Melissa Phillips Anderson Jannings (Part
2)
With
Pete gone, Melissa was free to pursue a full relationship with Lars.
For a while, she was content. Their career as a duo soared and as a
couple they were doing fine. But while practicing a routine for their
performance at Salem's Centennial Celebration, Melissa severely
injured her leg. Afraid of what Lars might think, Melissa kept her
injury a secret. She went ahead and performed incredibly at the
Celebration, despite the pain she was in. Backstage after the
performance, Melissa met a really self-assured, if not arrogant, guy
who immediately noticed that her leg was injured. The guy, Justin
Kiriakis, had become smitten with Melissa and had come backstage to
try to pick her up. Melissa was in no mood for him and told him to go
away. However, Justin continued to pursue Melissa over the next few
days and took her to a sports doctor in order to have her leg
treated. The injury she'd suffered was severe and the doctor told her
that she'd have to stay off it for a week. Unfortunately, she had
already prepared a busy dance schedule with Lars. Since Melissa still
wanted to keep the injury a secret, Justin concocted an extraordinary
plan to make it seem like Melissa was going to go on tour around the
country for a week. While everyone believed she was dancing to crowds
accross the nation, Melissa was actually holed up at the Salem Inn
with Justin. A great friendship emerged from this experience...after
Justin realized that he'd never get anywhere with Melissa. As a
friend, Justin asked Melissa to examine her relationship with Lars.
Why was she hiding her injury from him? Was she afraid that he would
leave her if he found out she couldn't dance? Was dancing the only
thing that they had in common? Melissa was afraid of the answers to
those questions. She had more reason to fear when, after recuperating
from her injury, the doctor told her that she would never be able to
dance professionally again; the injury had been too severe. Finally,
Melissa followed Justin's advice and told Lars about her leg. Sadly,
Lars acted as Justin had expected. However, Lars soon snapped out of
it and told Melissa how much he meant to her. Melissa was relieved to
know that Lars still loved her, but was upset at the fact that she'd
never dance with him again. Though Melissa tried to be active in the
dance troupe as a choreographer, it became too painful to watch Lars
dance with other women. Soon, Melissa came to realize that she would
end up resenting Lars for being able to dance; she also realized that
Lars would give up dancing for her, which would cause him to resent
her. To avoid such a messy future, Melissa broke up with Lars while
having dinner one evening at Shenanigans. It was a rather lackluster
end to an equally lackluster relationship. With offers pouring from
New York, Lars chose to leave Salem.
Instead of moping around, Melissa got
out into the world and became more independent than ever before. She
soon got a job working at Senator Harper Deveraux's office. There,
she came into contact with the Senator's son, Jack Deveraux. They
became very close friends. When Jack decided to run for the State
Assembly, Melissa became his assistant. And once again, poor Melissa
fell in love with the wrong person. Jack was in love with Kayla
Brady! Melissa kept her attraction to Jack a secret. Meanwhile, Jack,
who suffered from Hodgkin's Disease, fell ill and was admitted into
the hospital. Melissa cared for him night and day praying that he
would recover. And he did, but only because Kayla was his private
nurse. Melissa masochistically stood by while Jack and Kayla
developed a relationship and then became engaged and married. Jack's
disease eventually went into remission and he & Kayla began to
live as husband and wife. As an outlet for her emotions, Melissa
wrote love letters to Jack and kept them to herself. One day, though,
while picking up some papers at the Deveraux house, Melissa came upon
something shocking: adoption papers. Jack Deveraux had been
adopted...and he didn't know! Jack Deveraux was actually William Earl
Johnson, the son of Duke and Josephine
Johnson, and the brother of Steve and Adrienne
Johnson.
Melissa
took the papers, hid them, and debated what to do with them. She
didn't want to destroy Jack's world by telling him the truth. But at
the same time, he deserved to know the truth. Not knowing what to do,
Melissa simply kept quiet. Meanwhile, Kayla became ill and
disappeared. Eventually, she was found; Steve Johnson had taken her
away from the Deveraux house because someone had been poisoning her.
However, Kayla didn't seem thrilled with being back home and it was
no secret that her marriage to Jack still hadn't been consummated
because of her. One day at Blondie's, Melissa overheard an argument
between Jack and Kayla about the fact that they still hadn't made
love. After Jack left, Melissa angrily told Kayla to stop toying with
Jack's emotions. Melissa's reaction caught the attention of Anjelica
Deveraux, who quickly told her to stop making a scene. Despite this
outburst, no one suspected Melissa of having feelings for Jack.
However, this incident would come back to haunt her. On New Year's
Eve, while attending a party at the Deveraux's, Melissa overheard
Anjelica saying that the police had arrived to arrest her for
poisoning Kayla. The police suspected that Melissa was in love with
Jack and tried to kill Kayla in order to have him. Unfortunately for
Melissa, she carried some of her love letters to Jack in her purse.
Trying to act cool, she went to the fireplace to toss them in fire.
Before she could do so, she was arrested.
Melissa
was charged with the attempted murder of Kayla Deveraux. The search
of her condo had revealed Atropine-laced pills (the poison used on
Kayla) and several more love letters to Jack. Melissa was released on
bail but was indicted for the crime and awaited trial. Meanwhile, she
pleaded with Jack to believe that she wasn't guilty and confessed her
love for him. Though Jack was flattered and believed Melissa's story,
he refused to have anything to do with her for fear of bad publicity.
Nevertheless, Melissa continued to love Jack. She also continued to
agonize over whether she should tell him about his true parentage.
She finally decided to tell him soon after he won a seat on the State
Assembly. Melissa phoned him and asked him to meet her at the pier.
Unfortunately, Jack never made it. He was admitted to University
Hospital after falling from the roof of his building. As it turned
out, Kayla had been having an affair with Steve Johnson and Jack had
fallen while fighting with Steve. Melissa stayed by his side as he
underwent several surgeries, and thus regained his trust. After Jack
recovered, he and Melissa began a serious relationship since his
marriage to Kayla was over. However, Jack refused to grant Kayla a
divorce, which caused Melissa to believe that he was still in love
with Kayla. Of course, she was right, and that only irritated
her.
It
was precisely Jack's lingering love for Kayla which drove him to an
ill-fated revenge plot. He began looking for Steve Johnson's missing
little brother, Billy, hoping it would make Steve's life miserable.
Melissa was appalled when she discovered what Jack was planning
because she knew that Jack would only find himself! Therefore, she
tried everything in her power to slow him down. However, she finally
decided to tell him the truth. On the night of Jack's birthday,
Melissa informed Jack that she had something terribly important to
show him in her condo. When they arrived, they found Steve throwing
some papers in the fireplace. Jack quickly rushed to get them out of
the fire and found that they were his own adoption papers. Melissa
tried to comfort Jack but he wouldn't listen to anyone. The following
evening, Jack's father, Harper, was arrested for the murder of
several women; in addition to the murders, Harper confessed to
poisoning Kayla and framing Melissa. At that point, Jack finally
allowed Melissa to console him. But seeing how angry Jack was at his
newfound family, Melissa thought it best to stay away for a while.
When she returned to Jack, she made it clear that she wouldn't play
second fiddle to Kayla's memory. Steve and Kayla were married just a
couple of weeks later. On their wedding day, Melissa spotted Jack
spying on the wedding. Furious, Melissa confronted Jack and accused
him of still loving Kayla. However, Jack was just pathetically trying
to hang on to some happiness by watching the wedding from afar. This
broke Melissa's heart and she promised to stay by Jack's side. That
evening, they made love.
Melissa
had a hard time with her family after her relationship with Jack was
announced. The situation became even more tense when Jack decided to
run against Mickey for the Senate seat vacated by Harper. Despite
Jack's dirty campaign against Mickey, Melissa stood by him. Before
long, Jack asked Melissa to marry him. Melissa was surprised but
quickly said yes to his proposal without thinking that maybe Jack
only wanted to marry her to project an image for the voters. However,
she began to see Jack for who he really was when she caught him
flirting with Kristina
Andropolous, a houseguest at
the Kiriakis mansion. Melissa tried to ignore Jack's behavior, but
she soon noticed that Jack wasn't just flirting with Kristina. Just
days before her wedding, Melissa decided to teach Jack a lesson with
the help of her friend Marcus Hunter. On November 4, 1988, Melissa
and Jack's wedding took place. Their engagement had placed Jack in a
lead at the voter polls, and the marriage would surely guarantee him
the election. But when the priest asked Melissa if she would take
Jack to be her husband, she bitterly replied that she wouldn't! She
proceeded to tell Jack what a manipulative liar he was, threw her
bouquet in his face, and stormed out of the church. Not surprisingly,
most of the guests applauded her actions, but none louder than her
own parents. Next, Melissa talked to reporters and gave all of her
support for her father, which helped him overtake Jack in the voter
polls. Even though Mickey wound up losing the election, Melissa was
instrumental in also keeping Jack from winning. Following her coup,
Melissa decided that she needed a vacation. After saying good-bye to
her family and throwing her engagement ring in Jack's face, Melissa
used her honeymoon plane ticket and boarded a plane bound for
Europe.
In
February of 1990, Melissa unexpectedly returned to Salem. In Europe,
she had discovered that she had a singing voice and was now a
semi-professional singer. Upon her arrival in Salem, Melissa got a
job singing at Wings along with Emilio Ramírez. Melissa came
to Salem in time to see that her cousin Jennifer
was romantically interested in Jack, whom Melissa still despised.
However, Jennifer was also dating Emilio, so Melissa pushed Jennifer
toward him and tried to convince her that Jack was no good. Melissa
made sure to point out to Jennifer all of Emilio's good qualities,
unaware that she was actually expressing her own attraction to her
singing partner. When Emilio finally proposed to Jennifer, Melissa
realized that she was envious of her! Even worse, Jennifer asked
Melissa to be her Maid of Honor at her wedding to Emilio. But on the
wedding day, Emilio waited at the altar for Jennifer, who never came.
Melissa was there to comfort Emilio after he found a note from
Jennifer telling him that she didn't wish to marry him. When Jennifer
finally appeared, it was revealed that she had been kidnapped by Jack
and that she hadn't written that note. Emilio and Jennifer continued
to be engaged. Meanwhile, Melissa and Emilio's singing career began
to take off as they began touring the country. Their close working
relationship and the romantic nature of their duets finally led to a
mutual attraction. Soon, it became clear that Emilio and Jennifer's
relationship was over; they amicably called off their engagement as
they finally realized that they weren't in love with each other. At
last, Melissa and Emilio began their own relationship.
More information to
follow!
The character of Melissa Anderson was
played by the following:
Joseph Trent Everett (1971)
Kim Durso (1975-1977)
Debbie Lytton (1978-1980; 1982-1983)
Lisa Trusel (1983-1988; 1994; 1996; 2002)
Camilla Scott (1990-1991)
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