Brady Black

Brady Victor Black is a character on the NBC Daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. Widely recognized as portrayed by adult actor Kyle Lowder, the role of Brady has been portrayed by Eric Martsolf since 2008. Martsolf won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2014 for his role as Brady.

Brady is the son of John Black and Isabella Toscano,^[1] and the grandson of Greek mobster/business tycoon Victor Kiriakis,.^[2]

Casting

The character was initially played by Alex, Max, and Dash Lucero from May 1992 to September 1994, and subsequently by Eric and Brandon Billings from October 1994 to July 1999. When news broke that the character of Eric Brady would be written out due to Jensen Ackles' departing the series, Ken Corday and NBC made the decision to bring a SORAS Brady Black to help fill the void of the main focus and young heroine. The character was then announced to be re-introduced as a adult with actor Kyle Lowder who debuted in August 2000. .^[3]

In September 2005, it was announced that NBC had passed on renewing Lowder's contract with Days of our Lives.^[4] He last aired September 15, 2005. Lowder later went on to become the third adult actor to portray Rick Forrester on the CBS Daytime series The Bold and the Beautiful.^[5] Lowder first aired on the series in 2007, until he was let go from the CBS soap due to lack of storyline.^[6]

In August 2008, it was announced that Brady would return to the series. Former Passions actor Eric Martsolf was cast to bring the character back to Salem.^[7][8] He first aired in the role on November 13, 2008.

Storylines

Backstory

Brady is raised during the first years of his life by his widowed father, John Black. After the death of Brady's mother, John embarks on a tempestuous affair with his former wife, Marlena Evans, which results in the birth of Brady's sister, Belle named after his mother, Isabella Toscano. Roman Brady divorces Marlena after discovering her affair with John. Though John by then is involved in a troubled relationship with the duplicitous Kristen Blake, John and Marlena opt to raise Brady and Belle together. Kristen's lies are eventually exposed, and John and Marlena happily remarry. Despite a happy childhood, Brady becomes bitterly resentful toward Marlena, the only mother he has ever known.

2000–05

Brady returns to Salem as a spoiled, disrespectful college student loner who lashes out at everyone. As a result, he is distrusted by many, including his stepmother Marlena, as well as his uncle, Philip Kiriakis, who considers him a freak. However, Chloe Lane, Philip's girlfriend, sees a glimmer of her once ostracized-self in Brady and develops a friendship with him which eventually turns into something more. The couple marry in 2005, and move to Vienna. By then, Brady had long-since resolved his animosity towards Marlena, becoming a loving son and brother, as well as a responsible, promising executive in his father's fashion and publishing company, Basic Black.

Leaving the safety of Salem for Vienna in 2005 however, Brady becomes addicted to drugs. Blaming Chloe for his addiction, Brady's grandfather Victor Kiriakis kidnaps him and places him in a drug rehabilitation clinic. Brady blames Chloe for his addiction and subsequently files for divorce.

2008–

Brady returns to Salem in November 2008 after beating his addiction. Divorced from Chloe, he comes back to Salem to talk things out with her and reunite with his troubled family. Brady and Chloe eventually come to terms with the end of their marriage and decide to remain friends. Brady sensitively deals with a father who does not remember him. Supporting Marlena in her quest to help John regain his memory, Brady foils the plot for revenge leveled against his stepmother, and masterminded by none other than his father's therapist, Dr. Charlotte Taylor. Brady also makes peace with his old flame, Nicole Walker, who was pregnant at the time with EJ DiMera's child. As a peace offering, going through his own recovery, he offers to be her shoulder if she needed help with not drinking while carrying the child. When Nicole suffers a miscarriage, she confides in Brady about it, deeming she would continue to fake her pregnancy, something Brady was not taking kindly to. Brady soon enters into a relationship with Arianna Hernandez, the sister of Rafe Hernandez. After proposing to Arianna, she is blackmailed by Nicole for the Salem muggings. Unable to convince Brady of her innocence, she breaks off the engagement. Determined to reconcile her relationship with Brady, Nicole begins to romance him and they rekindle their broken relationship. Brady soon begins drinking once again, providing worry for his close family and friends. Brady's life continues to downward spiral when Arianna is killed in a hit-and-run car accident. Nicole and Brady subsequently end their relationship once again when Nicole makes an arrangement with EJ, in order for visitation with his daughter, Sydney. But when EJ cheats on Nicole with her sister Taylor, Nicole and Brady realize they both still love each other, and are reunited. However, the relationship ends when both of them feel like they have "fizzled out", and they decide to be good friends as Nicole vows to be independent. However, Nicole is eventually reunited with EJ.

In 2011, Titan acquires Mad World Cosmetics, and with it comes the feisty CEO of the company, Madison James (Sarah Joy Brown). After fighting the sexual tension between them, the two eventually sleep together and begin a relationship. Brady also reconciles with his father, John, who returns to town in September at the new Horton Town Square ceremony. In early 2012, Brady decides to leave Titan to go back into business with his father at Basic Black. After proposing and it being turned down, Madison's husband Ian McAllister arrives in town, causing a further rift between Madison and Brady. In 2013, he moves on and starts seeing Kristen DiMera and were even about to get married, but when he finds out that his fiancee raped his half brother Eric Brady, he breaks up with her and starts drinking again. Brady hates his halfbrother for sleeping with Kristen. Few months later in 2014, he meets Theresa Donovan who he doesn't like at first, but he eventually ends up liking her and they start having fun together much to his loved ones disapproval, thinking she's using him for money and is a bad influence on him. After months of dating, Brady and Theresa take a trip to Las Vegas, where he gets drunk and marries her. Once they get back to Salem John confronts Theresa leading for her to hit him in the back of the head with a fire poker sending him in a coma. Theresa blames Brady for the incident and due to him not being able to remember anything he believes the story but charges are not pressed against Brady. Brady gets sober and gets an annulment from Theresa, however when Kristen comes back it sends him right back into the arms of Theresa. Kristen then begins suggesting that it was Theresa who hit John which Brady deems ridiculous and thinks Kristen is simply jealous of Theresa. Kristen then gets a drug which takes John out of his coma, where he backs up Theresa's story because he wants to keep Brady away from Kristen. Brady later finds out the truth after walking in on a conversation between John and Theresa and proceeds to dump Theresa. However just as he began to cut Theresa out of his life she announces to him that she is pregnant and he is the father. They go and get a pregnancy test done at the hospital where it is revealed that Theresa wasn't pregnant much to the shock of Theresa. Soon Brady's old friend Melanie Jonas comes back and starts a rivalry with Theresa much to the disdain of Brady and Daniel. Brady then begins a relationship with Melanie in which she figures out that Theresa really was pregnant, Kristen had stolen the embryo before she left town and gave birth to baby Christopher.

Reception

Martsolf won the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series accolade at the 2014 Daytime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Brady.^[9]

References