Clint Ritchie (1979 to 30 December 1998; May 13-June 17, 1999; May 22, 23, 26, 2003; May 19, May 21, May 24, 2004)
Jerry ver Dorn (25 October 2005 to present)
Occupation
Former editor of The Banner Former editor of The Chronicle
Falsely tried and convicted for Dr. Marcus Polk's murder (1986)
Maladies and Hospitalizations
Shot in head and blinded (1987)
Given several months to live to due bullet fragments in head (1991)
Severely injured in plane crash (1993)
Brief Character History
Clint Buchanan was the first of the rugged cowboy clan to show up in Llanview. Joe Riley, suffering from a terminal illness, heard of a wonderful independent newspaper in Arizona. He contacted the editor of the paper (Clint) and convinced him to take over as editor at the Banner. Joe's devoted wife, and publisher/owner of the Banner, Victoria Lord, first met Clint when he brought a drunken Joe home after a night at the bars. Needless to say, they didn't hit it off. Following Joe's death, Viki mourned her losses and prepared for the birth of a son, Joey. Clint dated talk show host Pat Ashley, a courtship that was busted up when her sister Maggie locked Pat away and tried to take her place. Clint was fooled at first, but soon went to find Pat. Maggie and Pat struggled over a gun. Only Pat left the room alive. Traumatized by killing her own sister, Pat told Clint she had to put all the bad memories - including him, unfortunately - behind her. Clint then had a fling with town villainess Dorian Lord, but he wasn't interested in staying for breakfast, much less a relationship.
By this time Clint was warming up to his publisher, but she was dating Ted Clayton, who claimed to be her ward Tina's long-lost father. Clint could tell that Ted was up to no good, but Viki didn't want to listen. When Clint and Viki went to a conference in New York, they had dinners by candlelight and began to realize they were in love. Viki planned to tell Ted the truth, but he slipped her enough drugs to convince her to be his bride. Clint kidnapped her before the wedding. Just as he got through to Viki, Ted showed up and poisoned him. The police chief showed up in time with an antidote, and Ted was arrested not only for the drugging but also for running a counterfeit ring in Llanview. Viki was shocked by what she had gotten herself into and refused to start any new relationship, even with Clint. Clint responded by moving to a rival paper, The Chronicle, and taking Banner columnist Edwina Lewis with him. They soon began a passionate affair.
In 1982, Viki's good friend Jenny Wolek was being pressured over who caused her baby to be switched with Katrina Karr's baby. Viki wrote an editorial saying she knew for a fact that Jenny was innocent of all claims and charges against her. When a grand jury grilled Viki on her sources, she chose to go to jail rather than name them. Clint visited her each day, and they finally admitted they were in love. Upon her release, they were married at Llanfair.
In 1983, an exotic countess/photographer, Echo DiSavoy, introduced herself to Clint, who was haunted by how familiar she seemed. Her allure led him to fall into bed with her. What he didn't know was that she blamed him for the death of her mother, and she lured him to a bridge. Upon picking a fight with him, she jumped to her death. Dorian witnessed the scene and told everyone that he had pushed Echo. Viki tracked the very-much-alive Echo down and Echo confessed her scheme. After she left town, Viki and Clint patched up their marriage.
In 1985, Tina Clayton returned to town, desperate to find her real father. After rifling through documents at Llanfair, she floored Viki with the news that her father was...Victor Lord! Victor had seduced Viki's college roommate, Irene Manning, and then abandoned her and his unborn child. The realization of her father's ugly ways, and flashes of walking in on her father and Irene, caused Viki to regress into her wacky split personality, Niki Smith. Niki began going out to bars at night and struck up a romance with an old boyfriend, Harry O'Neill. Tina, meanwhile, reluctantly went along with evil Mitch Laurence's plan to have Niki shoot Clint. Then Niki/Viki would go to jail and Tina, due to a clause in Victor's will, would inherit the entire Lord estate. The plan went awry when Mitch mistook Harry for Clint and shot him! Harry died in a devastated Niki's arms, but Viki reemerged moments later, unable to remember any details about the murder. Tina was arrested and would have been convicted if her lawyer had not goaded Viki into turning back into Niki on the witness stand. Tina was cleared of all charges, but to Clint's horror, Viki didn't come back. Niki was here to stay! Clint had Niki committed, and she realized the only way to get him off her back was to pretend to be Viki. She tried her best to keep Clint out of her bed. Meanwhile, Tina had the hots for Clint and after he drank too much one night, she crawled into his bed. Niki walked in and the shock turned her back into Viki, but before she could call her therapist, Mitch Laurence's old cellmate Stick kidnapped her. He was certainly surprised when Niki told him that she'd split the ransom money with him. Everything went along as planned, until he decided to slit her throat and take all the money. Bo, Clint and their cousin Rafe arrived in the nick of time and shot Stick. Tina learned of Niki's ruse and told her she'd better divorce Clint fast, or else. Niki agreed. Soon after the divorce went through, Clint found out the truth. To make matters worse, Tina claimed that she was pregnant with his child, and she'd have an abortion if he didn't marry her! Clint refused to marry her, and her scheme fizzled when Dorian told Clint that Tina was not with child. Relieved, Clint and his brother Bo then arranged for Bo to be "shot" at his wedding, a fake injury designed to make Niki revert to Viki. It worked, but only for a few precious seconds. By this time Niki realized that the longer she stayed around Clint, the more likely she was to revert to Viki. So she holed up in a mountain lodge until she could leave town. Clint finally stumbled upon the right plan. He took Tina to the lodge and pretended he wanted to have sex with her. Just as he pushed Tina onto the bed, Niki walked in. Viki's disgust at the situation was enough to bring her back for good, and she and Clint were joyously reunited. Unfortunately, that joy was tempered when her therapist, Dr. Marcus Polk, was found dead and Clint was tried for the crime, but Viki exonerated him.
In 1986, shortly before they remarried, Viki surprised and delighted Clint with the news that she was pregnant. He marveled to his "pa" Asa that he finally had his first biological child. Asa looked a bit green for a moment, for he knew the truth -- that Clint had a 20 year old son! Clint had been madly in love with a teenage girl named Maria. Asa, disgusted at his son being involved with a Mexican, browbeat and bribed Maria and her mother into fleeing Texas without a word. Clint had never known why Maria left, or that she had been pregnant with his child. That child grew up to be Cord Roberts; like Clint, he had never known their blood ties. When Viki found out the truth, she told Clint, who was outraged at his father and Maria, but thrilled to have a good, kind man like Cord for a son.
Around this time, Viki gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jessica. Unfortunately, one of Mitch Laurence's minions, Allison Perkins kidnapped the child. The entire family was frantic. Maria Roberts found Allison, but before she had Allison return the baby, she had her dress like Niki Smith. Clint fell for the bait, and refused to believe Viki's pleas that she had never turned into Niki. Husband and wife were torn apart, just as she became closer to her late husband Joe's twin brother, Tom Dennison. Viki collapsed one day and woke up with selective amnesia, totally blacking out the last 8 years of her life. She thought Tom was Joe, and refused to leave his side. Clint managed to stall her divorce proceedings for 6 months. While spending time with Tom, he convinced her to see a doctor. She discovered she had a brain tumor. While being operated on, she went to "Heaven", where her beloved Joe told her to return to Earth and reunite with her true love, Clint. Afterwards, she remembered Clint, and her love for him.
Later in 1987, Maria Roberts planned to kill Viki so she could have Clint all to herself. The plan went awry when during a struggle with Tina she touched the poison she meant for Viki. Maria died and Tina was convicted of her murder. She ran into old foe Jamie Sanders, who swore revenge on her. She escaped prison with Cord's help, with the charges eventually being dropped. Jamie tracked her down and took her hostage with Viki. Clint saved them, but Jamie shot him in the head. He was rendered blind. Angry at his helplessness, he slowly learned to cope, and moving to his Arizona ranch with Viki further aided his recovery. One day he decided to compete in a grueling horse race, in spite of his lack of eyesight. The family begged him not to get involved, but he went anyway. Little did he know that Maria's vengeful brother George had drugged his horse, Oakie, into a violent reaction. Sure enough, the horse bucked Clint and he whammed his head on a rock.
When Clint woke up, he received two jolts. One, that he could see. Two, that he was in the year 1888! Buck Buchanan, the powerhouse of Buchanan City, looked just like his father. Miss Ginny, the schoolmarm, looked just like his beloved Viki. Clint learned from an Indian named Clear Eyes that he was brought back in time to reunite Ginny and her beau Randolph Lord. Otherwise, Viki would never be born. Clint thought at one point that Randolph was sterile and that he had no way back to the future. Ginny had loved Clint for many weeks, so Clint accepted her marriage proposal. Right before they said their vows, Viki burst through the door. She had been alerted by a visitor from the past and managed to travel back to 1888 through a cave. Clint and Viki reunited themselves, as well as Ginny and Randolph, and for a second task, helped the ever-feuding Buchanan and McGillis families mend fences. Clear Eyes allowed them to return to 1988, where they wondered if the whole thing had just been a dream.
In 1989, Viki began to have flashes of her 18th year, of having a baby, giving the baby away. With some research, she eventually learned that she'd been in love with Roger Gordon. He came from an underground city called Eterna. One day when he went back there, the mountain exploded. Viki had been so traumatized that she'd turned into Niki, and stayed that way for most of her pregnancy, only becoming Viki again long enough to see her baby's birth. Victor hypnotized her into forgetting everything. After being trapped in Eterna with Roger, Viki learned their daughter was Megan. Viki's growing feelings for Roger, coupled with Roger's naked pursuit of her, made Clint fly into a jealous rage. He spent time with Gabrielle Medina's attractive mother, Julia, and finally went to his Arizona ranch, demanding Viki follow him -- or they were through. Viki refused, and after a while, Clint saw the error of his ways and patched things up with his wife.
In 1990, Viki was elected mayor of Llanview, and was then shot and suffered a stroke. Clint stood by her side through her entire recovery. In 1991, it was her turn to stand by his bedside. Viki believed he was sleeping with a pretty coworker, Sondra Hall. In truth he was trying to conceal from Viki that the bullet fragments in his head had shifted, and he only had a few months to live. Viki and their children Joey, Jessica and Kevin convinced Clint to have a risky operation to remove the fragments. He pulled through. Later that year, Jess accidentally burned Llanfair to the ground, and the family had to rebuild.
In 1992, Clint grieved for his son Cord's presumed death, all while helping Viki say goodbye to her own child, Megan. The stress and strain finally seemed to take a toll on their once rock-solid marriage. Viki was uninterested in him sexually, and enchanted by family biographer Sloan Carpenter. By 1993, Clint and Viki had separate bedrooms. He refused to end the marriage, citing the kids, but when Dorian led him to a tryst between Viki and Sloan, an enraged Clint gave up. He again sought solace in his Arizona ranch, only this time a plane crash caused serious injuries that he spent most of the year recovering from. When he returned to Llanview, he and Viki ended their 15-year love affair. Clint saw the deep love Viki had for Sloan. When Sloan tried to convince her that he was cheating on her, Clint found out the truth (that Sloan's Hodgkin's Disease was out of remission and he wanted to spare Viki the pain of watching him die) and told Viki. In 1995, Clint helped Viki through her latest bout of split personalities and the revelation that not only had her father sexually abused her, but she had killed him. Their daughter Jessica began dating sweet young Cristian Vega. Clint shared some tender kisses with Cris' mother, Carlotta, although nothing came of the relationship.
In 1997 and '98, Clint and Viki began inching their way towards a reconciliation. One night over dinner, Clint proposed to Viki. Flustered, she turned him down, then went on a short cruise. Clint was crushed by her answer. Lindsay Rappaport just happened to be nearby, and after a trip to Vegas, Clint married her. When Viki returned from her trip, she planned to tell Clint that she'd changed her mind...only to find out that he was already married. Due to Lindsay's insecurities over the Buchanan family and her obsession with Nora Buchanan, the marriage fell apart in a matter of months. The last straw was when Jessica was impregnated by Lindsay's son Will. To make matters even worse, Jessica and Cristian went on the run, and Clint found out that Lindsay had given him the money (she wanted Jess out of Will's life). Clint threw her out of his life and moved to London to be with his son Cord.
Clint returned in May 1999 to attend his father's wedding and the birth of Jessica's first child. He brought along his girlfriend, Dallas, and wished Viki and her new beau Ben (later revealed to be Clint's half-brother) well. Jessica was involved in a hit and run and Clint was left to mourn his lost grandchild and sing The Yellow Rose of Texas to his comatose daughter. When she recovered, he returned to London. He visited again in 2003 when he found out about his new daughter, Jessica's sister, Natalie, and tried to comfort Jessica over her anguish at having Mitch Laurence for a biological father (Mitch drugged and raped Viki; she got pregnant, Jess was Mitch's and Natalie was Clint's). His next visit was in 2004, when he helped Viki through her grueling heart transplant.
Clint returned to Llanview after Jessica was diagnosed with Disassociate Identity Disorder. Dallas followed, but the two realized that their relationship was not meant to be and she returned to London alone. Clint proved to be an interesting voice of reason, as he could sympathize with both Nash and Antonio, each of whom was in love with one of Jessica's personalities. When Tess was only willing to talk to Niki Smith, it was Clint who was able to bring Viki back out when it seemed like Niki would take over. Together, Viki and Clint finally learned the devastating truth -- Jessica's alternate personality stemmed from numerous incidents when she was a child where she had been used in child pornography. But rather than turn to Viki for comfort, Clint had found a new romantic partner -- Dorian Lord.
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