Bill
Horton is the youngest son of Tom and Alice Horton. He is the brother
of Tommy, Addie, Mickey, and Marie Horton. He is the father of Mike
and Jennifer Horton, and of Lucas Roberts. He is the ex-husband of
Laura Horton.
Born in 1940, Bill Horton grew up in Salem as the youngest son of Tom and Alice Horton. After graduating from high school, Bill was accepted at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and went there to study medicine. By December of 1965, Bill had nearly completed his studies. He returned to Salem at that time to spend the holidays with his family. In the days after New Year's, Bill returned to Baltimore.
In
May of 1966, Bill graduated from Johns Hopkins. Returning to Salem,
he became an intern at Salem University Hospital. While working
there, he met Dr. Laura Horton, another young intern who'd
specialized in psychiatry. Bill was smitten with Laura, who at the
time was dating Tony Merritt. But after the end of their
relationship, Bill finally decided to ask Laura out. Bill and Laura
hit it off, but the relationship was short-lived. Bill discovered
that had bone tuberculosis, a condition that would in time ruin his
career as a surgeon. Depressed, Bill left Salem and ended up in the
small town of Pine Grove. There, Bill moved into a boarding house and
worked as a physician. While in the town, he befriended another
doctor, Mark Brooks. As he and Mark got to know each other, Bill
confided in him about his bone tuberculosis. Bill was surprised when
Mark told him that there was actually a procedure to correct the
paralysis that the tuberculosis would cause in his hand. After
receiving the necessary surgery, however, Bill wasn't convinced that
he could still practice surgery. It wasn't until he needed to perform
an appendectomy on Timmy McCall, a boy from Pine Grove, that Bill was
finally convinced that he could become a surgeon once again.
Overjoyed with his success, Bill decided to return to Salem, and
convinced Mark to come with him.
When he returned, however, Bill found that Laura had married his brother Mickey! Clearly jealous but impotent to do anything about it, Bill tried to deal with the situation as best as possible. After all, it had been his decision to leave Laura. But working day after day with her at the hospital created a great deal of tension. One night, Bill got drunk, depressed over his loss of Laura. While he was drinking, Laura came into his office to ask him something about a certain case. In a drunken stupor, Bill decided that he would have Laura whether she was married or not, and raped her. When he finally sobered up, Bill couldn't remember what had happened. When he saw Laura, she nervously told him that he had tried to seduce her but she had turned him away. Some weeks later, Laura announced that she was pregnant. Though this fact didn't initially bother Bill since Laura had told him that nothing had happened, he became concerned when he accidentally found in Tom's office the results of a sterility test for Mickey; the results stated that Mickey was sterile. When Bill confronted Laura, she told him what had really happened between them. Since Mickey couldn't be the father of the baby, it was obvious that Bill was. Worried about Mickey's reaction if he were to find out, Laura, Bill, and Tom all agreed to keep the rape a secret, and to never divulge the fact that Mickey was sterile. Months later, Laura gave birth to Bill's son, Michael.
Meanwhile, Bill was intrigued with the quickness with which Mark had introduced himself into his family. Everyone enjoyed being with him, he ate dinner with them frequently, and he even began dating his sister Marie. A variety of clues led Bill, Tom, and Mickey to believe that Mark was not who he said he was. He seemed too familiar with the Hortons and knew little things that no one else would know. Thanks to Mickey's sly tactics, they managed to get one of Mark's fingerprints and confirmed what they'd suspected for some time: he was their missing brother, Tommy Horton. After being injured in the Korean War and being kept prisoner, Tommy had lost all memory and had had reconstructive surgery upon being released. Little by litte, Mark began to remember his previous life as Tommy Horton. Before long, his entire memory returned.
During this time, Bill casually dated Janine Whitney, a very beautiful nurse at the hospital. Though Janine was enthralled with Bill, he couldn't bring himself to construct more than a casual relationship with her. Though his drunken encounter with Laura had been nothing but a violent moment of lust, Bill realized that he truly loved her. After all of this time, he still harbored those feelings for her. Curiously, the secret of Michael's parentage also brought Laura closer to Bill. What developed was a special friendship that bordered on romance as a result of the deep feelings that both of them held for each other.
With Tommy back home, his wife and daughter, Kitty and Sandy Horton, also returned. Kitty, who had taken a clerical job working for Tom, soon discovered the secret of Michael's parentage. She let Bill know that she had found a tape in Tom's office containing a conversation between Tom and Laura, in which Laura talked about her rape by Bill and the fact that he was Michael's father. Kitty threatened to expose Bill and Laura's secret unless he paid her an undisclosed sum of money. Unwilling to be manipulated by Kitty, Bill went straight to her apartment in order to get the tape from her. Once at Kitty's, she and Bill had a violent argument regarding the tape and struggled for it. In a moment of weakness, Kitty let go of the tape. While she caught her breath on the floor, Bill took the tape and left the apartment. The following morning, it was reported that Kitty had died of a heart attack. After it came to light that Bill had been in the apartment with her before she died, Bill was indicted on murder charges. It was evident that Kitty had struggled with someone, which had been the cause of her death. Bill admitted to having had an argument with her; since he had also been aware of Kitty's heart condition, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. During the entire trial, Bill said as little as possible about his motives for visiting Kitty, otherwise everything from his rape of Laura to Michael's parentage would be revealed. His silence cost him his freedom and his medical license. Without a proper defense, Bill was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison.
In prison, Bill shared his cell with Brent Douglas, a con man. After a rocky start, the two actually became friends while having long conversations about their respective lives. After Brent was released, Bill remained without a cell partner and instead befriended the prison's doctor, Eric Richards. Over a year later, Bill appealed to the parole board on grounds of good behavior. Luckily, the board granted his parole and he was released. Upon returning to Salem, Bill found his old friend Brent living there under the name Doug Williams. Claiming that he was trying to begin a new life, Brent begged Bill to keep his real identity a secret.
Meanwhile,
Bill was greeted back by his family. Laura, in particular, wanted
desperately to learn the real reason for why Bill had gone to prison
in the first place. Finally, after almost two years, Bill confessed
to Laura the reason he had argued with Kitty. He had kept silent
throughout the entire trial to protect themselves and Mickey. Touched
by Bill's sacrifice, Laura grew even closer to Bill. Now realizing
the feelings they had for one another, Bill and Laura tried as much
as possible to remain purely friends out of respect for Mickey. In an
attempt to forget about Laura, Bill dated a model named Sheila
Hammond. Needless to say, the relationship didn't work out as a
result of his lingering feelings for Laura. Meanwhile, Laura and Tom
organized a secret hearing with the Medical Review Board to reinstate
Bill's medical license. In the clandestine hearing, Bill confessed
all of the details surrounding Kitty's death. As a result, the board
reinstated Bill's license and he was able to return to work at the
hospital as a surgeon.
Bill
and Laura's special friendship did not go unnoticed, however. Mickey
began to suspect them of having an affair. After having his own
affair and being caught, Mickey confronted Bill and Laura with his
supposed knowledge of their affair. Naturally, Bill and Laura denied
this since they hadn't had any such affair. However, they did feel
guilty because, even though they hadn't physically had an affair,
they constantly declared their love for one another and their need
for one another. During one such moment, a young Michael overheard
them. Distraught by the declarations of his mother and uncle, Michael
ran out of the house and was hit by a car. Luckily Michael survived
the accident, but the incident reminded Bill and Laura of the
delicate situation that they were in. They were aware that not only
Mickey, but also Michael, could discover the truth at any second, and
thus decided to keep their distance. Not long after this, Mickey
suffered a heart attack while arguing with Michael over his
accusations against Bill and Laura. Bill saved Mickey's life by
performing a triple-bypass surgery. However, Mickey then suffered a
stroke and disappeared from the hospital. Almost a year went by, and
people began to think that Mickey had died. However, Tom finally
found Mickey living only 50 miles away, in the farming town of
Brookville. Unfortunately, Mickey had amnesia. Laura and Bill went to
Brookville to see him, only to find him living under the name Marty
Hanson and married to a farm girl named Maggie Simmons. Bill, Laura,
and Tom all tried to make Marty remember his life as Mickey, but he
couldn't remember any of it. In fact, Marty remarked that he didn't
want to remember his old life because it sounded like he'd been a
bitterly jealous man. Wanting to continue his life in Brookville,
Marty granted Laura a divorce. While Marty and Maggie remarried, Bill
and Laura, at long last, joyously married in a small ceremony at the
Horton house.
Following
an Italian honeymoon, Bill and Laura quietly settled back into their
lives. Soon, Laura discovered that she was pregnant with Bill's
second child. In February of 1976, however, everything would change
forever. One evening, returning home from surgery, Bill found Mickey
sitting in his living room. Bill was completely unaware of the fact
that Mike had had an accident that day, which had led "Marty" to
discover that he was not Mike's father; that realization had brought
back Mickey's memories, and those memories infused Mickey with
extreme anger. Now, Mickey wanted to settle the score between he and
Bill once and for all. Claiming that Bill had stolen not only his
wife but his son as well, Mickey brought out a gun intending to kill
Bill. As they struggled for the gun, it went off, shooting Bill in
the arm. Shortly afer the shooting, Tom and Don Craig arrived and
managed to detain Mickey. Seeing his weak mental state, they had
Mickey sent to Bayview Sanitarium. Meanwhile, Bill recovered quickly
from the mild gunshot wound and did not report it to the police. As a
result of all of this, Bill, Laura, and the rest of the family
decided to wait until Mike recovered from his accident to tell him
the truth about his parentage.
After
having Mickey committed to the Sanitarium, Bill and Laura tried many
times to get through to him, having less success each time. Fearing
that he would become completely catatonic, Laura begged Bill to drive
her to the Sanitarium one more time during a snow storm. The visit
resulted in the same unproductive results. On their way back home,
Laura began suffering labor pains! To top it all off, Bill's car
suddenly was caught in a snow bank. Desperate, Bill carried Laura out
of the car and struggled through the snow until they came upon a
small farmhouse. Luckily, the woman who owned the place, Rosie
Carlson, was home. In the practically deserted farm, Bill and Rosie
successfully delivered the baby. Grateful to Rosie for her help, Bill
and Laura named the baby girl Jennifer Rose. The next day, Mickey's
sanity trial was held, which would decide whether Mickey was to stay
at Bayview or well enough to leave. After leaving Laura and Jennifer
at the hospital, Bill attended the trial and delivered a statement
from Laura. Laura, going against the majority, deemed Mickey fit to
be treated at home rather than in a sanitarium. However, the judge
deemed her statement as inadmissible because she could not be
objective. When it was ruled that Mickey should be committed to
Bayview, Mickey, who had been calm all morning, suddenly burst into a
rage in which he tried to strangle Bill. After the guards took Mickey
away, everyone was sure that the correct decision had been
made.
During this time, Mike began to ask questions regarding Mickey's stay at Bayview. Bill debated telling Mike for months, but it wasn't until Mike began piecing everything together that a decision was finally made. Against everyone's wishes, Bill was determined to tell Mike that he was his father. But before he could do so, Mike accidentally heard the news from Mickey one day when he was visiting him. At that moment, Bill arrived and confirmed what Mickey had said. Angry, Mike accused Bill and Laura of having caused Mickey's condition and wished to never see them again. Though Bill tried to work through Mike's anger, he and Laura finally realized that they needed to leave Mike alone for a while.
While Mickey's condition seemed to improve, the events transpired the night of the shooting continued to haunt Bill. Though his wound had healed, Bill had begun experiencing pain in his arm. After a while, the pain was replaced with complete numbness. Afraid that the wound would end his surgical career, Bill tested himself by offering to assist during an operation; after involuntarily dropping an instrument, Bill realized that he would no longer be able to perform a surgery. This sudden incapacity caused Bill to deeply resent Mickey, since he was responsible for his injury. After months of unsuccessful attempts to recover from his injury, Bill resigned as a surgeon and became a resident in the hospital's Anesthesia Department. This was difficult, since it meant that Bill would be in a much more inferior position. His unhappiness was expressed in his frequent criticism of his supervisor, Dr. Walter Griffin. Bill felt that Griffin performed too many unnecessary surgeries. This hit close to home when Griffin advised Alice to have a hysterectomy. Knowing that Griffin wasn't a good doctor, Bill openly expressed his disgust with Griffin's diagnosis; he was reprimanded for this. In the end, Bill had been correct. Dr. Griffin had misdiagnosed Alice.
Even though Bill had been correct in questioning Dr. Griffin, he was reprimanded for his unethical actions and obligated to work the graveyard shift. As a result of his working nights, Bill barely spent any time with Laura. And when they did get to spend time together, they often fought about the little time they had with each other! Working with Bill at night was another anesthesiology resident, Dr. Kate Winograd. Bill and Kate quickly became friends, as Bill talked to her about his marriage problems with Laura. During this time, a man named Fred Barton was admitted into the emergency room in need of a crucial surgery following a fall down a flight of stairs. Though Dr. Griffin needed to perform the surgery, he chose to leave and have an inexperienced intern named Rick Stevens operate, with Bill as anesthesiologist. Although Bill tried to talk Rick through the operation, Rick was simply incapable of doing it and left the operating room during the procedure. With no time to lose, Bill decided to take a chance and perform the surgery himself despite the consquences it would bring about. The operation was a complete success, but the fact that Bill was no longer a surgeon meant that he'd violated medical ethics rules. As a result, he and Kate, who had assisted Bill, were fired from the hospital staff. Bill and Kate worked endlessly in order to get themselves reinstated into the staff. In the process, Bill developed a crush on her. Laura noticed Bill's fascination with Kate, and before long their marriage was on the rocks. But when Bill tried to act on his romantic feelings for Kate, she firmly reminded him that he was married, and that he probably didn't love her. After a while, Bill realized that she was right -- it had been nothing more than a juvenile crush. Shortly after this, Kate left Salem. Though Laura remained angry at Bill for some time as a result of his attraction to Kate, they eventually reunited.
Having been reinstated into the hospital, and his hand affliction seemingly cured, Bill was offered a position as Chief of Surgery. When he took it, however, Tom appointed Kate Winograd, who had returned to Salem, as Chief of Anesthesiology. This meant that Kate and Bill would again be working closely together, to Laura's chagrin. At this time, Laura began suffering from extreme stress headaches, and her condition began to worry Bill. Soon, Laura began suspecting Bill and Kate of having an affair even though there was nothing to even suggest such a thing. He and Kate were now merely friends. Laura's behavior became more irrational over the following weeks, reaching a peak when she purposely left little Jennifer Rose on a bus headed to Dayton, Ohio. After Bill rescued Jennifer, he returned to Salem suspecting that Laura had gone insane. When he arrived home, he found that she had locked herself in her bedroom and wouldn't come out. After banging many times, Bill finally broke the door down to find Laura attempting to hang herself. In the nick of time, he pulled her off of the noose she'd made and had her committed to Bayview Sanitarium. Laura was diagnosed with suffering schizophrenia, the same mental that her mother had suffered from. After almost a year of therapy, it looked like Laura would recover from her breakdown. Wanting to speed up her recovery, Bill had her transferred to Lakewood Sanitarium outside of Chicago, and took a position there as medical director to remain by her side.
Bill
returned to Salem in 1987. Laura hadn't recovered after all; in fact,
she'd had various relapses, and currently lied in a catatonic state.
Since he couldn't bear to see her like that anymore, he wanted to
move back to Salem and try to forge a relationship with Mike and
Jennifer. Bill was especially interested in Jennifer, whom he'd seen
very little of while she was growing up. When he arrived, he found
her mature relationship with Frankie Brady unacceptable, which drove
Jennifer to move out of the house and into a college dorm. After some
time, however, Bill managed to tolerate Frankie. Bill quickly got his
old position of Chief of Surgery back at the hospital and came into
close contact with Mike and with Janice Barnes, Mickey and Maggie's
former foster daughter.
Working
with Janice, the two developed an attraction to each other, that
culminated one night. After receiving news from the sanitarium that
Laura had attempted to kill herself again, Bill was very despondent
and turned to Janice for comfort. They wound up making love that
night. However, Bill didn't want the affair to continue from there
because he still loved Laura. In addition, Mike seemed interested in
dating Janice. A number of coincidences would continue to bring Bill
and Janice together, and their affair continued. As Bill grew to
believe that he was in love with Janice, he began to consider
divorcing Laura. The family was utterly shocked by this, but Bill
ultimately decided that he couldn't divorce Laura. He also came to
the conclusion that Janice deserved someone who loved her
exclusively, and decided to end their affair. Unfortunately, on the
night they said good-bye to each other, Mike found them kissing and
figured everything out. The exposure of their affair brought conflict
with Tom and Alice, of course. However, Bill explained that he had
chosen to remain married to Laura. Soon after this, Janice made the
decision to leave Salem. But before she could do so, she was murdered
by the Riverfront Knifer. Bill was on call that night and worked
desperately to save her in the operating room. Even after she
flatlined, Bill couldn't bring himself to admit that she was dead.
Janice's death left a void in Bill, and he soon left Salem to be with
Laura once again.
In 1991, Bill briefly returned to attend Jennifer's wedding to Jack Deveraux and walked her down the aisle. The following year, he came back to meet his newborn granddaughter, Abigail. While in town, Bill noticed Jack and Jennifer's terrible housing problems and decided to sell them his old house on Copperlantern Drive. Soon after this, he received a request from the military to help out in Somalia. Bill gladly accepted the job in Africa, and received financial support fro Victor Kiriakis to purchase medical supplies. After he had everything ready, Bill left for Somalia.
In
March of 1994, Bill caught the first flight out of Somalia to be
reunited with Laura, who had returned from the dead and made a
miraculous recovery. But when he first saw Laura at a celebration at
the Penthouse Grill, she was distant and cold. Not only was Laura
able to walk and talk, but she also had a clear memory of the past.
Bill realized that she was still angry at him, after all those years
she'd been in the institution, but didn't know why. Finally, she told
him why her sanity had collapsed: she had seen him and Kate Roberts,
Victor Kiriakis' current wife, sleeping together 18 years ago!
(Caution: This is a major re-write of history. Kate Roberts is
NOT Kate Winograd.) Many years ago, Bill had leased the
house on Copperlantern Drive to Kate Roberts, who had been abused by
her then-husband Curtis Reed. Much like in other cases, Bill had
befriended Kate and helped her deal with her abusive marriage. Their
friendship had turned romantic and they'd had an affair. Laura had
seen Bill and Kate sleeping together, and that was the reason for why
she'd gone insane. Laura also informed Bill that Lucas Roberts,
Kate's son, was actually his son. Surprised to hear that he had
another child, Bill was desperate to meet him and be a father to
Lucas, but Laura cautioned him to stay away from both Kate and Lucas.
If he didn't, she would expose their affair to everyone in Salem.
Bill originally kept his distance but he soon began to try to make
contact with his son. Laura found out that Bill had tried to talk to
Lucas, and became furious. She threatened to tell everyone what
they'd done, but Bill pleaded with her not to. Laura agreed to remain
silent for the time being.
Bill
and Laura were headed straight for divorce. At one point, a
reconciliation seemed possible. It was obvious that she still loved
Bill, but the rage she'd held inside for eighteen years prevented her
from forgiving him. She also resented the fact that Bill had not
visited her at Pine Haven for a very long time because she had begun
to recover a several years ago. If he'd visited, he would've known
that the doctors were drugging her. Amidst all of this arguing, Bill
became fearful that Laura was going crazy again. At a publicity party
for Kate at the Penthouse Grill, Laura's patience finally broke and
she revealed to everyone that Lucas was Kate and Bill's son, and that
their affair was the reason she'd gone insane. The scandal affected
Kate more than Bill, who merely had to endure hateful words from
Mickey and disappointed comments from Alice. Now that the secret was
public, Bill attempted to bond with Lucas. But he held extremely
hostile feelings against Bill for abandoning his mother and rejected
him.
Before leaving Salem to go to
Chicago, he told Jennifer and a newly-returned Mike to look after
their mother to make sure she didn't relapse. Bill briefly came back
later that year for his father's funeral. While in town, Bill once
again attempted to reconciliate with Laura. Nevertheless, Laura
remained hateful. In the end, Bill and Laura got a divorce, and Bill
left Salem. Ultimately, he returned to Somalia.
The character of Dr. Bill Horton has
been played by:
Paul Carr (1965-1966)
Edward Mallory (1966-1980; 1991; 1992-1993)
Christopher Stone (1987-1988; 1994)