Curtis
Reed is the father of Austin and Billie Reed, and the ex-husband of
Kate Roberts. Curtis was first mentioned in 1992 when Austin spoke of
his father to Carrie Brady. Once a talented piano player for a Jazz
band, Curtis had made several records. But his career was cut short
when Curtis became involved with the mob, eventually getting one of
his fingers cut off. He also began consuming cocaine and heroin. With
the drug abuse, Curtis had become physically abusive toward his
family, especially their mother who finally deserted them (Austin and
his sister Billie) when they were still very young. Curtis and the
children traveled from city to city often, changing names on a
constant basis because of his criminal activities. While Austin and
Billie were still teenagers, Curtis became involved with a drug ring.
One night, the police staged a drug bust at Curtis' house and he was
shot.
As
far as anyone knew, Curtis had died that night. But in 1993, Curtis
appeared alive and well in Salem (and funnily enough, he had all 10
fingers.) He was working as a hitman for the mob and had come to
Salem to do a job: shoot John Black. After following him for weeks
and shooting at his picture, Curtis took aim from behind the bushes
at Salem Place one day. While John argued with Kristen Blake and
Rebecca Morrison, Curtis pulled the trigger. However, Rebecca got in
the way at the last moment and was shot in the arm. Curtis quickly
ran away from the scene, but not before being seen by Billie. Billie
hadn't recognized Curtis, but she was still an eyewitness who could
jeopardize everything for him. So while hiding from the police, who
dubbed him the Parking Lot Shooter, Curtis began following Billie and
finally caught up with her in a forest near the Salem River. There,
she recognized him not only as the Shooter, but also as her father.
Curtis put on an act for Billie and pretended to be a loving father
so that she would help him hide from the police. When she asked him
how he could still be alive, he made up a story about being in the
witness protection program. And when she asked him why he'd tried to
kill John, he spun a story about having been framed by a renegade CIA
agent! Poor Billie bought all of Curtis' lies and arranged it so that
Curtis could hide in the basement of her apartment
building.
Curtis claimed that he had changed, and to prove it he took up Billie's offer to attend a drug rehabilitation clinic. But he hadn't changed. The mob personality that he had been working for was Stefano DiMera. Because the hit had not been completed, Stefano refused to pay Curtis. Desperate for cash, Curtis kidnapped Stefano, who was weak and in a wheelchair as a result of a brain tumor, and held him for ransom. He finally set up a meeting with Kristen Blake, Stefano's adopted daughter, in the middle of a field to make the exchange. When she showed up, he told her that she didn't bring enough money and threatened her. Finally, she gave him some expensive jewelry she was wearing and he left. Curtis had absolutely no clue as to the sort of mess he'd gotten himself into by doing that.
Meanwhile, he continued to dupe Billie. While he claimed that he had left the mob and had been framed, he made a trip to Los Angeles, where he assumed the alias Curtis Brown, to meet with his associates there. He quickly returned to Salem when one of LAPD's chiefs, Ozzie, got hot on his trail. While hiding in the Billie's basement, Curtis continuously asked Billie for cash, supposedly for things such as drug rehab, etc. In reality, Curtis was scoring drugs from vendors on the Riverfront. He continued to hide out in the basement because thanks to Ozzie, who had investigated some LA mobsters, he had been positively ID'ed as the Parking Lot Shooter. Meanwhile, Curtis took notice of something one day while in Billie's apartment...an article in Bella Magazine regarding its Editor-in-Chief, Kate Kiriakis. Curtis knew her, and decided to pay her a little visit. As it turned out, Curtis had been married to Kate in the 70's. Moreover, she was Austin & Billie's long-lost mother, although he didn't bother to tell Kate that little tidbit. When Kate and Curtis had been married, she had had an affair with Bill Horton and become pregnant; because of this, Curtis had taken Austin & Billie and left her! Kate had tried to locate them for years, but Curtis had constantly kept Kate at bay, until he finally informed her that their two children had died in a car accident. Following that, they'd gotten a divorce. Now that Kate was married to Victor Kiriakis, one of the wealthiest men in Salem, Curtis took advantage. Curtis informed that Kate that they were still legally married - she had sent him divorce papers years ago, but he'd never signed them! Curtis promised to keep this scandalous information a secret, for the cool price of $100,000. Kate reluctantly obliged.
Little by little, Curtis got caught up in a power trip (not mention the effects of all the drugs he was consuming), and began showing his true colors to Billie. He wasn't as nice anymore, he was more threatening, and more demanding. Every day he demanded more and more money, not caring about the fact that Billie was embezzling from her own company to get that money. Not long after this, Curtis came up with another neat way to extort money. He discovered that John was really desperate to put Stefano away in jail. So, Curtis paid John a visit to his home and told him that he knew of a lot of the criminal activities that the DiMera family was involved in, and promised he'd tell John everything in exchange of an exorbitant amount of money. John didn't promise anything, but Curtis left the address of the basement with him in case he changed his mind. At the same time, Peter Blake, Stefano's adopted son, found out what Curtis was up to. It was just a matter of time before Curtis' luck ran out.
And
it finally one November night. That night, Curtis was especially
desperate for cash and called Billie away from Bo Brady's birthday
party in order to get it. When she finally gave it to him, he used it
to buy cocaine and heroin. Despite this, Billie still believed in the
goodness of her father and told him to get some help, and even
suggested that he turn himself in to the police. Finally, Curtis told
a clueless Billie the truth: there was no renegade CIA agent, no
witness protection program, etc. In fact, Curtis pretty much
ridiculed Billie's innocence. And in doing so, Curtis also reminded
her of her past in pornos, and that she hadn't been innocent in a
very long time. Curtis revealed something that had only been slightly
hinted at until now: he had raped Billie when she was 12 years old.
And now, he wanted to do it all over again. He threatened Billie to
follow his orders or else he would tell Bo everything about her past,
and he even threatened Austin's life. He took Billie to a park by
force, drugged her with heroin, waited until she was unconscious, and
raped her. Afterwards, he took her back to the basement and covered
her with a tarp. As a number of people combed Salem looking for
Billie (who had disappeared from the party), Curtis received a number
of visitors.
First,
Kate came to see him at his request with the money he'd asked for.
Everything was in order. But when Kate remarked what a relief it was
to have this mess cleared up, Curtis proclaimed that it was only the
first payment. Of course, Kate refused to keep on paying in him, so
Curtis beat her up until she could barely walk away.
Soon after this, Curtis received a visit from Lucas Roberts. Lucas knew that Curtis was a man his mother had known and who had beaten her in the past; after he saw her come home that night with bruises all over face, Lucas had decided to pay Curtis a visit brandishing a gun. But Curtis wasn't in the mood to discuss anything with that "little punk" and hid from him until he left. After Lucas' visit, Curtis went to the docks to buy yet more drugs. It was here that his third visitor of the night, Austin, showed up. Austin, who had not known that his father was alive until that very night, was looking for Billie. When Austin discovered that Curtis was alive (long story), he put two and two together regarding her frequent visits to the basement in the past months and her sudden disappearance from the party that night. However, Curtis warned Austin that he didn't know anything about Billie and to stay away from him if he didn't want to get hurt.
At
around two in the morning, Curtis was in the alley behind the
building snorting some lines of cocaine when he received his final
visitor. In the morning, Bo Brady and Wendy Reardon got the surprise
of a lifetime when they discovered his lifeless body facedown near a
dumpster. He had been fatally shot.
Although
Curtis was dead, no one knew who killed him and Billie was eventually
indicted for the crime despite an understandable parade of suspects.
Curtis continued to appear to Billie, either as a manifestation of
her subconscious or as a ghost (you decide), telling her that his
killer had not been discovered, even after Lucas Roberts confessed to
the crime. He also haunted her dreams, reminding her of her sexual
abuse at his hands. In late spring of 1994, Curtis' killer was
finally discovered. Stefano DiMera had left the hospital that night.
He had been the final visitor. He had wanted revenge because of the
kidnapping, and most of all because Curtis had taken Kristen's
jewelry as ransom. An argument had ensued during which Curtis had
pulled a gun on Stefano; during the struggle that followed, the gun
had gone off, killing Curtis.
In
1995, Curtis' spirit was brought up from Hell by the devil in order
to keep Marlena Evans from seeking refuge in St. Luke's Church.
Although Marlena made it into the Church with the help of Father
Francis, Curtis lured her back out by conjuring up an image of Sami
Brady and holding her hostage in his arms. Marlena, of course, left
the sanctuary of the Church and became possessed by Satan once again.
After Curtis accomplished his mission, he was congratulated by Satan
and was returned back to Hell. In 1997, Curtis once again returned,
this time on the astral plane. Billie was in Rome being held hostage
by Max, who had decided to get her hooked on drugs once again by
pumping her full of heroin. While she was unconscious, she appeared
to her and tortured her with the intent of never letting go of her
soul. However, Bo somehow crossed into the astral plane and had fight
with Curtis. He defeated him, and Curtis vanished. In 1999, Curtis
appeared once again, this time in Austin's subconscious and reminded
him of the physical abuse he used to inflict on Kate and on him.
Furthermore, he promised Austin that he would turn out to be a rotten
father just like him. Austin, however, quickly got rid of Curtis'
influence and Curtis vanished once again. Curtis' bothersome spirit
made another appearance in 2000 when Austin and Greta Von Amberg
accidentally fell into a parallel world that resembled the biblical
Garden of Eden. Austin and Greta were met by many obstacles, among
them Curtis' ghost. Once he was vanquished, Curtis disappeared once
again.
The character of Curtis Reed was
played by Nick Benedict from 1993-1994, and again in 1995, 1997,
1999, and 2000-2001