| Caroline Brady | |||||||||||||||||
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| Days of our Lives | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Peggy McCay (1983, 1985–2016) Jody Carter (1983–84) Barbara Beckley (1984–85) Holgie Forrester (2019; body double) | ||||||||||||||||
| Current status | Former; Regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1983-2016 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | February 7, 1983 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | June 20, 2019 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Appeared In Spirit With Shawn Brady To Look At The Brady Pub And Their Loved Ones | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Margaret DePriest and Sheri Anderson | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Betty Corday and Al Rabin (1983/85) | ||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||
| Namesake(s) | Alice Caroline Allie Horton Caroline Carrie Brady Kayla Caroline Brady | ||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | August 21, 1929 | ||||||||||||||||
| Died | June 19, 2019 | ||||||||||||||||
| Age | 89 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cause of death | Natural Causes | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Former Owner of The Brady Pub Former Fish market owner Former Junkyard owner | ||||||||||||||||
| Residence | 48 River Street (above the Brady Pub), Salem, Illinois (at time of death) | ||||||||||||||||
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Caroline Brady was a character from the soap opera Days of Our Lives, portrayed by Peggy McCay in 1983, and from 1985–2016, Jody Carter from 1983–84, and Barbara Beckley from 1984–85.
Background
Caroline Brady is one of the early characters introduced by Betty Corday, and Margaret DePriest. The show was slowly starting to introduce a new family to the canvas, The Brady family. They needed someone to play the mother of the new characters such as Roman Brady, and Bo Brady. As the matriarch of the Brady clan, Caroline's children are Roman, Kimberly and Kayla (with Shawn Brady), and Bo (with Victor Kiriakis), and adopted children Frankie and Max. She also has a special place in her heart for John Black, whom she once believed was Roman. Over time, the Brady family cemented their place as the second core family on the show.
Caroline's storylines focus on family troubles. The matriarch of the series Brady family, she is portrayed as a stoic, opinionated battle-axe—a family-oriented woman. Caroline's marriage to Shawn Brady was central to the character for the first years of her on the program, until his screen death in 2008. A famous episode in 1986 included Bo (Caroline's son) discovering that his mother's ex-lover, Victor Kiriakis, was his father. Peggy McCay announced Caroline's retirement from the serial in 2003, and the character was killed off in a "whodunnit?" murder storyline, with McCay making her final appearance in 2003. McCay returned in 2004 when Caroline turned up alive.
Casting
Caroline was "killed off" in a whodunit? murder storyline in 2003. The storyline was extremely controversial, and featured the firing of seven veteran actors over the course of a year. Caroline was poisoned at Maggie Horton Kiriakis's funeral. McCay returned in 2004 when Caroline turned up alive, and remained on the show until Peggy McCays death in 2016. In a surprise twist, all the killed off characters returned to the show in 2004 alive on the island of Melaswen (New Salem spelt backwards). Actor Peter Reckell, who has played Caroline's son Bo Brady on and off since 1983, named the scenes of Caroline's 2003 death as among his top five storylines.
Storylines
The true love of Caroline Brady's life was her husband Shawn Douglas Brady, with whom she had three children, Roman, Kimberly, and Kayla, and in later years, they also adopted Frankie and Max. When Kayla was a child, Caroline had a brief affair with Victor Kiriakis, which produced their son Bo, whom Caroline always pretended was Shawn's son. She and Shawn had shown up in Salem to enjoy the relationship between their son Roman and his new wife Marlena Evans. Once Victor realized Caroline was in Salem, he began a campaign to try to get her back in his life, but her heart lay with Shawn. When she wouldn't come back to him, Victor began seducing Kimberly. After Victor deliberately tried to sabotage the Brady Fish Market by opening one of his own and fought Kimberly for custody, Caroline argued with Victor, and when Bo nearly shot Victor, Caroline blurted out the unthinkable truth, that Bo was Victor's son.
Caroline couldn't take that Victor was Bo's father and also fighting Kimberly for custody of her son Andrew Donovan, and tried to shoot him one night. After seeing that, Bo made Victor a deal, if Victor would leave his family alone, he would be his son. For a long time, that made Victor happy, except that it made Bo so horribly unhappy. When Bo came to Caroline, announcing that he couldn't be Victor's son because Victor had a vasectomy in 1963, Caroline confronted Victor, who stuck to his story. He wanted Bo to have a happy life.
More than anything, Caroline has always been a good and loving mother, and it was only natural that, when Kayla was accused of murdering Marina Toscano, that Caroline tried to take the fall for her daughter. Unfortunately it didn't work, as Kayla ended up in jail, where she gave birth to her daughter Stephanie Johnson, although she was later exonerated. Later that year, Caroline and Shawn met the new doctor in town, Carly Manning. A lovely woman, but unfortunately, her ties to Victor brought up too many bad memories for the Brady family, They are able to put that behind them, though, when Bo finds comfort in Carly after Hope Williams Brady's supposed death.
When Shawn and Caroline took a much needed vacation and visited their daughter Kimberly in California, they never anticipated that this would result in her returning to Salem and facing off with newly widowed Kayla, who was getting romantically involved with Kimberly's ex-husband, Shane Donovan. Caroline was equally horrified when Kimberly got herself involved with Lawrence Alamain. She tried to talk to Kimberly, to tell her that Lawrence was just like Victor, but Kim wouldn't listen. Luckily Kim later figured out Lawrence for herself.
All the stress over the years had been hard on Caroline's heart, and she had a heart attack shortly after her granddaughter Sami Brady came back to Salem from Colorado. While in the hospital Caroline nearly died when Vivian Alamain (who was trying to ruin Carly) would have killed her. Luckily for all the Brady's, Caroline was alright. It was heartbreaking for the entire Brady family when Marlena, whom they had taken in like one of their own, was discovered to not only have been cheating on Roman with John Black, but little baby Belle Black, whom they all loved, wasn't really a Brady after all. For a long time, Caroline wasn't comfortable around John or Marlena. Caroline was able to put aside her pain at John and Marlena's betrayal, and soon was just as close to them as before. When Marlena was possessed by Satan, Caroline was there for both her and John to help bring Marlena back to herself.
Caroline has always been the rock that held her family together, and it was her love and her faith that held Sami together when she was arrested and charged with Franco Kelly's murder. She continued to support her granddaughter once released, even when Sami seemed to turn on her.
Oftentimes Caroline and Shawn's home turned into a safe haven for Sami and Lucas Horton young son, Will Horton. Will even had dreams of moving in with his grandparents when Caroline's prints were found on the bottle used to attack Maggie Horton Kiriakis. Although her family and friends surrounded her, not willing to risk losing her to the Salem serial killer, Caroline was poisoned by the Salem Stalker the day of Abe Carver, Jack Deveraux, and Maggie's wake, and died while she was in the Church, praying. Her death left the entire Brady family devastated.
Amazingly, Caroline and all the other victims were alive being kept on the mysterious Melaswen Island. She was thrilled to be reunited with her sons, but when she was again presumed dead after an escape attempt, her family was doubly devastated. Unbeknownst to them, she is alive and well being held captive by André DiMera, with Victor as her only nearby friend. Victor and Caroline were eventually rescued, and Caroline returned to her life in Salem with Shawn.
In February 2008, her beloved Shawn was killed in a plane crash. He had died a hero, giving his oxygen mask to Bo, who was suffering from a rare pancreatic disease. While she missed Shawn dearly, Caroline assumed the position as head of the Brady family. She continued to council her children and grandchildren when it comes to love and life lessons, making sure that they do not forget the lessons that Shawn taught them. Her son Max needed Caroline's protection in the summer of 2008 when Max's biological father, Trent Robbins, returned to Salem and started harassing Max. Caroline warned Trent many times to leave Max alone. At one point, Caroline even threatened Trent with a knife.
Later that same night, Caroline went to visit Shawn's grave. All of a sudden, Trent came stumbling out of the bushes with a knife in his back and collapsed on top of Caroline. Scared, Caroline pulled the knife out of Trent's back just as the police were coming to investigate her screams. The police arrested Caroline for Trent's murder, but Bo and Hope were able to prove her innocence and the DA dropped the charges. Caroline returned home to help Max cope with Trent's murder. Less than a year later, Caroline was saddened to say goodbye not only her granddaughter, Chelsea Brady, but Max as well as they moved to London together.
Throughout the fall of 2009 and winter of 2010, Caroline persevered and had her hands full with family problems. She not only kept a watchful eye on Stephanie and her other grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but she was there for Bo who was having marital problems and Kimberly who was diagnosed with Leukemia. Luckily, Kimberly survived and her cancer went into remission, however Caroline still had to deal with Bo's problems. He and Hope had separated and he was once again involved with Carly, who had returned to Salem.
As it turned out, Bo made a deal with Victor, if Victor neutralized Vivian and kept her away from Carly and her daughter, Melanie Jonas, then Bo wouldn't kill her. In attempt to keep his end of the agreement, Victor married Vivian as it was something she had always wanted, to become Mrs. Victor Kiriakis. When Caroline found out she went ballistic. She was upset that Victor married such a monster. However, Victor reminded Caroline that she rejected him just the year before when he attempted to win her heart. Caroline couldn't help to admit defeat, but that didn't stop her from thinking Victor had made a terrible mistake, or feeling a little jealous.
In the summer of 2010, Caroline's family gathered to say goodbye to Alice Horton who had died on June 23, 2010. Kimberly and Kayla as well as Carrie Brady returned home for the services. Although saddened by Alice's passing, Caroline was happy to be surrounded by all of her family once again.
In the fall of 2012 people started noticing that Caroline was forgetting things and calling people by the wrong name. Caroline was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Luckily, Kayla discovered a hospital in California that was performing a trial Alzheimer's treatment, Bo accompanied her on the trip. When Caroline was well enough to come home, Bo brought her back. (Though, Bo was not shown on screen upon his return.)
Caroline attended Alzheimer's support groups and continued her treatment in Salem. She showed no more signs of Alzheimer's.
Caroline became a great-great grandmother to Arianna Horton, from Will. Caroline would later show signs of still not being 100% well, and would later see an image of Shawn in the mirror. Victor would later reveal that Caroline didn't have Alzheimers, and that Bo had went off to find a cure before being captured. Victor eventually found the cure and Caroline was cured of her ailment.
In February 2016, Stefano DiMera's body was found in a demolished building, and the entire family celebrated the end of their longtime nemesis. Hope later admitted to Caroline that she was the one who killed Stefano, but Caroline maintained that what Hope did was justified since it was believed that Stefano was the one who held Bo captive, resulting in his eventual "death" from a brain tumor, even though she later learned that Deimos Kiriakis was the one who held Bo captive.
On June 19 2019, Will saw Caroline in a dream where she silently encouraged him to fight for his life. Soon after, it was revealed that Caroline had passed away in her sleep, making it possible that Will had actually been visited by her spirit.
Many friends and family members gathered for Caroline's funeral.
