Days of our Lives Casts Stefano DiMera's Long-Lost Son, Etc.

[Rhiannon]

As loyal TVGuide.com readers will recall, Days of our Lives head writer Hogan Sheffer recently told us that Stefano DiMera's long-lost son, Benjy Hawk, would return to Salem.

Daytime newcomer Jim Lunsford joins Days as Benjy on November 10. Patch and Kayla -- who adopted Benjy back in the day -- will likely be glad to see him!

See? I told you EJ Wells, who's played by James Scott, isn't Benjy. Some of y'all didn't want to believe me.

I can't wait to find out exactly what EJ's relation to the DiMeras is. Is he Stefano's son, too? Or perhaps Tony's? Hmm...

In other Days news, you recently read right here that Chelsea will get a geeky new love interest named Nick Fallon. That role has gone to another daytime newbie, Blake Berris. BTW, Nick -- who first airs November 7 -- is the grandson of Marie Horton.

http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?f...eadID=700008969

[Keith]

I KNEW NICK WAS JESS' SON!

Yeah, I know, way too excited about that, but still. Hopefully these dudes have chops.

[ademption]

Oh, cool!! Thanks for the spoiler!! That's really neat that Hogie delivered on his promise and brought in

a Horton. But I thought that Marie was a nun? I'm not complaining or anything if Hogie decided to change her status, but didn't she become a nun after she mistakenly fell in love with her brother Tom Jr?

[Keith]

Hoagie ain't changing her status - she had an affair way back in the 70's. She actually has a daughter, historically. A daughter that amrried a Fallon. Go historical accuracy!

[tylerbo20]

oh so we dont get any older guys returning? Bill Laura Marie herself? who is Nick's mother and father? i didnt think Marie had any kids

[Chris]

Before she became a nun she had a daughter (Jessica Blake) with Alex Marshall. Jessica married Joshua Fallon. I don't think anything has been mentioned about Nick before this, so it's most likely something Hogan came up with.

[Keith]

Elaboration, but be forewarned, Matt's better at this: Marie had a daughter and gave her away. Jessica Blake had MPD or something. She wasn'rt happy when she found out Marie was her mama. Alex Marshall was a scoundrel type who had business dealings with Stefano and Victor and the like. He was the Daddy, She was more accepting of him if I remember. Anywho, she hooked up with Josh Fallon a little bit after the time of the Strangler (she was almost victimized). She was involved with Jake Kositchek, the strangler, and I recall Hope being around him, because Jess babysat her or something. Josh and Jessica married and apparently oved away to Ohio with Marie and, now apparently, had Nick a few years down the line. This was some time in 82/83.

[tylerbo20]

so who is this nick fallon how ware we suppose to care for this long lost non-horton I WANT HORTONS people with the last name HORTON sorry im angry now.

[ademption]

Ok, thanks for the clarification guys!! I forgot that Marie had a child and got married. That time period when the Fallons were in Salem was when I was 6 or 7. I watched Days back then but the only characters that I remember from that time period were Alex Marshall and Liz/Neil Curtis along with Marlena.

Alex Marshall was my favorite character at the time, so it's kind of neat that his grandson is coming to Salem. I like how Hogie went REALLY old school with this Nick character....

ETA: It would be really great if we could get Alex Marshall to come back to Days and create some havoc!! I forgot all the stuff that he did. I remember that he was a bad character and I've always loved evil characters. Alex must have been a really interesting character for me to remember him as a young child after all of these years....

[Keith]

He's a Horton - this was a pretty creative move, IMO. So I'm sorry you feel that way.

[DaysFanJean]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2062857/

This is all I've found on Blake and nothing yet on Jim.

[DaysFanJean]

Thanks, Rhiannon. I checked TV Guide this morning and didn't find this. It's the news I knew had to be coming since they are slated to be on air very shortly. Michael Bruno didn't have either one of these on his site.

[SteveFrame]

Just to throw a little stuff in here from those days. Quinn Redeker who is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter played Alex Marshall. He came on in about 1979 to play Alex, and immediately at first became an interloper in the Chris Kositchek/Mary Anderson romance. Mary Anderson had never married. Alex wanted Anderson Manufacturing, and went after Mary. He convinced her to marry him, but Mary really only loved Chris. On the day that Alex and Mary married, Bob Anderson (played for a long time by Mark Tapscott) suffered a heart attack and died. Mary was so upset that she could not consumate her marriage to Alex, plus she didn't love Alex anyway. The beautiful Barbara Stanger at this time played Mary. Later Mary was played by another actress, and then by the great Melinda Fee who changed Mary from heroine to femme fatale. Alex had moved on by then, but Mary wanted him back and went after him. This new Mary became one of the early victims of the Salem Strangler.

To add a little more to Marie's story. Marie was married early in the series to Dick Merritt (or was his name Craig) - sorry can't remember now. But that marriage failed. She then later fell in love but the man turned out to be her brother Tommy Horton who had amnesia, and everyone believed was dead. Marie was so upset that she ran off to New York to be a nun. Before joining the order, she met the scoundrel Alex Marshall, had the affair, got pregnant, and gave the baby up for adoption.

Bob Anderson's death was part of the big St. Valentine's Day massacre that hit Days in 1980, and ushered in a big ratings fall for the show. A whole bunch of new characters were brought in. These included Jessica who turned out to be Alex and Marie's daughter. Also Joshua Fallon was brought on at that time too. Within a year or so all of them were gone, except for Liz Chandler Curtis.

Later Roman Brady came on, and some others and just about all those other new characters were phased out. Liz was tied to the new DiMera family that was introduced by revealing that Tony and she were not divorced as once thought. Liz was married to Don Craig at the time, and he lost Liz to Tony thus making them enemies. Alex Marshall got involved sexually with Anna Brady later down the line, and got tied to the DiMera's too and later Victor Kiriakis too.

The only story that was half way decent that came out of the St. Valentine's Day massacre was the reveal that Marie had the daughter. Thus Marie ended up leaving the convent and ended up married to Neil. Liz did not become an interesting character at all until she got involved with Tony and Neil. Before that all the fans hated her because she had broken up Don and Marlena.

Here is a link to Blake Berris' Resume with some pictures of him. He is kind of cute. https://www.nowcasting.com/actor/popup/view...;defaultImage=1

I couldn't find anything but an IMDb entry for Jim Lunsford but I think he may be too old to be this one. That Jim Lunsford played on Golden Girls and I remember the role.

[jjjg]

Is Benjy going to know EJ?

[Keith]

Thanks Steve! Based on the training and credit slisted, he should be good!