It's been nearly 40 years since Eric Braeden's Victor Newman first set foot in Genoa City, Wisconsin, and in that time he's led quite an incredible life. Well, several lives. Fans of The Young and the Restless -- and pretty much the entire Soap Central staff -- have spent the past few days shell-shocked by the news that Victor Newman is about to die. Then it occurred to us: Victor Newman has died before. Here's a look at several of the times that Victor Newman was supposedly resting in peace. Cats don't have nothin' on Victor Newman.
Victor realized that Eve (Margaret Mason) had tried to poison him so that her son, Charles, could inherit half his wealth. With the help of Julia (Meg Bennett) and his friend Douglas Austin (Michael Evans), Victor schemed to trap Eve into confessing -- and even proposed to her, which Eve quickly accepted. The day of their wedding, Eve arrived at the Newman ranch to learn that Victor had died. Eve arranged to have Victor's coffin placed in the Newman living room, and she took over as the grieving fiancée.
Max Siebalt, believing that Eve was losing her grip on reality, quickly married her because it appeared that Victor had left her his estate. When Julia confided to Eve that she thought Victor had been murdered and that she intended to have his body exhumed for an autopsy, Eve sent Max to the graveyard to dig up the corpse. At the cemetery, Max was so shocked to see Victor appear from the shadows alive that he fell against a pitchfork and died. Eve then tried to stab Victor, but was caught and committed to a sanitarium.
After Victor was blasted by Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), Ashley (Eileen Davidson), and teenaged Victoria (Heather Tom), all resenting the control he tried to exert in their lives, he left town. During Victor's trip, he was robbed of his wallet, jewelry, and car. After his car was found with a body inside that was burned beyond recognition, word reached Genoa City that Victor was dead. But Victor turned up at the Kansas farm of the blind Hope Adams (Signy Coleman) just in time to rescue her from a rapist.
Back in Genoa City, a power struggle for control of Newman Enterprises quickly erupted between Jack (Peter Bergman), Brad (Don Diamont), and Ashley, while Nikki and Victoria were grieving over Victor's death. Jack gained control of Newman Enterprises, reclaimed CEO of Jabot, and made Brad head of Newman. When Victor heard the news, he returned to Genoa City, where he learned from his pal Douglas that everyone thought he was dead.
Everyone was stunned that Victor was still alive. Victor fired Jack for taking control of his company. Upset by Jack's dismissal, John (Jerry Douglas) and Ashley resigned from Jabot, which was still owned by Victor, and made plans to create a rival cosmetics company. But thanks to Victor's interference, their loan application was denied. The stress caused John to suffer a heart attack.
Victor disappeared after Sabrina Costelana's (Raya Meddine) funeral, leaving his cell phone, wallet, and epilepsy medication buried on Sabrina's grave. Paul traced Victor to Bucerias, Mexico, where he had been hanging out in a cantina, awaiting the arrival of Walter Palin, a.k.a. mobster Tony Amato (Derek Scott Hoxby), the man Victor held responsible for Sabrina's death.
Nikki went off the wagon in her grief after the authorities told her that Victor had been declared dead when his fishing boat had broken up in a storm. Later, a body washed up on shore, but Nikki did not let on that she recognized it as Walter. Nikki walked the beach, pitifully wailing for Victor, and collapsed in the sand. When she looked up, there Victor was, alive and very upset with her for being there. He told her to go home, that he wanted the world to think he was dead. In response to her declaration that she still loved him, he replied that he wished one of them had the guts to kill the other to put them both out of their misery.
Nikki returned to Genoa City, and Victor soon trailed along after. Victor was cold to his children and asked them to leave him in his seclusion to heal. Then Victor got his dog Zapato from the kennel where Adam had banished him, fired all the help, made a nationwide statement to leave him alone, and hired security guards to keep everyone away. After weeks of Victor being a recluse at the ranch, Nick (Joshua Morrow) heard music coming from Sabrina's art gallery and found Victor there, passed out due to dehydration. The family was turned away at the hospital by a surly Victor. They were about to have him committed for his own safety, but he managed to disappear and was last seen flying away on the Newman jet.
As it turns out, Victor was hiding out in France at the chateau he'd bought for Sabrina, but in his raging anger and depression, he burned it to the ground. Nikki called Ashley as the one person Victor might listen to, and after she tracked him down, Victor and Ashley had a tearful reunion that ended up between the sheets. Ashley and Victor returned to Genoa City in time for Katherine Chancellor's funeral (although she was not really dead, and it was her doppelgänger, Marge). They sat in the front row and shunned everyone, then after the ceremony, they quickly left in a waiting limo.
Once Heather (Eden Riegel) found out, Victor was arrested for the murder of Walter Palin and confronted with the diary he had supposedly written about the murder. Victor finally allowed Nikki to visit him in jail, only to accuse her of setting him up by being involved in the bogus diary of how he'd killed Palin. Nikki had finally had enough and told Victor to go to hell. Nikki went to Paul's for solace, and they, too, ended up between the sheets.
Once the truth came out about the forged diary, Victor was released from jail. He later had a flashback of the storm on the ship, which gave viewers the impression that he had identified himself to Walter then abandoned Walter on the ship and made it ashore on his own.
Victor united the dock workers to fight for better working conditions after one of them got hurt on the job, was denied medical help, and fired. Afterward, Victor was beaten up, Genevieve (Genie Francis) splinted his hand, and he refused to leave town. But when Sister Celeste (Bonnie Franklin) was nearly killed when a forklift fell, Victor decided to let everyone believe that he had backed down.
Billy (Billy Miller) arrived again, gave Victor a cell phone to use if he got in trouble, and told him that because Billy was a journalist, Victor could help him to expose the corruption on the docks. Victor arranged to meet an employee who was willing to talk about it, but it was a setup. When Billy heard that Nikki desperately needed to hear from Victor, he gave her the cell phone number. She called, and when Victor heard her voice, he responded, "Nikki?" just before an explosion rocked the dock area. Several workers were injured, and Victor was declared dead.
Meanwhile Sister Celeste had secreted Victor away at her place to convalesce from his injuries and, for his own protection, only told Genevieve that he was alive. As news of Victor's death spread, Newman stock plummeted, and family members began to grieve. It took some time for Victor, who was living in L.A. with Genevieve and struggling with his memory, to remember who he really was. Eventually, he remembered his real name and returned to Genoa City, where he found Nikki weeping at his grave and decided to reunite with her.
In a Charles Dickens-inspired version of A Christmas Carol, Victor "saw" himself dead in his bed for a week, yet no one had found him. Then he saw a graveside gathering where the family only showed up out of obligation and quickly made excuses to leave. Victor then realized that the spirit he was with was Colleen (Tammin Sursok) and that she believed that he had done wrong with her heart (which he had via transplant after her death), but she vowed that the story would not end the way she had foreseen it.
When Victor awoke Christmas morning, he gave his staff fat bonuses and the day off. He brought gifts to the Abbotts, congratulated Ashley and Tucker (Stephen Nichols) on their engagement, hugged Traci (Beth Maitland), and freed Diane (Maura West) to be with her son. Victor brought gifts, flowers, and wine to Victoria and Billy's, and he joined his family for Christmas. Billy read the Christmas Carol story, and Nikki said goodbye to Victor as he went home to spend the rest of Christmas in front of the fireplace, smiling with his dog Segundo. But within a week, Victor was back to business as usual once again.
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