Born
as Billy Johnson, Jack Deveraux is the youngest son of Duke and Jo
Johnson, and the brother of Steve and Adrienne Johnson. Very early in
his childhood, Billy was put in an orphanage by his mother. Harper
and Camille Deveraux, a wealthy Washington DC couple, adopted him,
renamed him Jack Harcourt Deveraux, and raised him as their own son,
never telling him the truth about his origins. In 1987, Jack made his
way to Salem, where his life would take drastic changes through his
interaction with his real family, and the love of Jennifer
Horton.
On the stormy night of April 10, 1987, Jack Deveraux showed up out of the blue at Kayla Brady's doorstep. Kayla had known Jack some years ago while vacationing in Hawaii, where Jack had met her on a beach. Jack, in fact, had saved Kayla from drowning and had spent an entire week with her then. Now, Jack seemed interested in Kayla and wound up spending the night in her loft. The following day, he and Kayla went to lunch at Shenanigans where he met Steve Johnson. Unbeknownst to Jack, Steve and Kayla were seeing each other. While having lunch, Jack collapsed onto the floor. When he was finally brought to the hospital, Neil Curtis recognized him as Senator Harper Deveraux's son, who had been sent to Salem University Hospital for treatment of his Hodgkin's Disease.
Jack's
Hodgkin's Disease was in advanced stages, and the treatment itself
took a great toll on him. However, he was soon able to get out of the
hospital to work for his father Harper. To play it safe, Harper hired
Kayla as Jack's private nurse (Jack would constantly be in and out of
the hospital.) Jack grew very fond of Kayla while she took care of
him, and soon he decided that he desired a future with her. Jack was
not unaware of the relationship between Steve and Kayla, but
desperately tried to win Kayla's heart. Soon after, Harper was shot
in an assassination attempt and Steve was accused of the crime. While
Steve was on the run from the police, he was hidden by Kayla, and
discovered by Jack. Alone with Steve, Jack made him a
proposition: if he gave up Kayla, he would keep the police at
bay. Steve agreed. Days later, Jack helped clear Steve's name of
Harper's shooting. As promised, Steve told Kayla that he didn't love
her; he'd only used her. While Kayla was still reeling from Steve's
hurtful words, Jack made his move and proposed to Kayla. She decided
to think about it.
Meanwhile,
Jack was completely oblivious to the fact that his assistant, Melissa
Anderson, was deeply infatuated with him. Melissa was a great friend
to Jack, being with him during his hospital stays and cheering him
up. Jack only had eyes for Kayla. Jack was also quite ignorant as to
why his maid, Jo Johnson, took a motherly liking to him (she and
Steve had discovered that Jack was her youngest son, Billy Johnson.)
After a week, Kayla finally accepted the proposal. Jack, who was in
the hospital at the time, put enormous effort into recuperating in
order to briefly get out of the hospital for his wedding. A week
later, he was out and about, and a beautiful ceremony was prepared at
Neil Curtis' house, with Mike Horton as best man. The wedding
proceeded smoothly; Jack and Kayla were husband and wife.
Unfortunately, Jack fell ill once again and the marriage remained
unconsummated.
Jack
soon got better and before long, his disease went into remission. As
soon as he felt up to it, Jack pursued his campaign for a seat on the
State Assembly, as well as his marriage. At Kayla's suggestion, he
recruited Steve in helping him improve the Riverfront district. Jack
wished to put Steve's past with Kayla behind them and accepted, and
honestly tried to make the best of it. Soon after, Kayla mysteriously
fell ill and thus the marriage, once again, remained unconsummated.
Even with the help of Dr. Jergens, who prescribed Kayla medication,
her illness persisted. After some time, Jack decided to take Kayla on
their long-overdue honeymoon in the Caribbean. Oddly enough, Kayla's
condition improved vastly while on vacation even though she'd
forgotten her medication. Unbeknownst to both Jack and Kayla, Harper,
who had hired Dr. Jergens, was slowly poisoning Kayla with the
so-called medication; he erroneously believed that she knew about
Jack's true identity and wanted to kill her before she could leak it
out.
Not long after this, Kayla was kidnapped from the hospital during one of Jack's political fundraisers for the Riverfront housing project. Jack desperately searched for Kayla, while keeping her illness under wraps from the public. Jack suspected that Steve had taken her and threatened him several times. Weeks passed, and finally Jack overheard a lunatic named Professor Schenkel talk about the "pretty blonde lady" he'd helped nurse back to health. Marcus Hunter, a doctor and friend of Steve's, knew where the "pretty blonde" was and so Jack followed him to the house where Steve was hiding Kayla. As Jack walked into the place, he found Steve and Kayla in a compromising position. He would've pressed kidnapping charges against Steve, but Kayla informed Jack that Steve had actually saved her life. He had come to realize that someone was poisoning her at the mansion and that's why he'd hid her. Convinced, and relieved that Kayla was safe, Jack backed off.
Jack
refused to believe that someone in his own home would try to kill
Kayla and accused Steve of lying. However, ISA and Salem PD tests on
Kayla's medication proved that it was laced with a poison called
Atrophine. Seeing that Steve was right only made Jack want to get him
out of his and Kayla's lives more; and he thought a good way to start
would be to consummate the marriage. Kayla, however, insisted that
she wasn't ready. As a response to attempted murder attempt, Jack and
Kayla moved into her loft on the Riverfront. Meanwhile, Jack received
the shock of his life on New Year's Eve when Melissa was arrested for
Kayla's attempted murder! It came to light that Melissa had been in
love with Jack, and the police suspected that she might've wanted to
get Kayla out of the way; also, the Atrophine-laced pills were found
in her apartment. Jack refused to believe that Melissa could possibly
want to hurt Kayla and vowed to help her. Once again, Jack was
unaware that Harper was masterminding everything. Someone needed to
take the fall for the poisoning, and once Harper had discovered
Melissa's attraction to Jack he had framed her. While all of this was
going on, Kayla, who had been missing for most of the night, was with
Steve.
Even
though Jack was a close friend of Melissa's, he doubted her
innocence, especially when he was told of her deep feelings toward
him, and a particular argument that Melissa had had with Kayla
regarding their marriage. Because of this, when Melissa asked Jack to
be a character witness for him, he refused. In the hearing that was
held early in January, Jack's testimony seriously hurt Melissa. No
longer trusting her, he asked her to stay away from his family.
Meanwhile, Jack's efforts to consummate the marriage remained
fruitless, especially while Steve was involved in their lives.
However, he intended on keeping up the appearances of a complete
marriage for the public. The State Assembly elections were coming up
very soon. Also, Harper was intending to run for president; any bad
publicity right now would jeopardize both their victories.
Fortunately for Jack, his popularity rose in the polls as a result of
the Riverfront housing project. The night of the elections, his
opponent withdrew and Jack became Assemblyman. Amidst the
celebrations, however, a tabloid reporter named Darrell Canby gave
him a folder that soured the victory. Inside it, there were about a
dozen photos of Kayla kissing Steve.
At
first, Jack believed that the pictures were doctored and threatened
Canby into confessing the truth. Canby told him that they were not
doctored, nor were they from the time that Kayla and Steve had been
together. He was quick to point out the dress Kayla was wearing - a
dress that had been a present from Jack, which she had worn on New
Year's Eve. Furious, Jack went home with Kayla to the loft and
confronted her with the photos. There, a frightened Kayla tried to
explain to him why she had married him, and that she and Steve had
been planning to tell him about their continued relationship after
the election. She even tried to call Steve so that they could all
talk about the situation but Jack stopped her. Blind with rage and
jealousy, Jack forced himself on Kayla. Afterwards, Jack refused to
admit that he had raped her when she accused him of it; he callously
pronounced that he'd only made love to her - a right he claimed to
have as her husband. Angry and violated, Kayla warned Jack never to
touch her again and went to Steve, which only made Jack's rage go out
of control.
While Kayla didn't tell anyone about the rape immediately, it was obvious to everyone that the newly-elected assemblyman and his wife had serious problems, and Jack was determined to cover up these problems. Finally, he threatened Kayla. If she valued Steve's life, she would stay away from him. However, she didn't heed Jack's warning. One day, Jack had Kayla and Steve followed to a remote cabin in the mountains; while Steve stepped outside of the cabin for a second, Jack had some of Victor Kiriakis' men beat up Steve. Jack took the opportunity to take Kayla back to the loft and kept her there a virtual hostage for a couple of days, always threatening Steve's life so that she would remain in the apartment. Meanwhile, Melissa confronted Jack about everything from the trial to their broken friendship. She wanted to be able to be friends with him despite everything, and swore up and down that she didn't try to kill Kayla. Because of the recent problems with Kayla, Jack was more receptive to Melissa's offer to remain friends...and possibly more.
One
evening, while he kept Kayla in the house, Jack received an urgent
phone call from Melissa asking him to meet her at the pier.
Reluctantly, Jack agreed to meet her there. She was going to finally
show him his adoption papers, but he never got a chance to meet
Melissa. Following Melissa's phone call, Jack went to the rooftop of
the loft to tell Kayla that he was going out and found her with
Steve, who had finally learned what Jack had done to Kayla. Jack
grabbed hold of Kayla and proclaimed that he'd only taken what was
his. Steve snapped. What ensued was a vicious fight down the fire
escape during which Steve pummeled Jack's kidneys. The fight finally
ended when the railing broke and Jack fell 3 stories down onto the
snowy pavement. After arriving in the hospital almost lifeless and
flat lining once on the operation table, Jack awoke. The fight had
seriously injured one kidney and completely destroyed the other.
After the remaining kidney failed, Mike told Jack that he needed a
transplant or else he'd be hooked up to a dialysis machine for the
rest of his life. Soon after, Mike gave Jack the incredible news that
someone had volunteered to donate a kidney and that that person was
an incredible match. Jack's joy was soured, however, when he learned
that the donor was none other than Steve. Jack initially refused
Steve's kidney but he was eventually convinced to take it. Similarly,
Jack's body initially rejected the kidney but it then accepted it.
Following the surgery, during which Steve had almost died, Jack was
desperate to know why Steve had donated the kidney; Steve only told
him that he was paying him back for the betrayal on his and Kayla's
part. However, Jack vowed to get even with Steve - he refused to owe
him anything, especially his life.
While Jack was recovering from the surgery, he tried to win Kayla back once more, this time through honesty. He confessed to her why he had come to Salem in the first place, and it hadn't been just to be treated for his illness. He had come with the express purpose of finding her. He claimed to love her again, but Kayla refused to hear it. Jack finally realized that he'd never have a chance with Kayla again. Just then, Melissa came to visit Jack, and their old friendship resumed. She not only forgave him for what had happened at the trial, but she also forgave him for raping Kayla. In fact, a brainless Melissa practically offered herself as a replacement for Kayla. In spite of everything Jack had done, she was still in love with him and wanted more than a friendship. With no hope of having Kayla back, Jack settled for Melissa.
Meanwhile, Kayla filed rape charges against Jack. To save face, Jack took a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to assault instead of rape. Jack received no more than a slap on the hand, with only a black mark on his record to show for what he'd done to Kayla. However, the trial generated bad publicity for Jack, which was only to become worse when Kayla began attending rape seminars and speaking of divorce. Jack staunchly refused to consent her a divorce, seeing this as the only way to keep Steve and Kayla apart. If he couldn't have her, he would make sure that she and Steve couldn't be happy. Jack also made every possible effort to sabotage Kayla and Steve's pet project, the Riverfront Community Center. As Assemblyman, Jack tried to block all government support and sway public opinion against the Community Center. Fortunately, Steve managed to overcome Jack's political games. Hosting an insane desire to destroy Steve, Jack decided to delve into Steve's past. Knowing that Steve had a missing brother, Jack decided to bring the long-lost Billy Earl Johnson to Salem. Jack imagined that Billy would be a bitter country bumpkin who would cause grief for Steve. Using Steve's sister Adrienne, Jack set out to find the missing link to the Johnson clan.
Also during this time, Jack became the prime suspect in the serial murders committed by the Riverfront Knifer. Not only did he fit the description of the killer, but he was also discovered to be cavorting with Riverfront prostitutes (the Knifer's prey of choice.) When Kayla was attacked, the suspicion on Jack became greater. Meanwhile, Jack strove to find Billy Johnson. Melissa tried to dissuade him but Jack's desire for revenge was consuming him. One evening, Melissa told him that she had some very important papers to show him. When they arrived at her apartment, they found Steve throwing some papers in the fireplace. Melissa was frantic about rescuing the documents, and Jack managed to retrieve them. Jack was shocked to see that they were the adoption papers for William Earl Johnson; according to the papers, Camille and Harper Deveraux had adopted him. At first, Jack refused to believe that the papers were real and accused Steve of faking them. When Jack confronted Harper, he also claimed that they were fake. But later, Jack went to see Jo, and she confirmed that he was her son. She proved it by showing him a photo of her holding him as a baby. When Jack confronted Harper again, he finally admitted that it was true. Despite knowing the truth, Jack promised to Harper that he would always be a Deveraux. Only a day later, however, things for Jack got even worse. Now the prime suspect for the Riverfront Knifer killings, he was questioned by Abe about a buckle found at one of the crime scenes. It was from a pair of gloves that Jack owned. However, the gloves had been a gift from Harper. This fact strongly suggested that Harper was the murderer. Just moments later, the police would find Harper attempting to kill Kimberly and Kayla. Nevertheless, poor Jack still thought that Harper was innocent. Harper humbly denied the accusations and Jack believed him. However, Jack was allowed to hear a secretly taped confession. On it he heard Harper admit to: poisoning Kayla because he thought she knew about Jack's parentage, killing prostitutes and loose women because they reflected Kayla's infidelity, trying to kill Kayla because of what she'd done to Jack, and trying to kill Kimberly and Kayla again for the same reason. Once he heard all of this, Jack realized that Harper had played him for a fool. Angry and betrayed, Jack told Harper that he hoped to never see him again. Following this, Jack consented Kayla an uncontested divorce, if only to make up for part of the pain he and Harper had caused her. Harper would later be found guilty of all charges and be sent to prison.
Melissa
was there for Jack, but asked him to stop the vendetta against Steve
and Kayla. Jack promised that he'd put them out of his life. But on
the day of Steve and Kayla's wedding, Jack couldn't help stay away.
He witnessed the wedding hiding from a distance. However, Melissa saw
him spying on the wedding and berated him for not being over Kayla.
At that moment, Jack broke down, confessing that he had nothing and
no one left. Melissa comforted him once again and promised to be
there for him. That night, they made love. It seemed like Jack was
finally getting over Kayla and Steve and moving on with Melissa.
Unfortunately, he wasn't. Meanwhile, Jack needed to give his career a
boost. Harper's murderous escapades had tarnished the Deveraux name,
and Jack had aspirations of taking over Harper's vacant Senate seat.
Too bad his political party chose Mickey Horton, Melissa's father, as
their candidate for the Senate. Outraged, Jack decided to run against
Mickey on an independent ticket, financed by Victor Kiriakis.
Anjelica urged Jack to talk Melissa into convincing Mickey to bow out
of the race, but Melissa refused to even think of it. As a result,
Jack tried to use every trick possible to get votes, including using
his Johnson roots to appeal to middle-class voters. Meanwhile,
Anjelica also urged Jack to marry Melissa. She was from a prominent
family and the daughter of the District Attorney, and the image of a
growing family would also sway voters to his side. And so, Jack
proposed to Melissa. She accepted, but Jack was not accepted by
Mickey or Maggie, Melissa's parents. Melissa would only be a trophy
wife -- an image for the voters -- and they knew it.
During this time, Jack decided to visit Harper in prison. In spite of everything, he still loved him as a father. On his visit, Jack noticed that Harper had bruises on his face, so Jack believed that he was being abused in prison. Immediately, Jack tried to get Harper moved to a white-collar prison. When that request was denied, Jack turned to Victor. Instead of just transferring Harper to a minimum security prison, Victor suggested to just get Harper out of prison for good. As a business partner, Victor was eager to see Harper free. So a plot was hatched in which Victor's men would get Harper to an airplane bound for Switzerland. The plan went smoothly until Harper was shot by Steve. Upon hearing about Harper's gunshot, Jack went to see him, risking being connected to the prison break. Harper survived and was sent back to prison. Unbeknownst to Jack, Harper had used him once again; the bruises which had prompted Jack to do all of this had been fake.
At
this time, Jack began to cheat on Melissa with Kristina Andropolous,
a sexy female staying with the Kiriakis family. Even on the day of
his wedding to Melissa, Jack was callously sleeping with Kristina. At
the wedding, however, Jack received what was coming to him. At the
altar, Melissa declared that she knew about his affair. She also told
off Jack realizing that he had only used her for his political
career, threw her wedding bouquet in his face, and announced to
reporters that she gave all her political support to her father. This
bold move by Melissa basically ruined all of Jack's chances of
winning the election. But Jack would have the last laugh. As a member
of the University Hospital Board of Directors, he made sure that Mike
Horton was suspended while he was investigated on charges of
euthanasia. Jack also made sure that Mike's relationship to Mickey
was publicized in order to ruin Mickey's image, and he also reminded
the public of Mickey's questionable past. Jack's plan worked like a
charm; a minor third party candidate won the Senate seat. Melissa
soon left for Europe. During this time, Jo once again tried to reach
out for Jack, and once again he rejected her. But on Christmas, Jack
was cornered into playing Santa Claus at the hospital. Disguised as
Santa Claus, Jack secretly gave her a pin. Though he didn't admit it
to anyone, he longed for his mother.
Even though there was a microscopic bit of Jack that wanted to change for the better, the rest of him seemed to want to continue being crass and vile. In early 1989, he found out that Diana Colville, owner of The Salem Spectator, had discovered that he had illegally dumped toxic waste near Salem High School. The waste now entering the water supply and causing many children to develop awful rashes. Diana wanted to expose Jack's actions so that he'd be brought to justice once and for all. However, Jack got one step ahead of her. Knowing that Diana's newspaper was in major financial trouble, he anonymously bought 51% of it. As the major shareholder, Jack was now publisher of The Spectator, and his first act as publisher was to strike Diana's front page expose on his illegal dumping activities. Jack did wind up cleaning the waste anyway, but continued to have a very strained relationship with his new business partner. Diana continued to try to dig up dirt on Jack in order to blackmail him and get him out of her newspaper. Though Jack managed to thwart her efforts, he decided to dig up on some dirt of his own on Miss Colville. He finally found what he wanted in the form of Cal Winters. Cal, a lieutenant in the air force, had been recently found after being MIA in Cambodia for 7 years. He and Cal had apparently been in love before he disappeared. In fact, they'd been married! Of course, nobody in Salem knew about this, which made the information the perfect weapon to keep Diana off his back. Jack even brought Cal to Salem and turned Diana's love life upside-down. His work was done.
Meanwhile, Jo tried to reach out to Jack by inviting him to dinner with the Johnson family. The experience wasn't the most memorable, but it did intensify Jack's wish to be closer to Jo. At this time, an eager, precocious, and driven young woman named Jennifer Horton came into contact with Jack at The Spectator. She was actually working there getting university credit. In any case, she wanted to do a story. Jack acted brutish during their first meeting, but he eventually approved Jennifer's idea to do a series about a race horse and its trainer, former gang member Emilio Ramírez. Though he gave her a hard time, Jack seemed to enjoy his sparring matches with her. Soon, Jennifer was moved by a new story in town. A pregnant homeless girl named Sally Wales had purposely tried to rob the Brady Fish Market in order to give birth in prison, thus providing her baby good care. Jennifer wanted to write an editorial on her. Jack did not want to feature the story, much less advocate Sally's actions. Furthermore, when Sally gave birth and was told that her baby would be placed in foster care, Jack agreed with the court's decision. Furious at Jack for his lack of sensitivity, Jennifer quit her job at the Spectator. Jack was apparently more motivated by his own experiences (being adopted) than by Sally's plight. When Jo overheard Jack talking to Jennifer about the subject of adoptions, she understood his bitterness and talked to him about it. She made him understand the circumstances that had surrounded her decision to give him up for adoption, and she assured him that it was a decision she regretted for many years. Following the talk with Jo, Jack changed his mind about Sally and wrote a fantastic editorial in support of Sally and her wish to keep her baby in prison. When the editorial came out, he made sure that Jennifer saw it. When she did, she returned to the Spectator.
Jack obviously cared about what Jennifer thought of him but continued to pretend that he didn't. This was mainly because of his fear of hurting someone again the way he had hurt Kayla. Jennifer knew that Jack was trying to change his ways, but he would often act like his old self just to keep her at a distance. But Jack demonstrated his affection toward Jennifer when she was hurt while doing a story on a religious group. A tent pole had fallen on her and left her unconscious. Secretly, Jack visited her in the hospital and begged her to awaken. And as luck would have it, she did. After she got out of the hospital, Jennifer began a quest to rescue Sally's baby from foster care. To help her in this quest, Jack talked Jennifer into pretending that they were husband and wife in order to adopt Hannah (Sally's baby.) Unfortunately, Jack's past once again returned to haunt him. His guilty plea of assaulting Kayla a year earlier made him ineligible for being an adoptive parent. Though Jennifer tried to tell Jack that it was enough that he had tried to save Hannah, Jack's guilt over raping Kayla once again convinced him that he was a worthless human being. The Hannah issue was finally resolved when Sally's parents opted to take care of her.
By this time, Jack had started to feel some real affection toward Jo as well. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to demonstrate it. But when her birthday rolled around, he decided to show her how much he cared by throwing her a birthday bash. To his surprise, a birthday party had already been planned by Steve...and Jack wasn't invited. Hurt by Steve's rejection, Jack tried to get revenge on him once again. When Jack saw Jo arguing with some guy one day and heard something relating to Steve, he believed that the man was some thug from Steve's past. Jack approached the man and told him that he would bring him to Steve. On Jo's birthday, Jack crashed the party along with the man. What Jack didn't know was that the man, Earl, was the spitting image of Jo's abusive ex-husband, Duke Johnson. Earl was Duke's twin brother. Earl's presence at the party only caused problems, the largest of which was Adrienne recalling being raped by Duke. With every right in the world, Steve viciously threw Jack out and told him to never come near the Johnson family again. Every single one of Steve's words hurt pierced through Jack because he actually wanted to *be* a Johnson. Later on, Jack stopped by to see Jo and apologized for bringing Earl. Jo begged Jack to stop trying to hurt Steve. Before leaving, Jack gave Jo a birthday present. It was a pair of earrings that matched the brooch he'd given her at Christmas. At that moment, Jo knew who her secret Santa was. But Jack, feeling ashamed for his actions, left before she could acknowledge it.
More information to follow!
The character of Jack Deveraux was
played by the following:
Joseph Adams (1987)
James Acheson (1987)
Matthew Ashford (1987-1993; 2001-present)
Mark Valley (1994-1997)
Steve Wilder (1997-1998)