Palmer Cortlandt
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| Palmer Cortlandt | |||||||||||||
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 James Mitchell as Palmer Cortlandt |
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| All My Children | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | James Mitchell | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 1979 | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Agnes Nixon | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Residence | Pine Valley, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||
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Palmer Cortlandt (born Pete Cooney) is a fictional character on the long-running ABC soap opera All My Children, and has been played by James Mitchell since 1979.
Mitchell has earned seven Daytime Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Palmer Cortlandt, all for Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
[edit] Character history
Born in Pigeon Hollow, West Virginia, as Pete Cooney, he wooed Lottie Chandler, fathered her son Ross, and abandoned her. He changed his name to Palmer Cortlandt and made a success of himself. Palmer fell in love with Daisy, the housekeeper's daughter. They had a child together, Nina, and for years, Palmer had his daughter believing that her mother had died, while she was in fact very much alive. He had kicked her out when he had discovered that she was having an affair. Being the overprotective father that he was, he tried to ruin his daughter's relationship with Dr. Cliff Warner in many diabolical ways. First, by enlisting the help of nurse Sybil Thorne, who seduced Cliff and became pregnant with their son Bobby. Next, he tried to convince diabetic Nina that she was going blind due to her illness and shouldn't burden Cliff with an invalid wife. Then he hired sexy Steve Jacobi to work with and seduce Nina at Cortlandt Electronics. Eventually true love won out (after 4 marital attempts!) and the happy Warner's left Pine Valley together.
Shortly after arriving in Pine Valley, Palmer became interested in and married ex-hooker Donna Beck, thinking that he could make her into the worldly woman that he longed to have on his arm. While enjoying a skiing trip to Switzerland Palmer and Donna ran into her ex-husband, Chuck Tyler and his new girlfriend, Melanie. As they were all skiing together an avalanche surprised them and Chuck and Donna found themselves trapped in a cave. Convinced that they would never be rescued, they made love. They were rescued, nevertheless, the next day, and upon returning to Pine Valley Donna discovered that she was pregnant. She was thrilled but Palmer was suspicious because he was sterile due to a polo accident years earlier. Not wanting to arouse suspicions, Palmer played out the role of doting husband and father. Soon however, the truth came out and it was revealed that the baby was indeed Chuck's and Palmer and Donna separated.
After an unsuccessful second try with Nina�s mother, Daisy, Palmer became interested in his son Ross's ex-wife, Cynthia Preston. Cynthia came to town looking for a meal ticket and dug her claws deep into Palmer. He was thrilled with the attention of this attractive young brunette and genuinely developed a bond to her teen-age son, Andrew, who Palmer envisioned as the heir to Cortlandt Electronics. However Cynthia fell into an affair with Ross and thus out of Palmer�s good graces, and Andrew was sent to jail for participating in the death of Alexander Hunter.
When Palmer was shot by a thug hired by Adam Chandler, he hired nurse Natalie Marlowe to look after him. Palmer and Natalie fell in love and planned to marry, but Palmer�s son Ross also had eyes for Natalie. Soon they were having a steamy affair and worried to death that Palmer would find out. As the pressure came down on him, Ross raped Natalie who was thrown out by Palmer. However Palmer�s feelings for Natalie lingered, and he wasn't yet willing to let her go. When Natalie was attacked by Silver Kane and accidentally shot her, Palmer hid the body in a pond on his property and blackmailed Natalie into reconciling with him. Next, when Natalie started a relationship with her lifelong heartthrob Jeremy Hunter, Palmer brought his ex-lover Marisa Rampal to town to break them up.
Never being quite satisfied with his family members� choices in the love department, Palmer set out to destroy his naive niece Dixie's happiness with Tad Martin. Palmer paid Tad's mother Opal to help him break them up, and they succeeded. But Palmer had not planned on falling in love with his partner in crime in the process and with his ex-wife Daisy playing matchmaker, "PC" and Opal married in November 1990. On Christmas Day 1992, Opal and Palmer welcomed the birth of their son, Peter.
Government agent Mike Roy and partner, Adrian Sword, arrived in town to find stolen Nazi paintings. Palmer, after much Palmer-like posturing, possessed the paintings and plea-bargained his way out of charges. The definitive end to Palmer and Opal's marriage came when Palmer had to decide between relinquishing the paintings and staying with Opal or faking his death and escaping with the artwork. In the end he lost both. Irritated with Opal's friendship with Adrian and her aid in catching him, Palmer sought revenge on Opal and made her reveal that Adrian was her son from an interracial affair. This blew Adrian's FBI cover and his mind. Adrian forced Palmer into signing a divorce decree that was very generous to Opal.
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