AMC
Character Descriptions
Adam Chandler, Sr.
Played by David Canary (1983 - 2010)
Adam is the mogul of Pine Valley, currently positioned as co-owner and co-CEO
of Chandler Enterprises. His life revolves around obtaining as much money and
power as possible. His failed
marriages are numerous, and he does not respect his children as separate
individuals with wills of their own. Adam hates to be vulnerable in any
situation. He may love another person, but he will never give his trust and he
will control the lives of those he professes to care about the most. He uses
manipulation and blackmail to get what he wants and may even commit a few other
crimes along the way. People are mere pawns in Adam's chess game of life; the
injured parties are merely casualties of war. Invariably, his romantic
relationships fail, and Adam feels compelled to exact revenge. Stuart,
Adam's twin brother, is one of the few people Adam truly loves. He is everything
Adam is not; Stuart is compassionate and forgives easily. Forgiveness is a word
no longer part of Adam's vocabulary. With the failures of his marital
relationships, Stuart is the one constant in Adam's life.
Adam was born in Pigeon Hollow where he grew up with Stuart and a sister
named Charlotte (aka Lottie). It was in Pigeon Hollow that Adam first met Palmer
Courtland, known at the time as Pete Cooney. Pete dated and impregnated
Charlotte but went off to war without knowing of the forthcoming child. After
giving birth to a
son named Ross, Charlotte committed suicide, for which Adam blames Palmer
(Pete Cooney). This was the start of the rivalry between Adam and Palmer.
In 1983 Adam came to Pine Valley. His first wife Althea, with whom he had
adopted his
daughter Skye, had already passed away. In 1984 Adam and Erica Kane met and
married, but the relationship did not work out. Adam, however, sent Stuart to
take his place in the divorce. Thus, he was still legally married to Erica when
he married his next wife Brooke English. When Brooke was found to be unable to
have more children, Adam hired Dixie Cooney, Palmer’s niece, as a nanny. The two
then had an affair, which resulted in the demise of Adam’s marriage to Brooke;
however, it did provide him with the heir he desired, Adam Chandler, Jr. (JR).
Adam later tried to have Dixie committed in order to gain custody of JR. This
will become a theme. Adam will use dirty tricks to maintain control over his
offspring.
Adam then had a series of marriages that included Natalie Hunter (the sister
of Janet Green), another marriage to Erica (Kane) and then to Gloria Marsh, a
con woman. Adam's marriage to Gloria produced a child, but the child died not
long after being born prematurely. After the loss of her child Gloria attempted
to poison Adam, whom she blamed for the loss of her child. She was then
institutionalized, which kind of put a kink in the relationship, so to say, and
the two divorced.
In 1996 Adam and Liza Colby initially planned to marry in an attempt to make
Tad Martin and Brooke English jealous. As part of the deal, Adam agreed to give
Liza half ownership of WRCW but, of course, Adam did not actually own WRCW.
Realizing that she would get nothing, Liza decided to go through with the sham
marriage anyway but then actually fell in love with the old goat. Liza used
manipulation to try to get into Adam’s bed. Finally successful, the one night
love session resulted in a pregnancy. Liza jetted off on a plane for a shopping
trip with mom, Marian. The plane had a bad landing as a result of a faulty
turbine made by a company owned by Adam. Liza lost the baby and blamed Adam. She
filed for divorce but later found out that the miscarriage may actually have
been caused by exposure to someone with Fifth disease. She told Adam that she
knew he was not to blame, but the two divorced anyway.
Adam then found out that Liza, wanting children, decided to be artificially
inseminated with Jake Martin’s sperm. Adam switched the sperm with his own. He
then proposed to Liza and she accepted, although she still thought she was
having Jake Martin’s child, knowing nothing of the sperm switch. David Hayward
knew about the switched sperm and had a field day threatening to expose Adam to
Liza. Liza's baby, created through artificial insemination, is Colby Chandler.
It drove Adam to distraction seeing Jake Martin spending time with his, Adam’s,
daughter. Finally, Adam confessed to the sperm switch and Liza, again, filed
for divorce.
Adam then married Arlene Vaughn in a moment of despair when he thought Stuart
was dead. Once Adam found out that Stuart was really alive, he corrected his
earlier mistake and divorced Arlene. Arlene and Adam had embarked on an affair
years earlier; his daughter Hayley was a product of their love affair. Hayley
and her husband Mateo have relocated to California for Hayley's job with a
syndicated talk show. They have a
son named Lorenzo, Adam’s grandson.
Adam then got back together with Liza and a series of bizarre incidents
occurred involving her, which turned out to be as a result of a brain tumor.
After all was said and done, she and Adam confessed they still loved each other
and wanted to make their marriage work. Later, seeing Adam and JR trying to
steal custody of Bess, JR and Babe's child, Liza realized that she needed to get
Colby away from Adam so that he could not destroy her as he had JR. She took off
with Colby.
Adam and Krystal joined forces to prove that Little Adam's new nanny Di was
an imposter. During their quest for dirt, the two got drunk and ended up
married. Later they fell in love for real. However, when Adam found out that
Krystal's baby was not his but Tad Martin's, he wanted nothing more to do with
Krystal and refused to admit he ever loved her.
Adam will never be happy because he always sabotages his own happiness with
his inability to trust and his need to exact revenge, hurting those he professes
to love the most. For Adam, each of his marriages is the same story: slightly
different details, same end result... divorce.
Proofread by Laura on 2/2/11
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Updated 8/20/14
    
    
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