Eric Roman Brady

Eric Brady is the son of Roman and Marlena Brady. He is the half-brother of Carrie Brady, and twin brother of Samantha Brady.

Eric and Sami were born on October 16, 1984. He was named Eric Roman Brady, in honor of his great uncle, Eric Brady, and his father Roman. Eric had a relatively normal childhood, except for the fact that both of his parents were presumed dead at different points, and both returned back to life. And the fact that two men, Roman Brady and John Black, claimed to be his father couldn't have been too healthy for him. It's a good thing he was raised more by their nanny, Mabel Cummings, than by their parental figures. But in the end, he and Sami accepted Roman and Marlena as their parents. In 1992, Roman asked Mabel to take Sami and Eric to their grandparents' house in Colorado while they searched for Marlena (she had gone missing -- she was trapped in a pit.) What was to be a short visit turned into a 9-year stay (5 years in real time -- confused yet? Thank the writers, who aged the kids too much.)

Eric wasn't mentioned too often in Salem in the time he was gone. Aside from an occasional phone call from Sami and a visit from his mother in 1994, Eric remained isolated from the events in Salem. In the summer of 1997, Eric finally returned to Salem. He didn't tell anyone of his return and seemed to be hiding some sort of dark past. He snuck around Salem for a while and spied on John and Marlena...which is how he was discovered. John thought Eric was some thug and tried to deck him. Of course, he noticed who he was and let him go. Eric claimed that he had come to Salem to see his dying father, Roman. After reuniting with his entire family, Eric was commissioned by Carrie to spy on Sami. Eric claimed to have some sort of sixth sense when it came to dealing with Sami because they were twins. He unsuccessfully tried to read her mind to discover what secret she was hiding and soon gave up. Meanwhile, he worried about Roman finding out that Marlena was engaged to John. Roman wanted to remarry Marlena, and the stress of finding out that there was no chance for that could kill him. Basically, Eric had no life.

In early 1998, Eric began to be followed by someone wearing very feminine black shoes. After a couple of weeks, Eric began to feel that he was being stalked. Finally, he confronted his mysterious shadow. It was Jed Fox, an old friend of his from Colorado (No, Jed was not a cross-dresser; the original storyline had called for Eric to be stalked by an old girlfriend named Taylor Raines.) As it turned out, Eric's deep, dark, secret had been that he had been accused of rape while going to college in Boulder. A girl named Amy Becker had wrongfully accused him of slipping a drug called Mescadil into her drink and raping her. However, Eric had found out that his roommate, Jed, had been the rapist. Eric had been cleared of all charges and Jed had been suspended from medical school. Now, Jed was in Salem to force Eric to come back to Boulder and say that he had lied; that he had actually raped Amy and blamed Jed for the crime. Of course, Eric refused to, despite Jed's threats against Sami. Eric was able to make Jed understand that he had to take responsibility for his horrible actions. In one of daytime's most lackluster scenes, Jed turned over a new leaf and decided to go back to Boulder and plead guilty to the university Board. And so ended Eric's 3-day storyline.

Soon after this, Eric became infatuated with the new waitress at the Java Café, Nicole Walker. Meanwhile, he began working for Sami at Countess Wilhelmina as a photographer. He and Sami agreed that Nicole had a certain "look" and decided to offer her a modeling job. So Nicole was modeling, and Eric asked Nicole out on various dates. It was obvious that she reciprocated his feelings and they became involved in a very tedious relationship.

Although Eric was involved with Nicole, he took it upon himself to save troubled souls. While having lunch at the Java Café one day, Eric witnessed a young girl stealing food and chased after her. She desperately wanted him to let her go but he wanted to know what was so bad in her life that she had to resort to stealing. Intrigued, Eric took this girl, whose name was Madison, to see his aunt Kimberly. Kim, you see, was a therapist. It turned out that Madison was a teenage runaway who had escaped an unsatisfying home life. Eric and Kim were able to make Madison understand that life on the streets was not the answer to her problems. And so, Eric put Madison on a train back to her hometown. And so ended yet another 3-day storyline.

Signs of trouble appeared on the horizon for Eric and Nicole when they traveled to Los Angeles. While Eric and Nicole frolicked on the beach, they were being spied on by a greasy guy named Jay. Jay followed them back to Salem. One day, Eric walked in on Jay and Nicole having a discussion. Nicole introduced Jay as her cousin. However, Eric sensed that there was more to Jay than Nicole was willing to admit. In fact, after a few weeks, Eric came to the conclusion that Jay was trying to blackmail Nicole with some information regarding her past in Los Angeles. However, he never learned what this was because Jay suddenly disappeared from Salem, along with Nicole's deep, dark, boring, past.

Meanwhile, Eric had other problems with his family. Sami had become involved with the seedy Franco Kelly and became engaged to him despite her family's misgivings. Nevertheless, Eric tried to support his sister. Unfortunately, the day of the wedding, Sami discovered that Franco was cheating on her and was only marrying her to obtain a green card (Franco was Italian.) Soon after, Franco was murdered and all signs pointed to Sami. Eric believed in Sami's innocence and tried to prove it, ultimately linking Franco to the Italian Moroni crime family. However, the jury found Sami guilty and condemned her to death by lethal injection.

At this time, Eric and Nicole began having problems when Lucas Roberts took an interest in her. While Nicole befriended Lucas, Eric befriended Greta Von Amberg. Nicole and Eric fought and made up a number of times, but in the end they were more off than on. After some months, Eric and Nicole called it quits and she married Lucas even though Eric was absolutely sure that she still loved him.

In the summer of 1999, the moment of truth came when, after weeks of being on the run, Sami was captured by police and sent to prison to await her death. Eric was one of the few witnesses to be present to watch Sami die. One by one, three lethal injections were administered and it seemed that Sami would die. But as the Potassium Chloride injection was administered, Lucas barged into the chamber and demanded to stop the execution because *he* had killed Franco. Eric and his family prayed that Sami would be revived even though the injections had been administered; after tense hours, she pulled through. Lucas later took back his confession when another confession was extracted from Roberto Barelli, a friend of Franco's who was also linked to the mob.

With Sami safe, Eric inexplicably tried to get Nicole back. When she refused to admit that she loved him, Eric gave up and began to spend more time with the troubled Greta. Despite the fact that Eric and Greta were extremely compatible and grew closer each moment they were together, Eric remained hung up on the unlikeable Nicole. Finally, Nicole admitted to Eric that she loved him and the two made love. Nevertheless, she opted to remain married to Lucas and pushed him away.

More Information to Follow!

The character of Eric Brady has been played by the following:

Rory Beauregard (1984)
Jesse Davis (1985-1986)
Edwood Palma (1986)
Bradley Hallock (1986-1992)
Jensen Ackles (1997-2000)

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