Todd Fisher
Todd Fisher was raised by his father, Nat, after
Nat divorced Todd's mother, Irene. Nat turned Todd against his
mother, but when Todd learns that he has a terminal illness,
he decides to get to know her again. He also meets Amanda Morrell
and falls in love with her. He keeps his illness a secret from
his doctor father because he knows he'd just be put through
the mill as people try to keep him alive. When he knows he's
close to death, Todd flies to Switzerland - leaving Amanda and
Irene behind in Australia - to die in a clinic there. Just before
he dies, Nat learns the truth about his son and flies to be
at his bedside as Todd breathes his last. (Episode 486, 1984)
Luke Carlyle
Luke Carlyle thinks he's escaped his father's
influence, only to discover that, in working for Patricia Morrell,
he's also working for his father, Roger, who's Patricia's financial
backer. He takes his revenge by embezzling every cent from her
company, and he presents Patricia with this news on the morning
of her wedding to David Palmer. At the same time, he comes to
blows with both Mike and Jim O'Brien for failing to help Jeff
O'Brien recover from his alcohol problem, after he'd boasted
that he could help. Luke is later found dead at his apartment,
having been hit with a bottle of scotch. He has scratch marks
on his face, which were inflicted by Patricia, who's arrested
for the murder. She protests her innocence, however, and the
hunt is on for the guilty party... (Episode 501, 1984)
Jeff O'Brien
...and the guilty party turns out to be Jeff,
who had fought with Luke when Luke tried to wrestle the bottle
of scotch away from him; Jeff hit Luke over the head with the
bottle and Luke fell and hit his head again, causing his death.
Patricia discovers the truth, only for Jeff to then be killed
when, while drunk, he accidentally sets fire to the kitchen
at the O'Briens' and is knocked unconscious in a resultant explosion.
(Episode 507, 1984)
Barney Adams
Barney Adams was Bob 'Mitch' Mitchell's Sergeant
in Vietnam; Mitch tracked down Barney following his release
after serving a term in prison for murder. When Barney meets
Fiona Thompson, the two of them click instantly and, after only
a few weeks, Barney asks Fiona to marry him. She accepts his
proposal, only to then learn - to her horror - that Barney was
part of a gang of Army men who killed a group of peasants in
Vietnam without any real provocation. She's deciding what to
do for the best when she and Barney are invited to attend a
party given for Patricia at David's country house in Sunbury.
At the party, the wheelchair Patricia is using while
she recovers from an operation on her knee explodes, having
been booby-trapped. Barney is standing nearest the chair when
it blows up, and although he isn't killed by that,
he dies later, on the operating table, when his heart gives
out. (Episode 533, 1985)
Robin Elliott
Robin Elliott is knocked down in a car accident:
the car is driven by his wife, Kathleen, who's aiming the vehicle
at Jill O'Donnel, jealous over Jill's relationship with Robin.
Robin spots the danger and pushes Jill out of the way, but he
suffers the full impact of the car hitting him. He's rushed
to hospital, but he falls into a coma. Over the next few months,
Jill visits him regularly and arranges for him to undergo physiotherapy
- paid for first by Patricia Morrell and then by Roger Carlyle
- to try and help him. Sadly, nothing works, and Robin's condition
deteriorates. He has been in the coma for nearly a year when
Jill meets Cheri Nolan. Cheri, a nurse, accompanies Jill to
the hospital and takes pity on Robin. She uses her medical knowledge
to relieve his suffering, while making it look like he died
a natural death. (Episode 548, 1985)
Alan Brandon
Alan Brandon fancies himself as a bit of a playboy
- but that all changes after he's injured in the explosion of
the boobytrapped wheelchair at David's country house in Sunbury.
Pieces of metal from the wheelchair lodge themselves in his
spine, and he's pronounced as being paralysed from the waist
down. Over the next three or four months, he makes remarkable
progress in terms of how well he can use his legs, and he even
manages to try to walk. Unfortunately, following an argument
with Leigh Palmer, he slips off his crutches and falls. This
fall exacerbates the damage already done to his spine and it
snaps his spinal cord, leaving Alan completely paralysed and
facing having to spend the rest of his life on a mobile bed.
When his mother, Karen Fox, hires a nurse, Cheri Nolan, to look
after him, Alan is intrigued to find out that Cheri performed
a mercy killing on Todd Fisher in Switzerland. He pleads with
Cheri to put him out of his misery - but she refuses.
Alan takes things into his own hands instead: he secretly removes
a syringe and some vials of morphine from Cheri's medical bag
and uses them to commit suicide. (Episode 555, 1985)
Karen Hamilton
After Wayne discovers that his wife, Karen, has
lied to him for several months about him killing Bob 'Mitch'
Mitchell, he throws her out of Dural and tells her that their
marriage is over. Karen subsequently tries to commit suicide
by gassing herself in her car. Wayne discovers her in time and
stops her - but tells her that he only did it because he didn't
want her killing herself in full view of the house. Karen then
learns from Caroline Morrell that Gordon and the other Directors
of the company are trying to oust her from her position on the
Board, and she storms round to Dural to give them a piece of
her mind. Wayne throws her out - and Karen's body is later found
lying in the creek near the gates at the end of the driveway.
It transpires that Liz Smith is to blame: as the two of them
stood on the bridge, Liz had had an argument with Karen over
her treatment of Gordon and had ended up slapping her. Karen
had toppled over into the water and Liz had left her there,
thinking nothing more of it until she learned that Karen was
dead. (Episode 561, 1985)
Gloria Dutton
Gloria Dutton is a friend of Ross Newman's. Ross
persuades her to kidnap David and Beryl's new-born baby son,
Robert, in order to hold him to ransom and get his hands on
some of Beryl's money. The plot fails and Ross is captured,
but by that time, Gloria has found herself too attached to Robert
and unable to return him to his real parents. She goes on the
run with the child, but after a few weeks she discovers that
she has a terminal illness and realises she has to return Robert
to Beryl. She leaves him in his bassinet on the step outside
Beryl's front door. The next that is heard of her is when a
policewoman tells Beryl and David that Gloria has driven her
car off a cliff and that her body has been recovered from the
sea. (Episode 570, 1985)
Neil Duffy
Neil Duffy is hired by Richard Crampton to track
down Leigh Palmer and persuade her to hand over her baby son,
Shane; Richard is the baby's father, but he and Leigh had become
bitter enemies after he dumped her when he discovered she was
pregnant. Neil finds Leigh at David's country house and does
Richard's bidding. He's disgusted, however, when he learns subsequently
that, upon hearing of Leigh's pregnancy, Richard had arranged
for her to be gang-raped so that he could never be identified
as the father. Neil goes with Leigh to Sydney when she flees
Melbourne following an attempt by Richard to snatch Shane. After
a brief flirtation with Julie Webb, he decides to return to
Melbourne, and he hitches a ride on a truck driven by David
Palmer. Unknown to any of them, though, one of Richard's henchmen
has planted a bomb on the vehicle, and when it explodes it kills
Neil instantly. (Episode 608, 1985)
Jim O'Brien
Following several ups and downs in his relationship
with Beryl Palmer, Jim O'Brien is heading from Sydney to Melbourne
to try and patch things up with her again. Having lost his wallet,
he asks David for a lift in his truck, and is on the same ill-fated
trip as Neil Duffy. David pulls the truck into the side of the
road when it explodes, and Jim manages to climb out. He's still
close enough, however, for his clothes to be caught by the flames
from the blast. He's rushed to hospital, but despite the best
attempts of surgeons to keep him alive, he dies with Beryl at
his side. (Episode 609, 1985)
Richard Crampton
Richard Crampton is the father of Leigh Palmer's
baby son, Shane. When he first found out about her pregnancy,
though, he refused to believe the news and he arranged for Leigh
to be gang-raped so that no one could prove he was the father.
A few months after Leigh moves to Melbourne to stay with David,
Richard decides he wants to lay claim to his son after all.
Knowing Leigh won't give Shane up willingly, he hires Neil Duffy
to befriend her and persuade her to hand over Shane in return
for a large sum of money. When that plan fails, Richard hires
hitman Nick Stafford to go after Leigh; it's Stafford who plants
the bomb that destroys David's truck and kills Neil and Jim
O'Brien. David catches Stafford after he breaks into the country
house; he then snatches his gun and orders him to get Richard
there. Richard duly turns up and, after a tussle, David decides
to hand the two men over to the police. Unfortunately, they
manage to escape while David is making the call. David chases
after Richard and fires a shot at him. Richard runs off, but
later staggers back to the country house, calling Leigh on the telephone as he dies. It initially isn't clear whether David had fired
the fatal bullet; it later transpires, though, that Stafford
had pulled the trigger. (Episode 613, 1985)
Ron Castle
Caroline Morrell is living life as a dowdy housewife
with Ron Castle until Amanda comes back into her life, quickly
followed by her ex-husband, Stephen. She realises the relationship
between her and Ron is over, and she leaves him. Ron subsequently
suffers a breakdown and has to undergo psychiatric treatment.
Caroline gets in touch with him again when she needs someone
to break into Dural and steal a letter that Wayne is using to
blackmail her. Ron agrees to help her, but things go wrong:
Wayne returns home and Ron ends up taking him hostage in an
old shack. Ron calls Caroline and she goes to see him at the
shack - but when he catches her trying to help Wayne escape,
he takes her hostage, too. Roland Armstrong eventually
turns up to help, and he and Ron get into a fight, which results
in an oil lamp being knocked over and setting fire to some newspaper.
A fire starts raging and, although everyone manages to escape,
Ron suffers serious burns. Caroline manages to persuade him
to seek psychiatric help again, but after only a short period
in hospital, he hangs himself. (Episode 628, 1985)
Roger Carlyle
After Patricia is accused of murdering Luke Carlyle,
Luke's father, Roger, vows to take revenge on her, and he sets
out to arrange her death. Patricia manages to flee to Rio, and
shortly thereafter Roger learns that she's been killed. Several
months later, he receives a telephone call from a woman called
Alison Carr, inviting him to buy into Gordon Hamilton's company.
He takes up the offer and flies from Perth to Sydney to meet
Alison. Intrigued by her, he starts digging into her background
- and manages to discover that she's really Patricia having
undergone plastic surgery. He vows again to avenge Luke's death
and make her pay. While back in Sydney, Roger has a fling with
Caroline - until she discovers that his real interest is teenage
girls - and he hits on Samantha Morrell, only to then find himself
being attacked by Leo Walsh, who's trying to protect her. It's
Alison who finds Roger dead at the Morrell apartment, a blood
stain on the floor beneath him - but with several people having
motives to kill him, the police have a big investigation on
their hands. It's Leo who is eventually identified as the killer.
(Episode 663, 1985)
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