Dr. John Dixon (currently played by Larry
Bryggman since
1969) by Loretta
Except
for perhaps his children, Dr. John Dixon has found it difficult to
form close, personal friendships with the citizens of Oakdale, which
unfortunately is his fault. John is Oakdale's finest
cardiologist/heart
surgeon/researcher but possesses the personality that caused Dr. Bob
Hughes (John's rival) to want to bang his head against a wall on
several occasions. John's list of credits includes blackmail, fraud,
rape
and attempted murder.
While John carried out his daily duties of analyzing echocardiograms
and prescribing cardiovascular medications, he became smitten with
widow Kim
Reynolds.
John's fondness for Kim quickly became an obsession, and John was
set
on making her his wife. John lucked out when Kim became pregnant
with herbrother-in-law's baby. John convinced Kim to marry him so she could
give
the baby a name. Sadly, this baby died. Soon Kim no longer wanted to
remain with John. John did not share Kim's desire for a divorce, so he
blackmailed her into remaining as his wife. Detecting that Kim was in
love with another man, Dan Stewart, John schemed with Susan
(Dan's ex-wife) to keep the two apart. Good fortune soon met with John
when Kim (who was on the brink of divorcing him) came up with amnesia
due
to an accident. John used Kim's illness to his advantage by caring for
her, while secluding her from friends and family.
During this time,
John
also saw to it that he resumed a sexual relationship with Kim, which
resulted in her becoming pregnant with their son Andy. Regaining her
memory, Kim left John. John coped with life without Kim by drinking
heavily, which resulted in his suspension from the hospital.
Unnerved, Kim (now reunited with Dan) saw to it that John's visits
with
their son Andy were limited to supervised visits. Resenting that his
son
was being raised as a Stewart, John kidnapped little Andy. Dan
searched for Andy
but wound up being shot by a jealous John.
After John convinced a
court
that his shooting Dan Stewart was an accident, he got his life back on
track and conquered his drinking problem. Soon John was placed back on
staff at Oakdale Memorial Hospital.
Finally over Kim, John next became attached to young Dee Stewart. Soon
John's friendship blossomed into love for Dee, but unfortunately she
was
in love with Brad (her brother-in-law). John, knowing just the right
buttons to push when it came to Dee, persuaded her to marry him by
programming her to believe that her sister was pregnant (Brad's wife).
Facing the fact that she lost Brad forever, Dee gave in and married
John.
While Dee was Mrs. John Dixon, she was clearly still in love with
Brad.
John, who was anxious for Dee's love, became possessive and worked
himself
up in a rage of jealously over Brad. Desperate, John forced Dee to
make
love with him one night. Dee accused John of rape and they went to
trial.
On the witness stand, Dee claimed that she willingly made love to John
by
pretending it was Brad.
Soon John learned that he had a daughter named Margo from an affair
many
years ago with Nurse Lyla Montgomery. John bonded easily with his
grown
daughter and she (Margo) even moved in with him for a brief time.
John
and Margo had a healthy father-daughter relationship, except when John
found out that Margo was having an affair with the married James Stenbeck.
John knew that James was nothing but a criminal and he hated the fact
that Margo was madly in love with James. John tried to warn Margo that
James could not be trusted, but Margo did not listen. During this
time,
John was temporarily blind, due to an accident which occurred when he
fell down a flight of stairs.
Once John got his sight back, he got
back
at James Stenbeck. John came upon some interesting knowledge about
James
and armed himself with this. John found out that James wasn't really a
member of the royal Stenbeck family but had been switched at birth (by
his mother, who was the Stenbeck nanny). John demanded $100,000 from
James, or else John would spill the beans. At the time, John was newly
married to money-hungry Ariel Aldrin (James' sister). He staged
his own
death, since he was aware that James intended to murder him. John had
intended for James to be accused of his (John) murder, but
unfortunately,
John's ex-wife Dee took the blame.
At Dee's murder trial, John
surprised
the courtroom by standing up, removing his disguise, and revealing
himself.
Just as quickly as John's marriage to Ariel ended, he tied the knot
with
young pre-med student Karen Haines. John and Karen spent lots of time
with orphaned Dusty Donovan and they soon became legal guardians of
the
youngster, who just happened to be the true heir to the Stenbeck
fortune
(Dusty was Gunnar Stenbeck's son).
Marriage to Karen proved to be another failure for John, and they
divorced. Although divorced from Karen, John remained friends with
her.
Now a bachelor again, John met a new Oakdale resident, the wealthy
Lucinda
Walsh. John's adopted son Dusty and Lucinda's daughter Lily were
quickly
becoming friends, so John and Lucinda naturally formed a friendship,
also.
When Lucinda's abnormal heart condition posed a threat to her life, John performed the required heart surgery on her with great success.
Soon John found out a secret, which Lucinda was trying desperately to
hide: Lucinda had another daughter (Sierra Esteban) whom no one knew
about, not even her daughter (Sierra). John used this opportunity to
blackmail Lucinda, but it did not work with her. John wound up telling
Sierra himself that Lucinda was her real mother.
Despite John and
Lucinda's constant bickering, the two fell in love and married. Their
heated and passionate arguments remained, but they kissed and made up
as
quickly as they fought. Marriage to John seemed to agree with Lucinda,
in
fact it even seemed to soften her for a brief time, but unfortunately,
it
didn't last when John learned that he had yet another child which he
never
knew existed, named Duke Kramer (Duke was conceived as the result of
an
affair of John's while he was married to Kim).
John desperately wanted
Duke in his life and invited the young man to live at the Walsh
mansion.
Unfortunately, Lucinda did not share John's enthusiasm for Duke, so
she
schemed to get Duke out of Oakdale. John found out about Lucinda's
plan
and got angry by having an affair with hospital pal Dr. Susan Stewart.
Once John and Lucinda divorced, he started a whirlwind romance with Iva
Snyder. Iva, having moved out of her mother's house on the farm, moved
into an apartment one floor below John's. Iva had adopted her nephew
Aaron but found herself pregnant by John.
Once their son Matthew was
born, John and Iva eventually split. Iva left John for Washington D.C.
and her new husband, who was an established attorney. John had planned
to
sue Iva for custody of Matthew, but John's colon cancer diagnosis put
an
end to that. John's bravely dealt with this cancer ordeal, which went
into remission.
Once John got back on his feet, he faced another challenge: Lisa
Grimaldi
blamed John for her husband's death and tried to sue him for
malpractice.
Luckily for John, evidence was found which proved that Lisa's husband
had
been murdered, taking John off the hook. John got even with Lisa for
almost destroying his career by pretending to romance her, then
publicly
dumping her. Needless to say, Lisa was humiliated in front of her
friends
and family. Lisa soon forgave John when he rescued her from Martin
Chedwyn. John and Lisa have remained friends, but not without feeding
each other an occasional insult.
With several marriages and divorces behind him, John now fell for
Barbara
Ryan. John and Barbara shared a night of passion, which left Barbara
pregnant. John offered to marry Barbara, but she didn't want John to
marry her out of pity. After some convincing, Barbara agreed to become
Mrs. John Dixon. During her pregnancy, Barbara became injured in a
bombing, which caused the premature birth of her child (John was
forced to
choose between saving Barbara or the baby). John chose Barbara.
Unfortunately, the child (Johnny) was too premature too survive and
died a
week after being born. Barbara, who could not forgive John for the
death
of their son, quickly became ex Mrs. John Dixon. John (still
obsessive)
wanted Barbara back. Seeing that Barbara had her eyes set on her
ex-husband Hal, John devised a plan with Carly Munson that would keep
Hal
and Barbara apart. This scheme required Carly to be artificially
inseminated with John's sperm but claim that Hal was the father.
Eventually, Hal found out the truth and divorced Carly.
Besides writing a best-seller book, John found time to marry Carly so
she
could inherit fifty million dollars. After their baby (Parker) was
born,
they divorced. While John was enjoying helping to raise little Parker,
he
learned that the child was not his, but Hal Munson's!
Even though John was a highly successful physician and surgeon, plus a
best-
selling author, he yearned to have children in his life. Soon John's
wish
was answered. John's son, Andy (with Kim), revealed to him that he had a
daughter named Hope (with Denise Maynard).
Andy, who had battled
alcoholism, was uncertain about whether to keep his parental rights,
but
John was eager to help raise Hope himself. John tried to convince Andy
to
sue for sole custody of Hope, but Andy wasn't keen on his dad's idea.
To
keep John from trying to gain custody of Hope, Andy married Denise.
This
was a bad marriage from the start, but Andy did not want out of it.
Andy
pretended to be paralyzed in order to remain married to Denise.
Later,
John realized Andy faked his paralysis, so he allowed Denise to obtain
custody of Hope.
John's enemy, James Stenbeck, popped back into Oakdale and schemed with
his
ex-wife Barbara to kidnap Carly; little Parker was left with John
until
Carly was found. Parker's Aunt Rosanna soon arrived and gained
temporary
custody of him. John agreed that Parker was better off with family
than
with him. When it was revealed that Barbara was involved in Carly's
kidnapping, John tried to convince the police that she was innocent by
saying that Barbara was not in a normal state of mind since she
suffered emotional trauma from the fire she was injured in.
John once again came to Barbara's rescue when James returned to
take Barbara away with him. James desperately hated the fact that John
Dixon was once married to Barbara. In order to keep James away,
Barbara asked John to pretend to be "involved" with her. John agreed
and Barbara temporarily moved in with him, but James didn't buy their
scheme. When John's daughter Margo wasn't feeling as well as she
normally did, John forced his stubborn daughter to get a physical.
After several hospital tests (suggested by John), he discovered that
Margo had Hepatitis C and she quickly developed liver cancer.
During Margo's trying ordeal, John lovingly watched over her. Katie
(Margo's younger sister) gave part of her liver to Margo in order to
safe her life. Katie and Margo both recovered fully from the
operation. John stepped in for Dr. Bob Hughes as Memorial's Chief of
Staff while Bob recovered from a coma. Bob suffered a stroke from
supposedly not taking his medication and lapsed into a coma, but it
turned out that Bob's condition was caused by a serial killer. When
the police stepped in to investigate these mysterious hospital
murders, it was discovered that a serial killer was on the loose at
Oakdale Memorial hospital. Now under more stress, John had to deal
with police questioning the entire hospital staff, which led to low
moral and understaffing.
Page updated 8/20/14
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