The Great Pretenders
Characters who impersonated someone else.
Two Of A Kind: Jonny Carrera and Anthony “Rush” Carrera
Fake It Till You Make It: In 1997, a private jet carrying Eric and Lauren Fenmore crashed in Greenland. While stranded in the frozen wilderness, the duo was rescued when a man named Rush found them and transported them to shelter. However, Rush was not the savior he appeared to be, as he made an unwanted advance toward Lauren. Eric came to her defense and the men brawled. Lauren and Eric quickly realized that their captor, “Rush”, was, in reality, a disgraced fashion photographer named Anthony Carrera, who was wanted in connection with the murder of a model. After Eric tried to radio for help, Anthony knocked him unconscious, tied him up and tried to rape Lauren. Eric freed himself and shot Anthony in the chest with a crossbow, saving Lauren. Wounded, Anthony escaped and shortly thereafter, Ridge and Stephanie showed up with a rescue party and brought the duo home. The following year, Lauren was still suffering PTSD from the incident when “Rush” appeared at her door and she fainted. Once revived, Lauren was relieved to learn that the doppelgänger was actually Anthony’s twin brother, Jonny. She and Eric were skeptical but when they saw no scar from the crossbow injury, they realized Jonny was telling the truth. Jonny vowed to make amends and he and Lauren dated, unaware that Anthony had recovered in Greenland and wanted payback.
Alone At Last: When Anthony discovered his brother was dating the woman he coveted, he kidnapped Jonny and assumed his identity. However, both Lauren and Eric noticed a distinctive change in “Jonny’s” demeanor. Then, Eric stumbled upon the real Jonny, bound and gagged, and untied him. Together, the men raced to Lauren’s penthouse before it was too late. They rescued Lauren and during a struggle, Anthony went over the balcony and fell to his death. Jonny left
L.A. with his brother’s body for burial and never resurfaced. The ordeal, however, prompted Eric and Lauren to give in to their feelings, and the pair became an item.
Two Of A Kind: Amber Moore and April Knight
Fake It Till You Make It: In 2003, Amber’s vengeful ex, Rudy, released a sex tape they’d made years ago. The incident coincided with the launch of Forrester Creation’s much-heralded Ambrosia line. To avoid any more negative publicity, Amber called a press conference to announce her resignation from the fashion house. Suddenly, the doors swung open and Amber’s heretofore unknown twin sister, April, strutted in, took the podium and told the crowd, “The girl in the video wasn’t Amber. It was me.” April told the press that Amber was covering for her when, in fact, it was the other way around. After the conference, April revealed to Amber and the Forresters that their mother, Tawny, had given birth to twins and gave them both up for adoption. However, Amber’s adoptive parents changed their mind and gave her back, leaving Tawny to raise the baby alone. Amber thanked April by offering her a job at Forrester, but April was determined to fulfill her dream of having a successful singing career.
Alone At Last: When she bumped into a producer of THE LATE, LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG KILBORN, April used her newfound notoriety to land herself a spot on the show. April was a hit, which prompted jealousy on Amber’s part, even though she denied it. Against Amber and Rick’s advice, April took on Deacon as her agent. April developed the hots for Deacon, although he tried to keep their relationship strictly professional. Soon after, Deacon landed April a recording deal but on the day she was set to audition for the record label, April came down with a severe case of laryngitis. Amber leapt to her sister’s rescue by learning the song and mimicking April’s voice, and she performed the audition in her sister’s place. Happily, Amber succeeded in landing the record deal for April.
The sisters then parted ways when April and Deacon left town to go on tour. April has not been seen or heard from since. Amber left L.A. for good in 2012, and was last seen in Genoa City for Katherine Chancellor’s memorial service on Y&R in 2013.
Two Of A Kind: Marlena Evans and Samantha Evans
Fake It Till You Make It: Marlena’s covetous twin sister, Samantha, arrived in Salem in July 1977. The med school dropout/aspiring actress had a hard time suppressing her envy over the cushy lifestyle her more successful sis enjoyed, and she tried to numb her pain by popping pills. As her addiction worsened, Sam forged prescriptions from Marlena’s pad, and began stealing from her, as well. In September, just as Marlena got wise to what Sam was up to, Sam knocked her out, pumped her full of drugs, and summoned an ambulance to drag Marlena off to Bayview. Adopting Marlena’s persona, Sam was able to get her twin committed, describing her to
Dr. Powell as manic-depressive and schizophrenic and warning the staff not to listen to “Samantha’s” paranoid claims. Sam then crammed psychiatry textbooks and took over Marlena’s practice — and her life. Marlena managed to slip out of Bayview and call her boyfriend, Don, but she was captured and shuttled back to the institution by local cops before he got to her. A fast-thinking Sam, still posing as Marlena, convinced Don that the call was a fluke, then signed consent forms to have the Bayview staff use electroshock treatments on Marlena, warning her sis to behave herself or else.
The following month, though,
Don couldn’t shake the sense that something was off with
“Marlena”, and when he compared her recent signature to an earlier one, the jig was just about up. Samantha, meanwhile, got word that she’d been cast in a movie and happily packed her bags.
Alone At Last: Don caught up to Samantha at the airport and put the pieces together about her true identity. He enlisted the aid of Laura Horton, Marlena’s friend and colleague, and they rushed to Bayview and explained to Marlena’s doctor, Dr. Powell, what Samantha had done, securing Marlena’s release. While she detoxed from the heavy psychotropic drugs she had been fed, Don planned to throw the book at Samantha for crimes including impersonating a doctor. Sam was extradited back to Salem from California and arrested, but after melting down on the witness stand at her arraignment, it was agreed that she needed psychiatric help more than a prison sentence. She was released into her parents’ custody and taken to Colorado for treatment. In 1982, Samantha was visiting Marlena when Jake Kositchek mistook her for her sister and murdered her. Marlena was devastated and ultimately named her firstborn daughter, Sami, after her.
Rafe ended up with a Dimera-sized target on his back in 2011, getting on the family’s bad side by trying to help wife Sami regain custody of her kiddies Johnny and Sydney. EJ was particularly embittered over how much the tots adored their stepdad, and he partnered with Stefano to mastermind a catastrophic car accident that left Rafe badly injured. While Rafe recuperated in the hospital, EJ and Stefano kidnapped him and stashed him in a basement cell of the Dimera mansion. In his place, they deposited a menacing ex-con named Arnold Feniger, who, courtesy of extensive plastic surgery, was an exact replica of upstanding cop Rafe, tasking him with destroying Rafe’s marriage to Sami. The impersonation was good enough to pass muster with an unsuspecting Sami, and the Dimeras tortured Rafe by forcing him to watch a video feed of Sami getting busy between the sheets with the impostor. But Arnold’s act was not foolproof; before long, his un-rafelike demeanor caught Sami’s attention, and her daughter Allie so disliked this version of Rafe that Sami sent her to stay with dad Lucas in China. When Nicole’s mom,
Fay, uncovered that “Rafe” was colluding with Stefano and EJ, Arnold murdered her to stop her from squealing. EJ and Stefano demanded that he fill in some blanks about his life to aid in Arnold’s charade, but
Rafe refused, so the men administered a drug that wiped out his memory and shipped him to an institution.
The real Rafe was nursed back to health by a kindly nun, Sister
Rose, though he still didn’t know who he was, but a sense of familiarity compelled him to the apartment building he and Sami had used as a safe house early in their relationship. In May, he and Sami came face to face there — and soon, they were joined by Arnold. “There are two of you. This is crazy,” gasped Sami. Rafe and Sami overpowered the impostor and tied him up. Soon, Rafe’s memories returned, and he and Sami worked to prove that Fake Rafe was on the Dimera payroll (an exercise that even saw Rafe briefly impersonating his own impostor). When Bo and Hope stumbled upon the double, Sami and Rafe filled them in, and under the influence of truth serum, Arnold copped to murdering Fay. He agreed to go into Witness Protection and testify against the Dimeras, but while he was in jail, another inmate killed him. Sami got revenge against EJ by forcing him to relinquish custody of the kids.
Two Of A Kind: Duke Lavery and Cesar Faison
Fake It Till You Make It: In October 2012, Anna was stunned when her beloved Duke — who had died in her arms back in 1990 — turned up alive in Switzerland, where she had gone to investigate Heather Webber’s claim that Robin was alive. Unbeknownst to her, or to viewers, it wasn’t really Duke, though; it was Anna-obsessed Faison in a lifelike Duke mask, adopting Duke’s persona in hopes of fulfilling his long-held fantasy of Anna reciprocating his feelings for her. That something was off became crystal-clear to the audience when “Duke” shot Jason Morgan and casually kicked his body into the water, kicking off
Stone Cold’s years-long presumed death. Then, in November, “Duke” flew back to Switzerland, where
Robin was being held hostage, and she tripped him up on important details of Robin and Duke’s shared history. Robin called him out as an impostor, at which point Faison ditched the mask and revealed his true identity to his captive. But — plot twist! — the real Duke was really alive, and a prisoner at the same clinic. When Olivia (whose psychic powers were at their peak) encountered “Duke” back in P.C., she saw a vision of Faison’s face, leading Robert Scorpio to suspect that Faison was pretending to be Duke. With the walls closing in, Faisonas-duke worked overtime to seduce
Anna, and asked her to take a ski trip with him. She agreed, eager to get space from Robert and his seemingly farfetched accusations about Duke’s true identity.
Alone At Last: The pair jetted to Switzerland in December, where Faison revealed himself to a terrified Anna, then had one of his henchmen produce a boundand-gagged Duke, all staged to convince her that the men were separate entities. Faison drugged Anna, and when she regained consciousness, Faison’s Duke mask was back in place, and the real Lavery had been whisked back to the clinic. Her doubts vanquished, Anna was ready to be intimate with “Duke” — but just as they were poised to move into the bedroom, Robert and John Mcbain showed up. Robert tossed a chemical into Faison’s face, dissolving his latex mask before a horrified Anna’s eyes. Faison was hauled off by the authorities, and Anna’s lingering questions about how she had seen Duke and Faison together were answered when she burst into his room at the clinic and finally reunited with her true love.
Two Of A Kind: Grant Putnam and Grant Andrews
Fake It Till You Make It: In 1983, surgeon Grant Putnam took Quartermaine cousin Celia as a wife, but it was clear to viewers that their newlywed bliss was destined to be short-lived, thanks to Grant’s mysterious plastic surgery scars and furtive phone calls. The truth behind his covert activity was a doozy: Grant was actually an enemy spy for the DVX with an accomplice, Natasha, who was posing as Natalie, a physical therapist at the hospital. Their mission concerned the classified research project being conducted at Port Charles University by Professor Jerrold, the development of an energy source. The valuable schematics for the project were stored on the Prometheus Disc, and Grant needed to steal it. He did, but it ended up in Luke’s possession. Meanwhile, the allure of DVX glory was fading fast for Grant, who genuinely loved Celia, and he was traumatized when another DVX agent, Gregory, shot Jerrold dead. Eventually, Grant came clean to the good guys (including Robert Scorpio): He was born Andre Chernin, and from the time he was a young boy, he had been trained by the DVX to ultimately take over the life of Grant Putnam.
Celia pledged to stand by her husband, who was able to elude prosecution by giving up intel that led to the capture of high-level DVX operatives.
At the tail end of the year, as Grant and Celia sought to make a fresh start
(they even adopted a new last name,
Andrews), the real
Grant Putnam was seen in a mental hospital. As 1984 got underway, the institutionalized Grant had flashbacks about how the other Grant had taken over his life eight years prior.
Alone At Last: The real Grant secured his release and made his way to Port Charles, revealing himself to a shocked Celia. The real Grant’s presence put a major strain on the Andrews marriage, especially when a revenge-seeking
Putnam began deliberately sabotaging the union. An unhinged Putnam murdered a doctor to stop him from getting too close to the truth about his own late brother, Ian. He also resorted to lighter trickery, like making it look like Andrews was cheating on Celia, and more dangerous moves, like framing Andrews for Celia’s attempted murder. That ploy landed Grant Andrews behind bars, and when a steadfast Celia tried to exonerate him, Putnam tried to kill her. Robert stopped him and Putnam was shipped back to an asylum. In 1985, Grant and Celia split anyway, and he departed for Egypt. Putnam was released in 1988, seeking revenge against Scorpio; he was reinstitutionalized after murdering Robin’s nanny and holding Anna hostage.
Two Of A Kind: Jack Abbott and Marco Annicelli
Fake It Till You Make It: In 2015, Victor came to believe that Jack was in possession of a computer software program that would wreak havoc on Newman Enterprises. He wasn’t, but as a pre-emptive strike, Victor bailed a ruthless South American drug lord named Marco Annicelli out of a Peruvian prison because Marco just so happened to be a dead ringer for Jack, who then became the target of a sinister switcheroo plot. Annicelli spent months being schooled on how to act and speak just like his doppelgänger, even moving around Genoa City as Jack to make sure he got everything right.
When Jack tied the knot with Phyllis in St. Barts, where the newlyweds also honeymooned, Victor dispatched
Jack’s crazy ex-girlfriend Kelly to kidnap him. While Kelly held him hostage in an out-of-the-way hut, Marco assumed his look-alike’s place. When he and Phyllis went back to G.C., people were surprised by “Jack’s” new devil-may-care attitude as Marco successfully pulled off the masquerade, and downright shocked when “Jack” made a deal with Victor to merge Newman and Jabot into one entity. However, Victor soon lost control over Marco, who became power-crazy, even offing lab tech Tobias, who he feared might expose him. Meanwhile, Jack escaped and headed back to the States, aided by Marco’s jilted lover, Marisa. The body count in Marco’s wake rose when he bribed once-sterling cop Detective Harding, who ultimately murdered Austin, then Courtney, when they learned the truth.
Alone At Last: Jack and Marisa slipped into Genoa City and were able to convince Phyllis that she had been sleeping with another man. Marisa lured Marco to the Abbott cabin, where she tied him to a bed. Jack and Phyllis unleashed their fury on the impostor, coming close to shooting him dead, but ultimately they couldn’t. Victor showed up and had his minions whisk Marco away to be reimprisoned in Peru. As furious as Jack and Phyllis were at being victimized, he decided not to press charges against Victor in order to spare Phyllis from having her ordeal go public. As an added safety measure, Victor had Marco’s ear sliced off so that Annicelli could never pose as Jack again.
For years, Sheila Carter had victimized Lauren with acts that included baby-switching, stalking, poisoning and kidnapping, just to name a few. Lauren finally seemed to end her reign of terror in 2007 with a wellplaced bullet (though she turned up alive on B&B in 2017), but a few years later, viewers learned that the psycho had an equally unstable sibling named Sarah, also a disgraced nurse. Sarah vowed to avenge the death of her twisted sister, but wanted to make sure that the object of her obsession would really suffer. To that end, Ms. Smythe had her face surgically overhauled in Argentina to look exactly like Lauren. Sarah also had two ready-made accomplices: Sheila’s twins, Daisy and Ryder, now young adults who believed that Lauren had murdered their mother in cold blood. The plot kicked off in 2009 with Daisy and Ryder moving to Genoa City, where they pretended not to know each other. As they plagued Lauren with dead rats and spiked drinks, Jana got too close to figuring out Daisy and Ryder’s connection, so she was kidnapped. Later, at a lavish masquerade ball in 2010, Lauren was horrified to come face to face with her clone. She, too, was then abducted. While Lauren and Jana languished in a cage at an abandoned zoo, Sarah took over as Lauren and lied to Lauren’s husband, Michael, that she’d had a one-night stand with another man, then acted turned off by Michael. As her behavior became more erratic, Michael and Lauren’s young son, Fen, became unreasonably scared of his mother.
Believe it or not, a Ouija board directed Kevin to the deserted zoo to find his missing wife, Jana. At the same time, Michael and Phyllis were tipped off to the same location. A remorseful Ryder freed Lauren and Jana, but Sarah and Daisy were in hot pursuit. Since Jana was critically ill, Lauren dashed into an old hall of mirrors to lure Sarah away from her. Kevin saved Jana but allowed Daisy and Ryder (his half siblings; they shared a dad) to escape. In the fun house, there were so many reflections of Lauren that Sarah started shooting out the mirrors. Michael and Phyllis arrived and as confusion reigned, Lauren grabbed the gun and mortally wounded Sarah.