Vivian
Alamain is the sister of Leopold Alamain. She is the aunt of Lawrence
and Forrest Alamain (John Black). In addition, she is the great-aunt
of Nikki Alamain, Brady Black, and Belle Brady. She is the ex-wife of
Victor Kiriakis, Steven Jones, and Stefano DiMera.
Vivian
showed up in Salem in March of 1992 with a bang...literally. When she
first arrived at the Alamain mansion, she climbed through a window to
find Alphonse LeBeque about to shoot her nephew Lawrence. So Vivian
pulled out her gun, killed him, stepped over the body in a terribly
calm manner, and greeted Lawrence.
Vivian had come to Salem at Lawrence's suggestion. He believed that John Black was Romulus, an international thief who had pulled a grand jewel heist at one of the Alamains' parties in 1984. One of the pieces stolen at this party was a particular Alamain family heirloom, and they wanted it back. As soon as Vivian came to Salem, she threw a masquerade ball at Wings. She made it look exactly like the ball from 8 years ago to help John jog his memory (and prove he was Romulus.) However, the party did not uncover anything that they didn't already know. Finally, John began closing in on Danielle Stevens. Vivian closely followed John's tracks. After John went to Lugano with Danielle, she followed and discovered that Danielle was Romulus, not John! Vivian confronted Danielle and demanded her locket back. Danielle told her that John had the locket; he'd always had the locket in a safety deposit box. John had told her years ago that the locket revealed his true identity (Note: Vivian came in during the end of the Romulus storyline. See John Black for more details.) Vivian was absolutely livid after Danielle told her this.
When she came back to Salem, Vivian told Lawrence what she'd found out in Lugano. The fact that the locket revealed John's identity could only mean one thing: he was Lawrence's brother, Forrest. Lawrence refused to believe that John was his brother. To figure this out, Vivian had Forrest's coffin disinterred and shipped to Salem. When she and Lawrence opened the coffin they found...a pile of sand! Forrest had NOT died as they all thought. To determine whether or not ohn was Forrest, Vivian stole some samples of John's hair from the loft and sent them to a lab to run DNA tests. At the same time, Lawrence told John that they were brothers. Some time later, the DNA test results came back and conclusively stated that John and Lawrence were siblings. Soon after this came out, John decided to go after his rightful inheritance. Leopold, Lawrence and Forrest's father, had left Forrest an enormous sum of money. But since Forrest had been presumed dead, Vivian had taken the money for herself. John fought for his inheritance with Victor Kiriakis' help and won. In the process he also became the C.E.O. of Alamain Industries, and several other Alamain corporations such as EcoSystems. Vivian was furious...and broke! While she had planned to exact revenge on Victor Kiriakis for helping John win his inheritance, Vivian decided to pursue a relationship. She hoped that Victor would marry her, thus making her wealthy again.
Meanwhile, Vivian also took care of her friend, Carly Manning. Carly and Vivian kept discussing a certain secret they had between each other. Eventually, it was revealed that Carly had given birth to Lawrence's son some 9 years before, without Lawrence's knowledge, under Vivian's care at her villa in Paris. Unfortunately, the child had been born prematurely, with water in the brain, and had died less than an hour after birth. During this time, Carly was made aware by a doctor in Paris that her baby had not died. She and Bo Brady began questioning Vivian, but Vivian maintained that the baby had died.
At
this time, Nikki Alamain, a savvy nine year-old boy, flew into town,
much to Vivian's chagrin. At first, she tried to hide the kid from
everyone. But that child was pure trouble, and Victor finally
discovered him on his yacht. When asked who he was, Vivian claimed
that she had adopted Nikki, the son of one of her Paris servants.
Meanwhile, Victor began to get quite romantic with Vivian. Although
he realized what her plans were, he offered her money to get by with.
Eventually, the two admitted their feelings for each other and
kissed. While Vivian was seeing Victor, Lawrence asked her to become
an executive at Alamain, but only if she stopped seeing Victor.
Lawrence and Victor were business rivals, and bad blood ran between
them. Vivian agreed, but continued to see Victor anyway. After some
time, she was pretty much in love with him, and he with her. So much
so that he was tired of hiding their relationship and asked Vivian to
go public with it. Vivian told him her dilemma, but he assured her
he'd always provide for her and Nikki. She initially went along with
his wishes, but soon Victor changed his mind about the relationship,
offering more of a business alliance. During this time, Victor
proposed marriage, but made it clear that love wasn't a reason.
Wanting something more than just money, Vivian reluctantly
accepted.
At
this time, Lawrence's occasional fling, Lisanne Gardener, began to
suspect that there was something funny about Nikki. She finally
discovered that he was Carly and Lawrence's child. Lisanne tried to
blackmail Vivian. But while Lisanne was arguing with Vivian, Nikki
came to Vivian's protection and pushed Lisanne away. Lisanne tripped,
fell, and fatally hit her head on a statue of a cat. Vivian told
Nikki that Lisanne was just unconscious, but she knew otherwise.
Vivian and Lawrence's manservant, Ivan Marais, dragged Lisanne's body
to the basement. Eventually, Ivan made it look like Lisanne was
killed in a car crash. Meanwhile, Lisanne's death led Lawrence to
realize that Nikki was his son. As soon as Vivian realized that her
secret was about to be exposed, she suffered a heart attack. However,
this didn't keep Lawrence at bay. While recovering from her coronary,
Vivian admitted to Lawrence the truth. Nikki was Carly and Lawrence's
son; she had told Carly the child had died, raised it as her own, and
bought her servant's son's birth certificate to cover up the entire
matter. It wasn't long before Lawrence spilled the beans to Carly,
despite Vivian's pleas to the contrary. When Carly finally confronted
Vivian, she threatened to take Nikki away from her. Desperate to hang
on to Nikki, Vivian took Nikki away during Carly's wedding to Bo
Brady. She had planned to leave Salem with him, but was stopped just
in time.
Kidnapping
charges were dropped against Vivian. But she worried about more
important matters...like keeping the truth of Nikki's mother from
him. Everyone pretty much knew that Nikki was Carly's son, except for
Nikki. No one wanted to tell the child because of the emotional
strain it would take on him. Vivian didn't want him to know because
she was afraid of losing Nikki, the only person she truly loved. And
by now, Vivian had pretty much dropped her friendly act with Carly.
She had always despised the woman, and the masks were off
now.
More trouble came along as Bo investigated Lisanne's death. He suspected foul play and began investigating the Alamains. Vivian told Lawrence to get rid of the stone cat and the rug because they had traces of Lisanne's blood. Lawrence buried them in the woods, but a hooker saw him and reported it to the police. Soon after, Bo caught Lawrence trying to dig up the stone cat and arrested him. Although Lawrence was tried, it was revealed that Nikki had killed him. Charges were dropped, and Nikki never found out he'd committed murder.
Meanwhile, Vivian and Victor's relationship came to a close. Victor broke up with her as a result of her lies and manipulations. When Kate Roberts came to Salem as the owner of The Spectator, Victor invited her to stay at his mansion. Vivian was ultra jealous.
By now, Lawrence desperately wanted to tell Nikki that Carly was his mother (she wanted to tell him too). Lawrence hoped that it would bring him back together with her. Vivian was not pleased with these news and proposed to turn Nikki against Carly. Vivian told Nikki that Carly was a horrible woman, etc. When Lawrence finally told Nikki who his mother was, Nikki was less than joyful. But Carly began to spend time with him, and Nikki grew to like Carly. Soon, Carly began custody proceedings. Vivian took drastic actions. She resolved to kill Carly. Vivian forced Ivan to drain the brake fluid from Carly's car (she threatened to withhold his pay if she didn't help her.) Carly got in an accident, but she was saved by Billie Reed.
While this was happening, Vivian had begun suffering chest pains. The doctors told her that she had a fatal heart disease and was going to die. Using these news to her advantage, Vivian decided to commit suicide and implicate Carly in her death. First, she got Carly to serve her hot chocolate and put Carly's medication in it so that it'd look like Carly had killed her. But when Nikki decided to have a sip of Auntie Viv's beverage, Vivian spilled it and went back to drawing board. Finally, she concocted a more brutal plan. At Shawn-Douglas Brady's birthday party at the Penthouse Grill, Vivian lured Carly to the balcony. There, she instigated a vicious argument regarding Nikki. During the argument, Vivian "fell" off the balcony. Her fall was somewhat broken by an awning down below and Vivian went into a coma. Ironically, it was Carly who saved Vivian's life in the operating room.
Soon
after, Vivian came out of her coma but revealed herself only to Ivan.
She needed to recover and ordered him to seek a way of helping her.
Ivan brought Dr. Wu, a Chinese herbs specialist. He gave Vivian some
Oriental herbs. Within a matter of weeks, Vivian was walking and
feeling full of energy. She was charged up to cause more trouble for
Carly. Vivian decided to frame her for the deaths of her patients.
Dressed as a nurse, Vivian sneaked out of her hospital room and
injected cleaning fluid into Carly's terminally ill patients. After
the second death, suspicion began to grow against Carly, but no
murder charges were even considered yet. Vivian decided to spice
things up for Carly. She snuck out of the hospital one night and
planted the bottle of cleaning fluid in Carly's house. Later, Bo
found the detergent in Carly's closet and began to suspect her.
Further analysis confirmed that the detergent at Carly's matched the
one used to kill her patients. Vivian thought it was time for a grand
finale. She had to kill someone "special", not just some terminally
ill patient. While snooping around the hospital, Vivian noticed that
Caroline Brady was in the hospital to cure a peptic ulcer. She also
heard Caroline telling Carly that maybe she and Bo should not get
married. Bingo! Vivian had her final victim. The Bradys knew of
Caroline's reservations regarding Bo and Carly's upcoming marriage;
it would cast suspicion on Carly if she suddenly died under her care.
In addition, Vivian broke into Carly's locker in the hospital and
forged a few entries in her diary. They specifically said that she
was going to get rid of Caroline. In her nurse disguise, Vivian went
to Caroline's room, where Caroline was heavily sedated. Vivian was
carrying two syringes: one with detergent and one with a heavy dose
of morphine. As she was about to inject the detergent into Caroline's
serum, Carly walked in! There, Vivian confessed to Carly everything
she had done. Afterwards, she tried to kill Carly with the cleaning
fluid, but Carly knocked the syringe out of her hand. During the
struggle, Carly was accidentally injected with the morphine. Shocked
at what had happened, Vivian rushed back to her room. Later, she
would discover from Ivan that Carly was in a coma but would come out
very soon. Finally, Vivian decided to come out of her
coma.
Everyone was shocked, and somewhat happy, when Vivian made her "miraculous" recovery. Meanwhile, Vivian was keeping tabs on Carly. Tom Horton said that she'd awaken soon. Vivian would've wanted her to wake up. Bo had investigated Caroline's room after Carly was found, and he found the syringe with the cleaning fluid in it. He also found her diary, stating that she planned to kill Caroline. Carly was now considered the culprit of the hospital murders. Unfortunately, Carly knew the truth, and Vivian couldn't let this come out. Vivian began to inject morphine into Carly's IV to keep her asleep. Meanwhile, she devised a really disgusting plan to rid herself of Carly.
With
the help of Dr. Wu and his herbs, Vivian "killed" Carly. She injected
a serum into her IV that induced a deathlike paralysis. Tom Horton
pronounced her dead, as she had no pulse. Before they could embalm
Carly, Vivian told everyone that Carly had told her she didn't want
to be embalmed if she died. She claimed that Carly had been close to
nature and wanted it that way. Since Vivian and Carly had been SUCH
good friends, they believed her and did not embalm her. Vivian took
care of all the funeral arrangements. After Carly was buried, Vivian
returned to roll around in the freshly-covered grave in maddening
ecstasy. She was not aware of it, but the herbs Vivian was taking for
her heart ailment were making her quite insane.
Soon
after, Carly woke up in her coffin. Vivian had rigged the coffin with
lights, a limited oxygen supply, a tank of water, and a radio
transmitter. From the Alamain mansion, Vivian taunted Carly on her
walkie-talkie. For a while, Vivian continued to torment Carly.
However, she had stopped taking her herbs (Ivan had been withholding
them.) Just as Carly was running out of oxygen, Vivian came to her
senses and told Lawrence what she had done. In the nick of time,
Lawrence dug Carly out of the grave. She was unconscious. When she
woke up, she had amnesia; she thought that it was 1983. Lawrence and
Vivian decided to keep Carly in the attic of the mansion; Dr. Wu
warned them that Western medicine would kill Carly. After Carly was
found to be alive, Vivian ran. She contacted Ivan from Brookville,
where she was working as a waitress at Harvey's Diner. Her plan had
been for Ivan to arrange her getaway to Europe, but Bo and Lexie were
on to her. Vivian tried to convince Bo to let her go in order to keep
Carly in town (Bo had arrested Carly to keep her in the country), but
Bo didn't fall for it and arrested her. With Victor's help, Vivian
avoided going to prison; she blamed the herbs for her actions.
Instead, Vivian was sent to Pine Haven Sanitarium for a psychiatric
evaluation. What was to be a simple one-week stay prolonged into four
months.
Vivian was informed that she would be permanently committed to Pine Haven. While exploring the sanitarium, Vivian witnessed Kate Roberts visit one of the patients. After Kate left, Vivian was curious to see who the patient was. The name on the room's door said "Laura Horton." Vivian was quite amused that a "partridge family clone" could be institutionalized and wanted to know why Kate was so interested in her. Needing help (not to mention sane company), Vivian ordered Ivan to get a job as an orderly at Pine Haven. As time progressed, Vivian learned that the catatonic Laura knew a secret concerning Kate's past, and that she despised Kate. Vivian was determined to figure out the secret. While eavesdropping on conversations between Dr. Anne Goldberg, who ran Pine Haven, and her assistant Nurse Jackson, Vivian learned that they kept their patients overmedicated in order to bilk their families out of thousands of dollars. Knowing this, Vivian had Ivan withhold Laura's medication. Little by little, Laura was able to move and even say a word or two. When Vivian put an issue of Bella on Laura's lap, which featured an article about Kate, Laura tore it to shreds. This certainly confirmed her hatred for Kate.
For New Year's Eve, Laura's daughter Jennifer decided to take her mother back to Salem for a party at the Penthouse Grill. Laura had shown signs of improvement, and Jennifer believed that being around her family would help Laura. Jen's plans worried Vivian; Kate would be at the Penthouse Grill, and there was no telling what Laura would do. So, Vivian decided to come along as well. She noticed that Anne Goldberg had quite a crush on Ivan, and encouraged him to seduce her. This way, she would be able to leave the sanitarium unnoticed. Once in Salem, Vivian attended the party at the Penthouse Grill dressed as a man and kept a watchful eye on Laura. Laura, in turn, kept a hateful eye on Kate. Not only Kate, but others noticed Laura's malicious looks toward Kate. Luckily, Laura was still too drugged to be able to move out of her chair. Funnily, while keeping an eye on Laura, Vivian was asked to dance by another woman!
Once
back in Pine Haven, Vivian's scheme was unmasked. Nurse Jackson
caught Vivian and Ivan in Laura's room. Anne promptly had Ivan taken
away by some burly guards, pumped large doses of medication into
Laura, and had Vivian moved to the high-security Sector H of the
sanitarium. Soon after, a lobotomy was ordered for Vivian. Vivian's
head was shaved and was centimeters away from having a needle probe
into her brain when the lights in the operating room went out. When
the lights came back on, Vivian was gone. Ivan and Laura, who was now
able to walk, had rescued her in the dark. In the meantime, they had
to escape a fire that had broken out in the sanitarium. Ivan escaped;
but before Vivian and Laura could, they were encountered by Anne
Goldberg and Nurse Jackson. With the words, "You know Jackson, you're
beginning to...piss me off!", Vivian smacked Nurse Jackson; Nurse
Jackson retaliated. Although Jackson almost had Vivian, Laura knocked
the evil nurse out by smashing a glass bottle on her head. She then
proceeded to roll a gurney against Anne Goldberg, who also fell
unconscious. Through Vivian's ingenuity, she and Laura escaped to
safety using a drainage pipe.
Vivian and Laura surprised Ivan when they broke into the Alamain mansion; Ivan had become a helpless drunk after the bodies of two women were found in the remains of Pine Haven. Once everything was cleared up, Vivian told Laura that their presence would have to remain a secret until the right time. Finally, the right time came. When Kate was put on the stand at the Curtis Brown murder trial, Laura walked in and halted the proceedings. Everyone was delighted to see her, but couldn't believe Vivian had been responsible for saving Laura's life. Vivian warned Bo that something big was about to happen. Indeed, as the trial resumed, Laura dropped the bombshell: Curtis had been married to Kate.
Viv continued to probe Laura for more of Kate's secrets; she knew there were more. However, Laura refused to say a word. Vivian even resorted to threats, which may be the reason their friendship fell apart. Needless to say, Laura didn't say anything. However, Vivian did suspect that Laura's husband, Bill, had something to do with it; later that night, Bill returned to Salem and Laura did not look very pleased.
At
this time, Vivian also suspected that Kate and Curtis Reed's divorce
had never been finalized. By having Ivan spy on Kate, Vivian
discovered that she was seeing a lawyer named David Caldwell (father
of Jamie Caldwell.) Vivian attempted to get to the bottom of this by
posing as a French socialite, Madame Yvonne Molière. As Madame
Molière, Vivian visited David Caldwell and tried to overhear
his sessions with Kate without success. Finally, Vivian decided to
seduce David. While she and David dined at Chez Vous (with Kate and
Victor close by!), Ivan searched David's office. David kept every
conversation he had with a client on tape, and Vivian hoped to
acquire the tapes with Kate's appointment. Ivan found them, and
Vivian left David high and dry before they could move on to
"dessert."
On
the tapes, Vivian heard the greatest news. Kate admitted that she'd
never divorced Curtis because he never signed the divorce papers! The
tapes also revealed her affair with Bill Horton resulting in the
birth of Lucas. Soon after this, Victor planned a publicity party for
Kate, who had just been cleared of any wrongdoing in the Curtis Brown
trial. Vivian sent one tape, which contained Kate's confession of
bigamy, to Fisher Andrews, a reporter for the tabloid "The Intruder."
The other tape she kept to herself; she simply needed to coax Laura
into spilling the truth. At the party, Vivian had Ivan lock Kate and
Bill outside in the balcony. Their disappearance made an already
jealous Laura extremely angry. After they got back into the Penthouse
Grill, Kate joined Victor in receiving an award from Tom Horton.
While everyone applauded Kate, Vivian taunted Laura. "Look at
her...she's laughing at you!" she whispered in Laura's ear. That did
it. Laura stepped out in front of the crowd and called Kate a slut.
She revealed that Kate and Bill had had an affair 18 years ago which
caused her to go insane; furthermore, Lucas was Bill's son. To add
insult to injury, Fisher Andrews burst into the room and announced
that Kate had never divorced Curtis! Vivian was on cloud
nine.
Following this spectacle, Victor pushed Kate away and Vivian made her move. She planned dinner dates with Victor. Although Victor seemed interested, he still loved Kate. He soon got back together with her, with the condition that she bear him a male heir. Vivian was once again furious.
Through much spying, Vivian found out that Kate couldn't conceive a child and she & Victor had sought help from Dr. Layton. They were going to perform an in-vitro fertilization, where an egg is fertilized outside the womb and then implanted back into the mother. Vivian and Ivan went to Dr. Layton and pretended to also want an in-vitro fertilization in order to spy on Kate and Victor. Victor caught Vivian at the clinic one day, and she told him that she'd heard her biological clock ticking and decided to have a baby! Victor kept this a secret. One night, Vivian and Ivan broke into Dr. Layton's fertility clinic and planned to flush Kate's eggs down the sink. However, Ivan reminded her that if Victor found out she was responsible he would hate her. So, she came up with another plan. She decided to switch the labels on the petri dishes, so that Vivian would be implanted with Victor and Kate's baby instead of Kate! The reasoning behind this was that Victor would love the woman who gave birth to his heir. When Dr. Layton realized his mistake, Kate accused Vivian of masterminding it. However, Victor and Kate came to accept it as an accident. Victor was grateful to Vivian for willing to carry their child.
But her plan did not work. Victor still loved Kate, and Vivian was stuck having to carry this "brat". Soon after, Vivian came upon an article in the newspaper which spoke of the danger of carpet cleaning fluid fumes on unborn children. So Vivian had her carpets cleaned an asked Victor to stay at his mansion, which he gladly agreed to. While staying at the mansion, Vivian and Kate got into several cat fights. This came to an end the night of the Blackout. The two women were trapped on the elevator at the Titan building. While stuck in the elevator, Kate opened up to Vivian and talked about her claustrophobia resulting from Curtis abusing her. Vivian admitted to Kate that her life wasn't as exciting as she made it sound and that she'd been hurt by a lot of men. After the two were saved by Austin and Lucas, Vivian and Kate called a truce. However, Vivian still hated Kate and planned to get Victor.
Several months passed in which Vivian pretended to be Kate's friend. Kate actually came to enjoy Vivian as a friend. However, Victor constantly warned Vivian to take care of herself so no harm would come to the child. This was put to a test one evening, when Vivian received a call from Laura. Apparently, Laura was about to be sent to another sanitarium and asked Vivian to help her escape from the hospital. Although Vivian refused, Laura blackmailed her into helping her; she had been at Dr. Layton's the night Vivian switched the labels on the petri dishes. Vivian and Ivan dressed up as Brooktree (the sanitarium Laura was to be sent to) orderlies and wheeled Laura out of the hospital in a gurney. They even stole the Brooktree ambulance. They hid Laura in the Alamain mansion. At first, everyone suspected Vivian of having something to do with Laura's disappearance from the hospital, including Victor. Someone had sighted a woman matching Vivian's description at the hospital; Vivian almost miscarried at hearing this. But with a lack of evidence, nothing could be proven.
Over the next few months, Vivian remained in a quirky limbo full of "funny" situations. One of these was being taken care of by a Swedish tough-as-nails dietetic cook named Olga. Vivian also tried to seduce Victor constantly. To distract Kate, she got chummy with Lucas, giving him advice on how to get Carrie Brady's attention. Eventually, she managed to have Lucas convince Kate not to give Countess Wilhelmina back to Billie Reed; this action would cause stress in Kate's life, permitting Vivian to seduce Victor more easily. It didn't work. While this was going on, Vivian also helped John speed up his resignation from the Church by speaking to Bishop Andrews on his behalf. Interestingly, at the office of the Bishop, Vivian met a cardinal whose face was covered by a dark red hood. Obliging standard Catholic etiquette, Vivian and Ivan kissed the cardinal's ruby ring. But after the cardinal left, Vivian became outraged. "He stole my ring!" she said. She explained to Ivan that she'd once had a lover in Monte Carlo whose name she had never known, but whose lovemaking was extraordinary; the day after their passionate night, the lover had disappeared, and her precious one-of-a-kind ruby ring along with him. She claimed that the cardinal's ring was hers.
The mysterious cardinal would come back to haunt Vivian a year later. Meanwhile, she was pushed into preparing an elaborate wedding for Victor and Kate. Vivian constantly managed to screw things up, so as to delay the wedding as much as possible. She finally decided to trick Victor into marrying her. While Kate was away on a business trip, Vivian staged a "wedding rehearsal" in the Kiriakis living room. Vivian had prepared a real wedding license and brought real wedding rings (and a real judge) to the ceremony; she acted as Kate's stand-in, while Victor played the groom, Ivan the best man, and Olga the maid of honor. Victor unwittingly signed the license thinking it was for Kate and he. The whole ceremony was caught on tape. Kate arrived at the mansion just as the ceremony was being performed, but Ivan managed to see her through a window and kept her from witnessing the event.
Soon
after, Vivian found out from Paul Jamison that Victor and Kate had
gone to the Salem Inn to elope. They'd grown tired of waiting for
Vivian's grandiose ceremony. But alas, Vivian and Ivan flew to the
hotel and burst into their suite just in time to break up the
wedding. The ceremony would have continued, had Vivian not gone into
labor. After a wonderfully hilarious scene, with Vivian chugging a
bottle of champagne and having visions of the child looking like
Ivan, Vivian gave birth to a healthy baby boy. He was named Phillip
Robert Kiriakis, named in honor of Victor's godfather and
Kate.
Go to Part 2
of Vivian's history
The character of Vivian Alamain has
been played by the following:
Louise Sorel (1992-2000)
Marj Dusay (1993) (temporary replacement)
Picture of Marj Dusay is courtesy of
Tina
McDuffie's Guiding Light Page