JIM FIELDS

Full Name: Dr. James Fields

First Appearance: July 1969
Last Appearance: March 1975
Performer:
1. Alan Feinstein

Married:
1. Liz Hillyer (m. 10 September 1971)

Children:
1. Jason Fields (b. September 1973)

Jim was introduced in the summer of 1969 as a psychiatrist working at the Hayward Institute, where wealthy Liz Hillyer volunteered her time. Jim and Liz developed a particular affinity for young patient Debbie Martin , a girl diagnosed with aphasia following the violent death of her father and sister in a car explosion. With no greater stimulus to love than proximity, Jim and Liz quickly developed a romantic relationship.

In 1970, Jim's life became suddenly complicated by the arrival of two people: his last girlfriend Rosella Gray and former medical corps officer Keith Whitney . Rosella, intent on winning Jim back, suggested to Liz that Jim had been having an affair behind her back. When Rosella was found stabbed to death in Jim's bed and he was arrested for her murder, Liz ended her relationship with him. However, she eventually realized that Jim had not been guilty of sleeping with Rosella, nor had he killed her. The real killer had been Keith Whitney, who mistakenly murdered Rosella in an attempt to silence Jim, who was one of the few people capable of exposing Keith's murder of his first wife Suella Duval. When Jim was officially cleared of Rosella's death in September 1971, he and Liz married in a simple ceremony on Mike and Nancy Karr's patio.

Soon after their marriage, Liz's father Orin Hillyer was critically injured in a plane crash and returned to Monticello to recuperate. Jim and Orin had a somewhat adversarial relationship, primarily due to Orin's possessiveness and tendency to manipulate Liz. The Fields' marriage was further endangered by Orin's private nurse, the scheming Elly Jo Jamison , who conspired to murder a now pregnant Liz, as well as Orin, to get her hands on the Hillyer fortune. Ultimately, Elly's plot went awry, and Liz successfully delivered Jim's son Jason in September 1973.

In 1974, despite Jim's strong objection, Liz took Jason and left Monticello for an extended visit with her father, who was convalescing from a stroke in Italy. While Liz was gone, Jim received an offer to head an important psychiatric research project in Canada. Alone, depressed, and frustrated that Liz had allowed Orin to manipulate her into staying with him, Jim accepted the Canadian post. He remained in Monticello through the conclusion of the murder trial of his patient and good friend Martha Marceau then quietly left town in March 1975.