LARRY WOLEK

 PLAYED BY:  MICHAEL STORM

1969 -- PRESENT

JAMES STORM -- 1968 -- 1969
(Michael's Brother)

PAUL TULLY – 1968

  Llanview Hospital’s longtime Chief of Staff, Larry Wolek has had the longest history of any character on the show, besides Viki, that is.

In the beginning, as they say, Larry was in love with Viki’s sister, Meredith Lord, even though her father, Victor was against it.  Meredith was engaged to Dr. Ted Hale.  After a fight with Larry, Ted, tripped and fell down a flight of stairs.  Larry was charged, but the charges were dropped when it was found to be an accident.

Larry began having difficulties with his love life when a young nurse, named Karen Martin took an unhealthy interest in him.  They had a brief relationship, then Karen shocked him when she told him she was going to have his baby.

 Later, Karen saved Larry after he was severely burned in a fire.  His face was wrapped in bandages, and when they were removed,  he looked completely different.  Though Meredith was Larry's true love, he was forced to marry Karen when she threatened to have an abortion.  Later, Karen had a miscarriage and Larry found himself free to be with Meredith.  Unfortunately for Larry, Meredith was involved with someone else by the time he was free.

            Thinking that she was dying of a rare blood disease and upset that Larry had hidden the fact from her, Meredith turned to Tom Edwards, who  had come to Llanview claiming to have amnesia.  He was taken in by Victor, offered a job at the Banner Newspaper, and named by Meredith after one of her cats. Knowing that Victor yearned to find his long-lost son, Tom pretended to be the Lord heir but when he fell in love with Meredith, things became complicated.  He proposed to Meredith, but she could not accept, and instead turned at last to her true love, Larry.

            Larry was not the ideal husband Victor Lord would have chosen for his daughter.  The Wolek family lived in the poorest section of town.  However, Victor had a change of heart when he realized how very much they loved each other.  He invited Meredith and Larry to come and live in his mansion, Llanfair.  At first, Larry refused, but later he relented and agreed to live in a garage apartment on the estate.

            In 1970, Meredith and Larry  were enjoying the simplicity of their married life, but after a while they decided to start a family.  Meredith's doctor strongly advised against it,  because of her physical condition, but Meredith and Larry, had other plans.  Soon Meredith became pregnant.  She gave birth to twins, but only one, Danny, survived.  Meredith suffered from severe depression over the loss of her other baby, and became mentally unstable, forcing Larry to call upon Dr. Joyce Brothers to help her.  After Meredith recovered from her depression, she and Larry settled down to live a happy life with their new son Danny.

            Not long after, tragedy struck Larry and Meredith.  She and Larry’s brother, Vince became trapped by two burglars at Llanfair.  When Vince tried to capture the them, Meredith slipped and hit her head.  She was taken to the hospital with cranial  hemorrhaging.  Meredith died at the hospital, which left Larry extremely depressed. Meanwhile, Vince blamed himself for her death, and Larry decided to move in with his sister Anna and her husband Jim.

            In 1974, Larry fell in love with one of his patients, Rachel Wilson, who was suffering with severe pain from Hodgkin's disease.  After enduring as much as she could, Rachel finally decided that she wanted to end her life, and she wanted Larry to be the administering physician.

After Rachel’s death, Larry was convicted of mercy-killing  after nurse Susan Barry told them that Rachel's had asked Larry to end her life. In the end, Larry was set free when Dr. Dorian Lord confessed that she was partially responsible.  Dorian had given Rachel an injection, but forgot to record it on her chart.  Later that same night, Dr. Mark Toland unknowingly administered a second dose, which ultimately killed Rachel.

            Larry found love again in 1977, when he met his distant cousin, Karen Wolek  They began dating, and before long, they were married.  Karen tried her best to settle into being Mrs. Larry Wolek, but found their life boring.   She dreamed of finding something to satisfy her thirst for luxury and excitement, which she rarely had since Larry spent so many long hours at the hospital.

            Soon, Karen began secretly dating several men in Llanview. At first, they  gave her expensive gifts, but soon she found that they also expected something in return from her.  She became a prostitute, and then Marco Dane came to town.

 Marco was Karen's former lover.  He was also a professional pimp and  pornographer.   It did not take him long before he discovered Karen's newfound career.  Marco persuaded Karen to become one of his prostitutes.  Although she tried to refuse at first, she later changed her mind and accepted his offer.  As time passed, Karen found herself desperately wanting out, but Marco forced her to remain in his “stable” and she prayed that Larry would not discover her secret.

When Viki found out Karen's secret, she begged her to tell Larry the truth, but Karen refused.  She could not bear to hurt her husband and begged Viki to keep her prostitution a secret.

When Marco Dane was found murdered, Viki was arrested and charged with his death.  At the trial, Karen, had to take the witness stand, and while being questioned by the DA, she broke down and confessed that she had been working as a prostitute for Marco.     

In 1980, Karen was raped by Brad Vernon when she rejected his advances. She told Marco, (who had not been murdered after all, it was his twin brother) what Brad had done to her and Marco beat him up.  Later, when Larry found out, he also gave Brad a beating.  Larry eventually forgave Karen for her prostitution, but she felt that they would never truly get past their problems and they separated.

            Dr. Ivan Kipling, who had once been an outstanding neurosurgeon, but was now demented, returned to Llanview in 1982 with an outlandish plan to win the love of Karen Wolek.  He planted a mind-altering device inside Larry’s brain.  Kipling then instructed him to obey his orders.   Larry, who was still in love with Karen, lured her to Kipling, who took her to his South American jungle hideaway.  Larry  finally regained his senses, and after the implant was removed, he rushed to the jungle and rescued Karen from Kipling.

            During 1983, Larry was devastated when Karen ran off to Canada with Steve Piermont.  On the rebound, Larry and Jenny, Brad Vernon’s ex-wife, came close to an affair, but Jenny realized she still had feelings for Brad.

            In 1984, Larry found himself falling madly in love with ex-mob queen Laurel Chapin, who reminded him of his late wife Meredith.  When Larry asked Laurel to be his wife, she happily accepted. 

Trouble was soon to come for Larry.  Tracy James, a nurse and homicidal psychopath took an immediate interest in him and vowed to eventually win him over, with the help of a dangerous ally named Stick.

            1995 was a bad year for Larry. Tracy James was causing trouble all over Llanview.   She had killed Dr. Marcus Polk, Viki's psychiatrist, and pinned the murder on Clint Buchanan.  She also forged medical documents insinuating that Viki had not yet overcome her multiple personality disorder. Viki was locked up in an asylum where Tracy was working.  In addition, Tracy was a major pain in Larry's side.  She continued her insane romantic pursuit of him and killed Laurel  by cutting the brake lines on her car.  If that weren’t enough, she also  kidnapped Larry and locked him up in a secret room in his own basement, which was constructed to resemble his office at the hospital.   Larry escaped and Tracy, planning to blow up half of Llanview with a bomb, was distracted by her favorite song, Frank Sinatra's "I'll Be Seeing You."  The bomb exploded and Tracy and her sidekick Stick were killed.

            In 1989, Brenda McGillis was going through a rough pregnancy. With the father of her unborn child dead, she turned to Larry for comfort, which he readily offered.  In time, Larry and Brenda became very intimate.   While she was pregnant she fell unconscious and was trapped in a room where radioactive testing was being conducted.  Luckily, she survived and was able to give birth to her baby.

            In 1991, when Viki’s daughter, Megan, began feeling increasingly weak and frequently ill, Viki told her to talk to Larry.  At first, she ignored Viki's suggestions, but when she kept getting worse, she made an appointment to see him. After running some tests, Larry had to tell her that she had developed a case of lupus, a sometimes crippling disease. 

            Soon after the beginning of the new year, Megan's condition became much worse and she was admitted to hospital, with Larry as her personal doctor.  Soon after, Megan’s kidneys failed and she was quickly placed on dialysis.  Larry told the family that unless they could find a kidney donor, Megan could die.  Larry found that Viki was the only match.  They completed the transplant, but Megan’s body rejected it.  She then came down with a fever and began to hallucinate.  Megan became weaker and weaker until she was almost comatose.  By that time Larry knew there was no hope for her survival.  Megan passed away.

            In April of 2000, a train that was carrying several Llanview residents, derailed and crashed.  Among those who were injured was Nora Buchanan.  There was an explosion in one of the cars and everyone assumed that Nora had died, because they could not find her.  Nora spent weeks in Cherryvale Clinic, and then was taken by Dr Colin MacIver, to his home, where he nursed her back to health.  While she was there, Lindsay Rappaport injected her with a drug that wiped out her memory. 

            When Nora was finally taken back home, she was admitted to Llanview hospital, under Larry’s care.  When it came out that Nora could have been drugged, Larry found that she still had the remnants of a certain drug  in her system that would cause her to suffer amnesia. As time progressed, Larry continued to watch over Nora in order to help her.  He also did his best to keep Colin MacIver out of her room, as he was upsetting the family.  No one except Lindsay knew why he was there.

            Larry Wolek will continue to care for the residents of Llanview, as he has over the past thirty-two years, and will probably save many more lives in the future.