The use of doubles wasn’t totally unheard of in soaps; doppelgangers regularly showed up to wreak havoc on beloved characters’ lives. But Days of our Lives didn’t wait long to bring on board Hall’s real-life twin Andrea in 1977, who played Dr. Marlena Evan’s jealous twin sister, Samantha, who was an actress with drug problems. Samantha once impersonated Marlena and had her institutionalized! Don Craig (Jed Allan) picked up on the personality difference pretty quickly, and had Marlena released – and her twin arrested. The two reconciled, but tragedy was still to come…
The Pawn
Image Credit: Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
When “Roman Brady” returned to Salem in December 1985 his face was completely bandaged up. He was played by Robert Poynton until the big reveal in January 1986 when Drake Hogestyn took the role over as “Roman” and removed the bandages from his face in this scene.
Marlena fell for John Black who had amnesia – but she began to suspect he was Stefano post-plastic surgery. Then she began to think that John was actually Roman! During all of this turmoil, she accidentally fell off a roof while trying to save a suicidal jumper … and landed in a coma. (But lived!) After she woke, she renewed her vows with Roman.
Marlena’s Possession
Image Credit: NBC
After Stefano gave her mind-altering drugs, he started to romance her – and she was so mentally weakened that the devil found a way inside. Her eyes changed, she floated in mid-air, and it was all pretty harrowing. Fortunately, John (who was a priest at the time) with another man of the cloth, was able to exorcise her.
The Salem Strangler
Image Credit: NBC
Years before Salem had a murderous stalker, it had its own Strangler. In 1982 Jake Kositchek (Jack Coleman) was the Salem Strangler began stalking Marlena and killed/terrorized/nearly killed a whole bunch of folks along the way including Lorie Masters, Denise Peterson, Mary Anderson and Renee Dumonde. He eventually murdered Marlena in her apartment! But wait, he didn’t: He actually took out her twin Samantha by mistake. Jake then tracked Marlena to Don’s cabin and held her hostage until Roman rescued her, and killed Jake.
Salem Stalker
Image Credit: Paul Skipper/JPI
It was March 9 2004 when Dr. Evans came to see Alice and to kill her. Death by donut. James E. Reilly returned in 2003 and 2004 for a giant story that shocked every Days of our Lives fan to the core. Suddenly, multiple fan favorites and long-term actors were being whacked willy-nilly. Watching Alice Horton die was possibly roughest of all. And it turned out the killer was … Marlena! But the crazy wasn’t done yet – every victim came back to life on the island of Melaswen (New Salem backward) and … Marlena was not the serial killer after all. Stefano’s nephew Andre (Thaao Penghlis) had kidnapped them all and gaslighted the doc into thinking she was killing her friends and family.
Salem Stalker
Image Credit: Paul Skipper/JPI
Of course at that point, nobody suspected Andre and Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) became the number one suspect by SPD in the Salem Stalker killings. With Tony out on bail, Tony went to the Horton Circus and vowed he’d tell everyone who the real killer was. Before he could, a bucket of blood was dropped on his head. He was swinging a sword as he stumbled – and then he was attacked by a tiger. In this scene, Tony was recovering from his wounds when Marlena, AKA the Salem Stalker, entered to finish him off with a drug overdose. Tony wasn’t able to communicate properly to tell anyone.
Committed in Bayview
Image Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
Drugged and kidnapped by lookalike Hattie Adams (Andrea Hall, then Deidre herself) in 2017, Marlena once again found herself hospitalized, this time in Bayview Sanitarium, and stuck into a straitjacket. Eventually, Marlena summoned John for assistance – but then Hattie locked them both inside. They were both going to have to undergo electroconvulsive therapy – but were ultimately saved when Roman and Paul (Christopher Sean) stopped the procedure.
