Lionel Lockridge

Lionel Lockridge is a fictional character from the American soap opera Santa Barbara. He was portrayed by actor Nicolas Coster from August 29, 1984 to 1988, and then returned from June 6, 1990 to the show's end on January 15, 1993. Actor Don Stewart filled in for Coster for one day on December 18, 1985.

Character history

Arriving in town a month after the show's premiere, Lionel Lockridge brought intrigue even before arriving by sending his mother Minx a sarcophogous. In his first scene before even identifying himself, he made an obscene remark to Augusta who promptly slapped him across the face. She wasn't upset about the remark, but by the fact that he had not been in contact with her in months. An incorrigible womanizer, Lionel's long ago affair with C.C. Capwell's cherished wife Sophia caused a vendetta between the two men, and created a lot of headaches for the younger generations of the two families.

Lionel and Augusta had two children, Warren and Laken, and an extremely tempestuous marriage, but Lionel was determined to make up for his previous wicked ways. He promised Augusta that he would fix their marriage and swore to her that he was not having an affair with Eden Capwell, C.C.'s daughter.

Augusta discovered that Lionel's ex-lover Sophia has secretly returned to Santa Barbara disguised as a man named Dominic.^[1] Sophia revealed that her oldest child, Channing Capwell Jr., had actually been the son of Lionel, not C.C., shocking everyone (but especially Lionel, C.C., and Augusta). Lionel's mother, Minx, revealed that she had switched Channing with Brick Wallace when they were babies, so that she would not have to watch her grandson being brought up as a Capwell. This meant that Brick, whom Minx had employed as the Lockridge family's driver, was the true biological son of Sophia and Lionel. Jealous and insecure, Augusta would not allow Lionel to reconcile with her. Their marriage reached a dead end when Augusta temporarily lost her sight in a tunnel cave-in.

Augusta divorced Lionel and left town. Lionel became entangled in a new love triangle with Jane Wilson and her mother Caroline. After learning that Caroline was dying, Lionel married her, but she soon died. Realizing that most of his kids had left town, Lionel decided to do likewise. He returned two years later and was involved in a series of bad deeds, having pretended to be dead for a while, and then plotting against C.C. in a battle that resulted in Lionel losing the Lockridge mansion.^[2] Reconciling with Augusta, Lionel teamed with his mother and her friend Maxwell Hammer in getting the Lockridge land back. He was further shocked to learn that C.C.'s ward, Cassandra Benedict, was in fact his half sister from an affair that Minx had with an unknown man while separated from his father.

Lionel's world was rocked when an alcoholic Augusta revealed that Warren was not actually his son, and Warren unleashed his anger on Lionel, but they made up later when Lionel was accidentally poisoned with soup that Cassandra originally intended for Angela Raymond. Lionel then fell in love with Gina DeMott, and married her to give her comfort. Realizing that they loved each other, Lionel and Gina stayed together until the end of the series.

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