Dan Stewart (As The World Turns) - Character History

Character History

Dan is the father of Betsy Stewart and Emily Stewart. This character was born in 1958 as the illegitimate child of Ellen Lowell and Dr. Tim Cole. Ellen's well to do family (father Jim Lowell and Grandfather Judge Lowell) convinced her to give the child up for adoption. It was a heart wrenching decision but Ellen did it for the good of the child. Several years later Dr. David Stewart and his wife Betty came to Oakdale with 2 young sons. Ellen got it into her head that young Dan Stewart was the "Jimmy" she gave up. She wound up getting a footprint of the child and compared it to one she had saved and learned the truth that he was indeed her son. Several years passed and Betty Stewart died and made her husband promise on her deathbed that he would never tell Dan that he was adopted. David and Ellen followed her wishes while they fell in love. As Dan became a teenager and David and Ellen decided to marry, the Stewart housekeeper who was in love with David, (and knew the secret), freaked out and threatened to tell Dan the truth. As she was calling Dan into the room, Ellen panicked and hit her over the head with a statuette and killed her. Ellen went on trial for murder and would not tell the story of what really happened so as to protect Dan. She wound up going to jail for a few months after that but was later exonerated. After that. when Ellen was released, she and David married. But Dan always resented her for killing Frannie Brennan (the housekeeper) and was very cool to her. Ellen would basically suffer in silence. Dan's brother Paul was actually nicer to Ellen than her own son. The boys eventually went to medical school and both became doctors. In one of the great soap opera SORAS operations, Dan who was born on screen in 1958 was a practicing surgeon in 1968. While Dan was in medical school her met and fell for Susan Burke. They secretly married. Susan was a very early feminist and was more interested in being a doctor than a wife and mother. She got pregnant and was not pleased. One day, she almost has a miscarriage and the doctor told her she must stay perfectly still. In a shock to the audience, as soon as the doctor leaves the room, she gets up and deliberately walks to bring on the miscarriage. (This actually alienated a great deal of the female audience to the character of Susan.) The earlier conflict of Dan not knowing Ellen is his mother is resolved when one of Dan's "enemies", Dr Michael Shea learns that his stepdaughter Ellen is really Dan's mother. During an argument with Dan he spills the beans calling him "someone who doesn't even know who he is". Dan is sent reeling that the woman he has resented for years is really his mother. Things get even more complicated when Ellen is admitted to the hospital and Dan is the only surgeon on hand to save her life. Great drama, and the mother son conflict was resolved. Shortly after this an English woman named Elizabeth Talbot comes to town and both Dan and Paul fall for her. Dan and Liz are the star crossed lovers of 1969-1973. Dan and Liz start an affair and unbeknownst to Dan, Liz gets pregnant. However, as he was asking Susan for a divorce, Susan announces that she is pregnant. Doing the honorable thing he stays with her. Poor Liz, pregnant and alone turns to brother Paul and marries him. She give birth in February of 1970 to the character of Betsy Stewart. Dan does not know at that time that his niece is really his daughter. Nor does Paul know his daughter is his niece.

Turmoil behind the scenes at As the World Turns then causes the strong "quadrangle" of Dan/Liz/Pau/Susan to break apart. The character of Paul is given an incurable illness. One of the great scenes in the show history plays out in March of 1972. Susan is giving birth to Dan's daughter Emily while Dan is having a heart to heart with dying brother Paul. Paul finally admits to Dan that daughter Betsy was fathered by another man - although he did not know who. Dan is frozen when he realizes that his niece is really his daughter. At that point the phone rings. When Dan hangs up, Paul asks who it was and Dan stoically announces "I have a daughter". He is telling Paul about the birth of Emily, but telling the rest of us that he knows the truth about Betsy. Paul then dies and Susan falls for a doctor named Bruce Baxter. Dan and Liz finally get to marry but their happiness is short lived. One day when Susan is over visiting Emily she leave the baby gate open at the top of the stairs. As Liz rushes to keep her from falling down the stairs, she trips and falls UP the stairs rupturing her liver. She dies later at the hospital and John Colenback does another fantastic scene when he asks his mother to leave the room before he would cry. (very macho and giving him a daytime Emmy) At this point Dan packs himself and his kids off to Europe. He returns eventually for the "second era" of Dan where we have the Dan-Kim love story sandwiched between the two Bob-Kim love stories. Dan eventually dies of a terminal illness in 1979.