Beth Spaulding Bauer
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth "Beth" Ann Raines Spaulding (previously Lemay, Winslow, and Bauer) is a fictional character
on the long-running American soap opera
Guiding Light
. Judi Evans debuted in the role in May 1983 and remained with the show until July 1986. After Lisa Loughridge stepped in as a temporary replacement, Beth Chamberlin
assumed the role from October 2, 1989 to February 18, 1991, August 30, 1993 to January 1994 and November 1, 1997 to September 18, 2009. Beth is the stepdaughter of the late Bradley Raines and daughter of Lillian Raines. She is the mother of Lizzie
, James
, and Peyton Spaulding and is known for her tumultuous relationship with her husband Phillip Spaulding
. Evans won a Daytime Emmy Award
for Outstanding Supporting Actress
in 1984 for her portrayal of the character. In 2010, Beth Chamberlin
secured a nomination in the same category.
and Beth and Philip Spaulding (Grant Aleksander
). Beth has also been married to Philip's father, Alan Spaulding (Ron Raines
) and Philip's best friend Rick Bauer (Michael O'Leary
). Beth, Philip, Rick and Mindy Lewish (Krista Tesreau
) called themselves "The Four Musketeers" in the 1980s. Together they were four best friends with a watertight bond.
Playing Beth Raines was the first television/daytime role for now veteran actress Judi Evans. She stated that three of the four actors who played the four musketeers where all hired around the same time and that the four of them were very close. She also said that her time on Guiding Light was magical. It was when she realized that she was finally living her dream.
named her 1984's Most Beleaguered Heroine, called her a part of "one of the top triangles ever to grace daytime" and compared later storylines to General Hospital's romantic/adventure couple Luke and Laura.
Beth Raines first appeared on Guiding Light in the spring of 1983. Beth was acknowledged to have been born March 16,1966. Her biological father was killed in Vietnam. Her mother, Lillian, a nurse, had remarried Bradley Raines. In 1983, a 17 year old Beth was admitted to Cedars Hospital as an unconscious victim of an abusive stepfather. Her roommate was Mindy Lewis
. Mindy was friends with two orderlies, Phillip Spaulding
and Rick Bauer. The four of them formed a fast friendship, nicknamed "The Four Musketeers" which quickly developed into a romantic quadrangle. Beth was a shy, artistic teenager. Philip and Mindy, both heirs to two of Springfield's premier families, were dating when Philip fell for Beth who was dating Rick. Fate seemed to be pushing Philip and Beth together when they were name king and queen at their high school prom. When a traumatized Beth became nearly catatonic after being raped by her stepfather, the two of them ran away to New York City. The storyline took place at Christmas time and introduced the character of Nick, a Santa-like figure who would make later appearances on the show throughout the years around the holiday season. The location shoot was plagued by bad weather and a need for many reshoots. However, the result was a charming memorable love story that Grant Aleksander
(Philip) said was worth the extra effort. They returned to be married, but discovered that Mindy, Beth's maid of honor, was pregnant with Philip's child, and Philip married Mindy instead.
Beth moved on with a gangleader named Brandon Luvoneczek, who called himself Lujack to conceal his identity for his criminal activities in a star-crossed romance. It was discovered he was the long-lost son of Philip's aunt Alexandra Spaulding
. Lujack's ex-girlfriend also held Beth, LuJack and his mother hostage. Meanwhile, Mindy miscarried and after Philip and Mindy divorced, Philip tried to win Beth back. Beth was temporarily blinded in an explosion, when a jealous Philip hired someone to blow up a bar that Lujack was building with one of his past theft victims, Floyd Parker (Tom Nielsen). Lujack was accused of the murder of Andy Ferris (whom Philip had paid to blow up Lujack's bar), and the couple became amateur detectives to clear his name. Lujack was killed, leaving a heartbroken Beth to eventually reunite with Philip briefly before being kidnapped and presumed dead in 1986.
In 1997, Beth returns to Springfield with Lizzie (played by Hayden Panettiere
). Philip is dating Harley Cooper
. Beth begins to date Ben Warren
and announces to Philip that she intends to stay in town. In 1998, she teams up with Annie Dutton
to try to win Philip back from Harley. She is named as a suspect in the murder of Carl Stevens. It is later revealed that young Lizzie shot and killed Carl because he had abused her mother. She protects Lizzie and unhappily allows her to be in Philip and Harley's wedding. In 1998, Beth makes a play for Matt Reardon, but later dates Jim Lema] (legal father to Harley's daughter Susan, who she gave up for adoption as a teen mom). When Beth, Philip and Jim are in a plane crash, Jim escapes to find help. Beth and Philip, thinking they are about to die make love. After being rescued, Beth accepts Jim Lemay's proposal. In 2000, Beth found out that she was pregnant with Philip's baby. She convinced Philip to allow her to pass the baby off as Jim's, in order to preserve both of their marriages. However, that same year, Lizzie is diagnosed with leukemia
. Jim refuses to allow the doctors to induce labor in order to use the stem cells from the cord blood to save Lizzie's life. After breaking up and then reconciling, Jim saves Lizzie and baby James from a fire but died shortly afterward.
In 2001, Beth allows herself to be seduced by Prince Edmond Winslow of San Christobel and conspires with him to overthrow his brother, Prince Richard Winslow. She became a princess but divorced Edmond when she found out that he was holding Cassie prisoner. When she found out about it Edmund kept her in the same place he had been holding Cassie. She excaped and was saved by her ex Phillip. In 2002, Beth is presumed dead again when she is caught up in a flash flood in San Christobel. Edmond later meets a country girl named Lorelei Hills who looks exactly like Beth. He convinces her to come to Springfield and scam the Spauldings out of Beth's fortune by convincing them that Beth wasn't really dead. The con is successful and Philip begans to fall in love with "Beth." When he realizes that she is an imposter, Lorelei and Edmond are jailed. In jail, Lorelei has flashback's of Beth's life and it is revealed that she really is Beth, only she that had amnesia all this time. Her fingerprints match and it is confirmed that she is the real Beth. Lorelei/Beth now struggles with her split personality. Lorelei dominates temporarily and runs off with Edmund. Eventually Beth's personality wins out and she is reunited with Philip and Lizzie. Just as they start to get back on track, a lover from Lorelei's past comes to Springfield in the unlikely person of Bill Lewis, the son of Billy Lewis and Vanessa Chamberlin Reardon, who was last seen as a teenager and is now a young college student.
In 2004, Philip was presumed dead, after having been shot by his father, Alan. In 2006 Beth was shocked to learn that Rick not only helped him fake his death, but had kept that information from her and everyone in Springfield. Beth married Philip's father Alan to obtain security for herself and her children. When she miscarried their baby, he became obsessed with a Lizzie's pregnancy and trying to gain custody of the child, fathered by Jonathan Randall, son of Alan's one-time wife, Reva Shayne
. Beth divorced Alan Spaulding, but despite his short-lived marriage to Doris Wolf, and his near death at the hands of her daughter Ashley, Beth and Alan continued to bounce back and forth in their relationship. At one point, during the investigation to find out who shot Alan, Beth attempted to seduce Alan's other son, Alan-Michael, but was unsuccessful.
Beth focused, on protecting Lizzie and her baby from Alan and reconnected with Rick, who was at the time married to Mel Boudreaux and father to their daughter Leah. Beth, Rick and Alan formed an on-again/off-again triangle. The affair was revealed by Jonathan Randall in an angry outburst. Rick and Mel divorced and Beth became pregnant, but paternity was uncertain. A distraught Cassie tampered with the paternity test to show that Rick was the father of Beth's baby, and Beth was married to Rick on the Fourth of July by Josh Lewis, who had become a preacher. Cassie blamed Alan for the death of her daughter Tammy, and wanted ostensibly to "protect Beth's child from having Alan Spaulding as a father." Lizzie was dismayed and angry that she hadn't been invited and was one of the last people to find out. Thinking the baby was a Bauer, Beth named the baby Bernadette as a tribute to Bert Bauer, Rick's grandmother. At Bernadette's baptism, Reva blurted out the truth in order to save her own son from Alan's wrath. Beth decided instead after some additional thought to rename her daughter Peyton Alexandra Raines instead of Bernadette Bauer.
Beth decided to go to law school, but her personal life remained more murky. When Alan had a brain tumor and started having visions of his dead son Gus, Beth started a relationship with Henry Cooper "Coop" Bradshaw who had been previously engaged to her daughter Lizzie. The relationship was supposed to be kept secret so Alan wouldn't find out but eventually everyone knew except Alan. When Alan found out he threatened to take Peyton from Beth and kill Coop if she didn't marry him. On the way to stop the wedding Coop got into a car accident. Phillip, who had been presumed dead for nearly five years, had recently decided to return to Springfield, and found Coop after the accident. He took him to the hospital, then went to the church to tell everyone what had happened. Beth was shocked to see Phillip alive, and then jolted to learn that Coop was clinging to life. Beth visited Coop on his deathbed, and his sacrifice made her decide not to marry Alan. During the relationship of Beth and Coop he wrote a book about their love and it was eventually published. Phillip's return jolted the entire Spaulding family, and they barely had time to adjust when Beth's and Phillip's 19-year old son, James, returned from boarding school. James was running a Ponzi scheme
and even when Phillip helped clear the charges against him, he resented Phillip's return. Beth was torn between the love of her life and the son who had only known the worst of his father. During this time Beth also helped her daughter Lizzie marry Bill Lewis
.
Eventually, Phillip learned he was dying. He didn't tell anyone, aside from Lillian (who was a nurse), and tried to repair the relationships in his life with the time he had left. Beth found out in what were supposed to be Phillip's last days, and she felt devastated as well as betrayed by Phillip and by her mother. Fortunately for Phillip, Alan agreed to a bone marrow transplant, and saved his son's life, but a few days later, Alan quietly died after attending the double wedding of Lillian and Buzz Cooper
and Vanessa Chamberlain and Billy Lewis. Beth was forced to break the news to her young daughter Peyton. Shortly before Alan's death, Phillip had proposed to Beth, and she had happily accepted. James and Phillip were now reconciled and Lizzie was trying for a baby. Beth also decided to return to her first love, drawing. A year later, Beth and Phillip were happily married, and were celebrating the upcoming nuptials of their best friends Rick and Mindy.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the long-running American soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
. Judi Evans debuted in the role in May 1983 and remained with the show until July 1986. After Lisa Loughridge stepped in as a temporary replacement, Beth Chamberlin
Beth Chamberlin
Beth Chamberlin is a American actress and fitness coach.-Film and television roles:She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Beth Raines Spaulding LeMay Winslow Spaulding Bauer Spaulding on Guiding Light. She was the second actress to portray the role and initially portrayed Beth for a two...
assumed the role from October 2, 1989 to February 18, 1991, August 30, 1993 to January 1994 and November 1, 1997 to September 18, 2009. Beth is the stepdaughter of the late Bradley Raines and daughter of Lillian Raines. She is the mother of Lizzie
Lizzie Spaulding
Elizabeth Lillian "Lizzie" Lewis was a fictional character on the CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light. She was one of the soap's most popular and featured characters. She was the daughter of supercouple Phillip Spaulding and ex-wife, Beth Raines...
, James
James Spaulding (GL)
James Spaulding is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light.-Character's background:James Alexander Spaulding is second child of Phillip Spaulding and Elizabeth "Beth" Raines and has four siblings...
, and Peyton Spaulding and is known for her tumultuous relationship with her husband Phillip Spaulding
Phillip Spaulding
Phillip Granville Spaulding is a fictional character on the popular CBS daytime soap opera, Guiding Light. The character is the adopted son of business mogul, Alan Spaulding, and his first ex-wife, Elizabeth. Phillip has been portrayed by three different actors with Grant Aleksander the most recent...
. Evans won a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
for Outstanding Supporting Actress
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series has been given every year at the Daytime Emmys since the 6th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony in 1979....
in 1984 for her portrayal of the character. In 2010, Beth Chamberlin
Beth Chamberlin
Beth Chamberlin is a American actress and fitness coach.-Film and television roles:She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Beth Raines Spaulding LeMay Winslow Spaulding Bauer Spaulding on Guiding Light. She was the second actress to portray the role and initially portrayed Beth for a two...
secured a nomination in the same category.
Background
The character of Beth Raines has been half of two supercouples: Beth and Lujack Luvonaczek (Vincent IrizarryVincent Irizarry
Vincent Michael Irizarry is an American actor of Puerto Rican and Italian descent. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1985 and 2002, and won in 2009.-Early life:...
and Beth and Philip Spaulding (Grant Aleksander
Grant Aleksander
Grant Aleksander Kunkowski , better known as Grant Aleksander, is an American actor.-Early life:Aleksander was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was well known at McDonogh School as both a football player and a thespian. He attended the Washington and Lee University...
). Beth has also been married to Philip's father, Alan Spaulding (Ron Raines
Ron Raines
Ron Raines is an American actor. He is known for the role of Alan Spaulding on the long-running television soap opera Guiding Light. Raines also performs in musical theatre and in concert with symphony orchestras....
) and Philip's best friend Rick Bauer (Michael O'Leary
Michael O'Leary
Michael O'Leary is the name of:*Michael O'Leary , Irish-Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross*Michael O'Leary , Irish politician and leader of the Irish Labour Party...
). Beth, Philip, Rick and Mindy Lewish (Krista Tesreau
Krista Tesreau
Krista Tesreau is an American actress.-Career:Tesreau is best known for her role as Melinda “Mindy” Lewis on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light, which she portrayed from 1983 to 1989...
) called themselves "The Four Musketeers" in the 1980s. Together they were four best friends with a watertight bond.
Playing Beth Raines was the first television/daytime role for now veteran actress Judi Evans. She stated that three of the four actors who played the four musketeers where all hired around the same time and that the four of them were very close. She also said that her time on Guiding Light was magical. It was when she realized that she was finally living her dream.
The book behind the character
Chamberlin is the author of the novel, Lorelei's Guiding Light: An Intimate Diary, written under the pen name of and the Beth Raines' alias Lorelei Hills. Published by St. Martin's Press, it was released during the summer of 2002. The Cincinnati Enquirer listed the book as number one on their best seller list for July 2, 2002. In the storyline, the book was Beth's diary while she suffered from amnesia and believed her name was Lorelei.Judi Evans years: 1983-1986
From the start, the character of Beth Raines was a recognized fan favorite. Soap Opera DigestSoap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
named her 1984's Most Beleaguered Heroine, called her a part of "one of the top triangles ever to grace daytime" and compared later storylines to General Hospital's romantic/adventure couple Luke and Laura.
Beth Raines first appeared on Guiding Light in the spring of 1983. Beth was acknowledged to have been born March 16,1966. Her biological father was killed in Vietnam. Her mother, Lillian, a nurse, had remarried Bradley Raines. In 1983, a 17 year old Beth was admitted to Cedars Hospital as an unconscious victim of an abusive stepfather. Her roommate was Mindy Lewis
Mindy Lewis
Melinda "Mindy" Sue Bauer is a fictional character in the town of Springfield on the CBS daytime drama, Guiding Light, who was recently played by actress Krista Tesreau....
. Mindy was friends with two orderlies, Phillip Spaulding
Phillip Spaulding
Phillip Granville Spaulding is a fictional character on the popular CBS daytime soap opera, Guiding Light. The character is the adopted son of business mogul, Alan Spaulding, and his first ex-wife, Elizabeth. Phillip has been portrayed by three different actors with Grant Aleksander the most recent...
and Rick Bauer. The four of them formed a fast friendship, nicknamed "The Four Musketeers" which quickly developed into a romantic quadrangle. Beth was a shy, artistic teenager. Philip and Mindy, both heirs to two of Springfield's premier families, were dating when Philip fell for Beth who was dating Rick. Fate seemed to be pushing Philip and Beth together when they were name king and queen at their high school prom. When a traumatized Beth became nearly catatonic after being raped by her stepfather, the two of them ran away to New York City. The storyline took place at Christmas time and introduced the character of Nick, a Santa-like figure who would make later appearances on the show throughout the years around the holiday season. The location shoot was plagued by bad weather and a need for many reshoots. However, the result was a charming memorable love story that Grant Aleksander
Grant Aleksander
Grant Aleksander Kunkowski , better known as Grant Aleksander, is an American actor.-Early life:Aleksander was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was well known at McDonogh School as both a football player and a thespian. He attended the Washington and Lee University...
(Philip) said was worth the extra effort. They returned to be married, but discovered that Mindy, Beth's maid of honor, was pregnant with Philip's child, and Philip married Mindy instead.
Beth moved on with a gangleader named Brandon Luvoneczek, who called himself Lujack to conceal his identity for his criminal activities in a star-crossed romance. It was discovered he was the long-lost son of Philip's aunt Alexandra Spaulding
Alexandra Spaulding
Alexandra Spaulding is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama Guiding Light. Beverlee McKinsey was the first actress to play the role, which she did from February 10, 1984 to August 1992...
. Lujack's ex-girlfriend also held Beth, LuJack and his mother hostage. Meanwhile, Mindy miscarried and after Philip and Mindy divorced, Philip tried to win Beth back. Beth was temporarily blinded in an explosion, when a jealous Philip hired someone to blow up a bar that Lujack was building with one of his past theft victims, Floyd Parker (Tom Nielsen). Lujack was accused of the murder of Andy Ferris (whom Philip had paid to blow up Lujack's bar), and the couple became amateur detectives to clear his name. Lujack was killed, leaving a heartbroken Beth to eventually reunite with Philip briefly before being kidnapped and presumed dead in 1986.
Beth's Return
In 1989, paintings of Beth surface and Philip becomes convinced that she is still alive. Meanwhile, Beth has returned to Springfield with Neil Everest, but with amnesia and unable to speak. A run-in with Bradley leads to her recovering her memory and eventually making amends with her stepfather. That December, Philip and Beth are reunited at the Willow Hills Sanitarium, where Philip stops Beth's marriage to Neil and Beth regains her speech. In 1990, Neil helps Beth recall what really happened when she was believed to be dead. She reveals that she killed her abductor, Professor Blackburn, when he tried to attack her. She sleeps with Philip who is at this time married to Blake, who refuses to grant him a divorce. When she finds out she's pregnant, she's unsure of the baby's paternity. She thinks it is Neil but later find's out that it's Philip. Neil is killed in an explosion that Philip is accused of causing. Philip, with the help of Rick and Beth, fakes his death to escape jail time. Beth and Rick marry to throw off suspicion related to Philip's fake death. Philip returns in October, and Beth gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Spualding (Lizzie) in November. In December, Beth and Rick divorce. Rick becomes Lizzie's godfather. The following year (1991) Philip and Beth marry and moved to Arizona with Lizzie. In 1996, Philip and Beth were divorced off-screen.In 1997, Beth returns to Springfield with Lizzie (played by Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
). Philip is dating Harley Cooper
Harley Cooper
Harley Davidson Cooper is a fictional character on the popular CBS daytime soap opera, Guiding Light. She is the daughter of Frank "Buzz" Cooper Sr. and the late Nadine Corley...
. Beth begins to date Ben Warren
Ben Warren
Benjamin Warren was an England international footballer who played as a half-back for Derby County and Chelsea....
and announces to Philip that she intends to stay in town. In 1998, she teams up with Annie Dutton
Annie Dutton
Annie Dutton is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. Cynthia Watros is most identified in the role; she played Annie from November 29, 1994 until February 23, 1998. The role was later recast, after Watros left for other career ventures, with Signy Coleman, who portrayed...
to try to win Philip back from Harley. She is named as a suspect in the murder of Carl Stevens. It is later revealed that young Lizzie shot and killed Carl because he had abused her mother. She protects Lizzie and unhappily allows her to be in Philip and Harley's wedding. In 1998, Beth makes a play for Matt Reardon, but later dates Jim Lema] (legal father to Harley's daughter Susan, who she gave up for adoption as a teen mom). When Beth, Philip and Jim are in a plane crash, Jim escapes to find help. Beth and Philip, thinking they are about to die make love. After being rescued, Beth accepts Jim Lemay's proposal. In 2000, Beth found out that she was pregnant with Philip's baby. She convinced Philip to allow her to pass the baby off as Jim's, in order to preserve both of their marriages. However, that same year, Lizzie is diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. Jim refuses to allow the doctors to induce labor in order to use the stem cells from the cord blood to save Lizzie's life. After breaking up and then reconciling, Jim saves Lizzie and baby James from a fire but died shortly afterward.
In 2001, Beth allows herself to be seduced by Prince Edmond Winslow of San Christobel and conspires with him to overthrow his brother, Prince Richard Winslow. She became a princess but divorced Edmond when she found out that he was holding Cassie prisoner. When she found out about it Edmund kept her in the same place he had been holding Cassie. She excaped and was saved by her ex Phillip. In 2002, Beth is presumed dead again when she is caught up in a flash flood in San Christobel. Edmond later meets a country girl named Lorelei Hills who looks exactly like Beth. He convinces her to come to Springfield and scam the Spauldings out of Beth's fortune by convincing them that Beth wasn't really dead. The con is successful and Philip begans to fall in love with "Beth." When he realizes that she is an imposter, Lorelei and Edmond are jailed. In jail, Lorelei has flashback's of Beth's life and it is revealed that she really is Beth, only she that had amnesia all this time. Her fingerprints match and it is confirmed that she is the real Beth. Lorelei/Beth now struggles with her split personality. Lorelei dominates temporarily and runs off with Edmund. Eventually Beth's personality wins out and she is reunited with Philip and Lizzie. Just as they start to get back on track, a lover from Lorelei's past comes to Springfield in the unlikely person of Bill Lewis, the son of Billy Lewis and Vanessa Chamberlin Reardon, who was last seen as a teenager and is now a young college student.
In 2004, Philip was presumed dead, after having been shot by his father, Alan. In 2006 Beth was shocked to learn that Rick not only helped him fake his death, but had kept that information from her and everyone in Springfield. Beth married Philip's father Alan to obtain security for herself and her children. When she miscarried their baby, he became obsessed with a Lizzie's pregnancy and trying to gain custody of the child, fathered by Jonathan Randall, son of Alan's one-time wife, Reva Shayne
Reva Shayne
Reva Shayne O'Neill is a fictional character on the long-running CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light played by emmy-award winner Kim Zimmer from November 28, 1983 to July 1990...
. Beth divorced Alan Spaulding, but despite his short-lived marriage to Doris Wolf, and his near death at the hands of her daughter Ashley, Beth and Alan continued to bounce back and forth in their relationship. At one point, during the investigation to find out who shot Alan, Beth attempted to seduce Alan's other son, Alan-Michael, but was unsuccessful.
Beth focused, on protecting Lizzie and her baby from Alan and reconnected with Rick, who was at the time married to Mel Boudreaux and father to their daughter Leah. Beth, Rick and Alan formed an on-again/off-again triangle. The affair was revealed by Jonathan Randall in an angry outburst. Rick and Mel divorced and Beth became pregnant, but paternity was uncertain. A distraught Cassie tampered with the paternity test to show that Rick was the father of Beth's baby, and Beth was married to Rick on the Fourth of July by Josh Lewis, who had become a preacher. Cassie blamed Alan for the death of her daughter Tammy, and wanted ostensibly to "protect Beth's child from having Alan Spaulding as a father." Lizzie was dismayed and angry that she hadn't been invited and was one of the last people to find out. Thinking the baby was a Bauer, Beth named the baby Bernadette as a tribute to Bert Bauer, Rick's grandmother. At Bernadette's baptism, Reva blurted out the truth in order to save her own son from Alan's wrath. Beth decided instead after some additional thought to rename her daughter Peyton Alexandra Raines instead of Bernadette Bauer.
Beth decided to go to law school, but her personal life remained more murky. When Alan had a brain tumor and started having visions of his dead son Gus, Beth started a relationship with Henry Cooper "Coop" Bradshaw who had been previously engaged to her daughter Lizzie. The relationship was supposed to be kept secret so Alan wouldn't find out but eventually everyone knew except Alan. When Alan found out he threatened to take Peyton from Beth and kill Coop if she didn't marry him. On the way to stop the wedding Coop got into a car accident. Phillip, who had been presumed dead for nearly five years, had recently decided to return to Springfield, and found Coop after the accident. He took him to the hospital, then went to the church to tell everyone what had happened. Beth was shocked to see Phillip alive, and then jolted to learn that Coop was clinging to life. Beth visited Coop on his deathbed, and his sacrifice made her decide not to marry Alan. During the relationship of Beth and Coop he wrote a book about their love and it was eventually published. Phillip's return jolted the entire Spaulding family, and they barely had time to adjust when Beth's and Phillip's 19-year old son, James, returned from boarding school. James was running a Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
and even when Phillip helped clear the charges against him, he resented Phillip's return. Beth was torn between the love of her life and the son who had only known the worst of his father. During this time Beth also helped her daughter Lizzie marry Bill Lewis
Bill Lewis
William "Bill" Lewis is an English artist, story-teller, poet and mythographer. He was a founder-member of The Medway Poets and of the Stuckists art group.-Early life:...
.
Eventually, Phillip learned he was dying. He didn't tell anyone, aside from Lillian (who was a nurse), and tried to repair the relationships in his life with the time he had left. Beth found out in what were supposed to be Phillip's last days, and she felt devastated as well as betrayed by Phillip and by her mother. Fortunately for Phillip, Alan agreed to a bone marrow transplant, and saved his son's life, but a few days later, Alan quietly died after attending the double wedding of Lillian and Buzz Cooper
Buzz Cooper
Frank Achilles "Buzz" Cooper Sr. is a fictional character on the popular CBS daytime soap opera, Guiding Light.The character of Buzz was originated by Justin Deas in February 1993 and he has been with the show to its final airdate which was September 18, 2009...
and Vanessa Chamberlain and Billy Lewis. Beth was forced to break the news to her young daughter Peyton. Shortly before Alan's death, Phillip had proposed to Beth, and she had happily accepted. James and Phillip were now reconciled and Lizzie was trying for a baby. Beth also decided to return to her first love, drawing. A year later, Beth and Phillip were happily married, and were celebrating the upcoming nuptials of their best friends Rick and Mindy.
External link
- http://web.archive.org/web/20061116192253/http://www.soap-news.com/gl/c/bethraines.htm
- http://www.soapcentral.com/gl/whoswho/beth.php
- http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/jelonline/beth.html
- http://www.sonypictures.com/gl/cast/ch_raines_beth.jhtml
- http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/jelonline/press/84spw_rockyroad.html
- http://soapoperadigest.com/features/gl/pandt/bethtimeline/