan Wells as the character of Sami's male alter ego "Stan" while Sweeney was on maternity leave.[6] Sweeney first appeared in the role on January 22, 1993.
Sami and Eric Brady are the only children born to Marlena Evans and Roman Brady. Marlena names Sami after her deceased sister, Samantha Evans, and her best friend, Eugene Bradford. Because of the Brady-DiMera feud, Roman Brady sends the twins to live with Marlena's parents in Colorado after their mother's disappearance. Sami returns to Salem in January 1993. Sami has grown into a narcissistic, manipulative teenager who quickly becomes attached to her sister's boyfriend, Austin Reed. Sami witnesses her mother and the man who raised her, John Black making love. Formerly married, and unable to contain their ongoing passion for one another, John and Marlena become involved in a tempestuous affair that eventually results in the birth of Sami's sister, Belle. Sami decides to keep what she saw a secret. A chubby, unstable Sami further complicates her life when she becomes bulimic in a vain attempt to lose weight and become attractive to boys. She later uses her bulimia as a bargaining chip against Marlena, to whom she reveals what she witnessed on the Titan Conference Room table.
Suspecting that her baby sister, Belle, is John's child, and not her father's, Sami, who volunteers at Salem Hospital, switches her sister's blood test. She then kidnaps Belle, and places her on the black market. Thanks to John's sleuthing, John rescues Belle on Christmas Eve and returns her to Marlena and Roman. On the day of Belle's christening however, Stefano DiMera shows Roman the pages of Sami's diary. Roman leaves Marlena.
In January 1994, Sami dates Lucas friend, Alan Harris, whom Caroline, Marlena, and Roman do not trust. Sami's best friend, Jamie overhears Alan who betrays his feelings for Carrie, but does not to tell Sami about what she heard. Frustrated by his unrequited love for Carrie, Alan rapes Sami. Sami confides in Lucas, but without corroborating proof, the press vilifies Sami as a liar. Sometime later, Alan again tries rape Sami. Sami emasculates Alan by shooting him in the groin. Lucas comforts her and the two have sex. Sami then drugs Austin and impersonates Carrie so that Austin believes that they had sex. Since her divorce from Sami's father, and guilt-ridden because of her undeniable passion for John, Marlena becomes vulnerable to the clutches of the devil. As "Maredevil," Sami's possessed mother, Marlena tells Sami to seduce Austin. Sami however, fails miserably. She leaves town in early February 1995, only returning in July to interrupt Carrie and Austin's wedding and announce that she is carrying Austin's child.
Sami gives birth to her son, William Robert Reed on November 16, 1995. Will is actually the son of Lucas, who was conceived on their one night stand. Obsessed with Austin, Sami passes Will off as his son. In September 1997, Austin leaves Sami at the alter when Carrie uncovers the truth about Will's paternity. Sami renames her son, William Reed Roberts. Austin marries Carrie, and Sami leaves Salem. Weeks later Sami returns, and becomes engaged to Franco Kelly. Using Sami to obtain a green card, Franco ends up murdered on their wedding day. Sami faints after she discovers Franco's body, and Kate Roberts frames Sami. Sami is convicted and sentenced to death for Franco's murder. About to be executed by lethal injection, the Salem PD uncover evidence that Lucas killed Franco; that Kate assisted in framing Sami. Sami then falls in love with Brandon Walker, who helps her regain full custody of Will, marries him, then loses him shortly after their wedding. Even the cynical, ever-tolerant Brandon cannot abide her endless schemes and lies.
Lucas and Sami's hate for one another has since abated, and they fall in love. Engaged to Lucas, Kate drugs Sami, and places her in Brandon's bed the night before Lucas and Sami's wedding. Sami's sorely compromised psychological makeup deteriorates to such a degree that Sami begins to work for Tony DiMera, becomes a transvestite under an assumed name, "Stan," and sells illicit drugs to a pain-wracked John Black, all out of a base-born, suppositious need for revenge. Attempting to redeem herself, Sami convinces Lucas that Kate had set her up; that she was never unfaithful. The two reunite and agree to marry once again.
Lucas believes that Sami has changed for the better, but Kate reveals Sami's misdeeds as "Stan," and Lucas calls off the wedding. Austin Reed returns to Salem and befriends Sami. Carrie Brady also returns after ending her relationship with Mike Horton. Lucas and Austin, now business rivals, attempt to buy out Carrie's company. Lucas backs out, finding out that Carrie runs the entire company, and that once again, Sami manipulated him. Austin and Carrie fall back in love and plan their future together when Carrie learns that Austin's company has taken over Highstyle. Carrie dates Lucas on the rebound. Austin does the same with Sami, and both couples become engaged.
Sami's relationship to Austin is tested however, when E.J. Wells, an English race car driver, moves into the apartment next to theirs. When Sami and Austin's wedding ends in disaster, E.J. and Sami kiss for the first time. Carrie ends her relationship with Lucas and remarries Austin. They leave to start a life together in Switzerland.
Sami turns to E.J., and the two begin dating. Sami then discovers that not only is E.J. the son of Stefano DiMera, but that he is also sleeping with Kate. Sami and Lucas rekindle their love in spite of Kate, and the two decide to take a road trip. Their car breaks down in a snow storm, and they seek shelter in an abandoned cabin where they make love. Weighed down by snow, the crumbling ceiling caves in. Lucas is trapped, Sami runs to get help, meets up with E.J. in a snow drift, and asks him to help her. Revealing himself as a true DiMera, E.J. agrees to help Sami only if she has sex with him. Frightened, backed into a corner, a desperate Sami is strong-armed into agreeing to E.J.'s proposition. Before, during and after he forces himself on her, E.J. mercilessly taunts Sami, deeming their coerced encounter, "love." Only after he has his way with her, does E.J. help Sami to lift the beam from Lucas' crushed body. In subsequent weeks, E.J. continues to hector and harass Sami with reminders of the night that he cowed her into submission, forcing her to have sex.
Sami tells Lucas about her pregnancy, but fails to tell him that E.J. might be the father. Lucas and Sami wed months later on May 9, 2007. On the night of their wedding, Sami tells Lucas that E.J. raped her. Lucas forgives her for not telling her sooner, and the two consummate their marriage. Sami learns that she is having twins, and Kate starts a commotion saying that E.J. is the father. This incites Stefano DiMera to kidnap Sami in order to lay claim to the stem-cells of the fetus' that she is carrying, but he lets her go after hearing that one of the twins has another father. Nick Fallon further confuses the situation by declaring that Lucas is the father of both twins.
Overjoyed, Sami throws E.J. out of her house and gives birth to her twins on October 23, 2007. Sami names her son, John Roman Roberts (later John Roman DiMera), whom everyone calls "Johnny," after her stepfather John Black, and father Roman Brady. Sami had originally planned on naming her twins, Roman Thomas Roberts, after her father and Lucas' grandfather, Thomas Horton, and Colleen Marlena Roberts, after her paternal grandmother and mother. Lucas however, decided to name his daughter, Alice Caroline Horton, or "Ali," after Lucas's paternal grandmother. After the birth, Sami discovered that Johnny was in fact E.J.'s son, and Ali was Lucas's daughter. Later on, in the attempt to quell the Brady-DiMera feud and protect the Brady family, Sami annulled her marriage to Lucas and married E.J.
At her wedding, Lucas, Marlena, and Kate all attempt to shoot E.J. Only Lucas is arrested for the attempted murder and is sent to prison. Sami's son, Will becomes so frustrated and angry with his parents actions that he chooses to live in Switzerland with his more mature and stable aunt and uncle, Carrie and Austin.
Discovering that he is not paralyzed from the gunshot to his lower back, E.J. leaves the hospital and takes custody of Johnny. But then, as a non-U.S. citizen with a lapsed visa, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) tell E.J. that they will deport him. Still married, Sami and E.J. move into the DiMera Mansion, attempting to deceive the USCIS into believing that they are a happily married couple. Unfortunately, a recently-released Lucas walks in on the couple having sex, which leaves him devastated.
Sami rejects E.J., professes her undying love for Lucas, and annuls her misbegotten union with E.J. Lucas decides he cannot forgive Sami for having sex with E.J., ends their relationship, and dates Chloe Lane. E.J. begins to romance Nicole. Confused, the irredeemably selfish Sami in turn is jealous of both Lucas' relationship with Chloe and E.J.'s relationship with Nicole.
Sami becomes pregnant after her one night stand with E.J., but decides not to tell him since he has quickly managed to impregnate Nicole as well. After witnessing a murder by Stefano DiMera, Sami goes into the Witness Protection Program and gives birth to a daughter. At the same time, Nicole miscarries her baby. But, Nicole knows she would lose E.J. to Sami if he found out she wasn't having his baby. In order to salvage her relationship with E.J., Nicole first fakes a pregnancy, then illegally adopts the sickly infant of Mia McCormick, an unwed teen. Nicole then further complicates her lie by switching Sami and Mia's babies. Sami unwittingly raises Mia's baby, Grace, until Grace dies. Sami eventually returns to Salem with her newest love, Rafe Hernandez, the FBI agent assigned to protect her, telling everyone that they had "adopted" Grace together. Soon thereafter, Nicole's multiple deceptions are uncovered. E.J. and Sami reunite with their daughter, Sydney. Nicole goes to prison, and E.J. divorces Nicole. Distraught at the prospect of losing both Sami and his daughter, E.J. kidnaps Sydney with the help of his sister-in-law, Anna DiMera. He then returns Sydney to Sami, deceiving Sami into believing that he, like Rafe, is a selfless hero.
After bringing Sydney home, he starts living with Sami to distance himself from Stefano, which puts a strain on Sami and Rafe's relationship. E.J. soon falls in love with Sami again. He keeps his feelings to himself, but Stefano quickly finds out the truth behind Sydney's kidnapping and about his feelings for Sami, and blackmails E.J. into moving back to the DiMera mansion with the children. He invites Sami to move into the mansion with him, where she refuses. After being mugged and injured at the Salem Pier, they share a brief kiss, which he cannot remember afterwards. While recovering in the hospital, she visits him daily, and he invites her to move in with him, where she finally accepts. Luckily, since Will was living there, Sami’s decision was a bit easier.
However, E.J. was having anything but an easy time keeping his guilty conscious at bay. He was constantly stressed that Sami would find out the truth and leave him – and take the children with her. To prolong her stay at the DiMera mansion, E.J. arranged for a pipe to “accidentally” break and flood Sami’s penthouse. To Sami, he looked like the hero again as he paid for the repairs. Later, when she realized that he had lied to her, she actually forgave him because his heart – not his head – was in the right place. During this time, they bond and share many close encounters and a few kisses. A short time later, E.J. finally professed his love to Sami. She wasn’t able to say the words back to him, as she still had lingering feelings for Rafe, but she was obviously drawn to him again. He continued to pursue her and was very open about his feelings for her. However, E.J. met a new threat around the same time in the form on an old flame. Nicole had found out that he was the mastermind behind Sydney’s kidnapping and began to blackmail him. Nicole threatened to expose him if he didn’t help her keep Arianna Hernandez – her romantic rival for Brady Black’s affections – at bay. From fear of losing Sami, E.J. had no choice but to work with Nicole. Sami soon agrees to live and the DiMera mansion permanently, after her penthouse is fixed. E.J. later brings up with prospect of marriage, upon which Sami agrees might be possible in the future, but refuses to even think about at the time. Filled with encouragement after Sami agrees to permanently live with him, E.J. proposes to Sami the next day. At first, Sami turns him down because of her lingering feelings for Rafe, but later accepts. E.J. was thrilled and planned a wedding at the DiMera mansion
Rafe finds out that E.J. kidnapped Sydney, and crashes E.J. and Sami's wedding to expose the truth. In a rage, Sami leaves E.J. and resumes her relationship with Rafe. A suicidal E.J. drinks heavily to lessen the pain, knowing that he lost Sami forever. He then attacks Nicole at the pier in rage for her betrayal after he found out she was the one who gave the proof to Rafe. He admits to Stefano that he should have taken his children and left while he had the chance, and spare himself heartache in the process. He later passes out in Sami's old bedroom clutching a gun and a drawing Johnny made of their family. Stefano's wife, Kate tells Sami that E.J. wants to kidnap her children and flee the country. Furious, Sami goes to the mansion to confront EJ, but sees him drunk and passed out. She takes the gun from his hand and shoots him. E.J. was in a coma for a few days. Sami learns that in E.J.'s living will, she is in charge of his medical decisions. After much debate, she decides to turn off his life support after learning that there wasn't much hope for his recovery. E.J. once again cheats death At first he pretended that he didn't remember what happened so Sami would have to pretend to be married to him.EJ continues his child custody suit, using evidence from a recently deceased Arianna Hernandez that Sami was the person who had tried to kill him. Sami and E.J. agree to get along when Johnny gets eye cancer. After allowing Johnny and Sydney back into their mother's life, Stefano and E.J. switch Rafe with an impostor whose face they surgically alter to pose as Rafe's double.
The DiMera's first confine Rafe in the basement of their mansion, then isolate him in a mental hospital. Not knowing who he is, Rafe escapes to a Catholic Convent where the nuns discover a key in his possession that leads to the safe house where he and Sami fell in love. Making his way to the safe house, Rafe argues with Sami who first assumes that he is the impostor. Surprisingly, Rafe's impostor arrives at the same time. Each tries to convince Sami that he is the real Rafe, until Sami guesses the truth. Soon, Rafe and Sami concoct a scheme to take down the DiMera's. Young Johnny discovers for himself the malevolence of his ancestry, and rejects the DiMera's. His venality once again exposed, E.J. opts to give Sami full custody of the children.