John Dixon M.D. is a fictional character on the American TV soap opera, As the World Turns. He was portrayed by Larry Bryggman from July 18, 1969 until December 14, 2004. Dixon is a cardiologist at Oakdale Memorial Hospital where he is also Chief and Acting Chief of Staff at Memorial Hospital. Though the character stopped appearing in 2004, when Bryggman left the show, no mention was made of his having left town. However, after Larry Bryggman returned to the show on August 27, 2010, Bob Hughes mentioned that Dixon had been at Johns Hopkins. The character remained on the show for its final month, appearing in the last episode in September 2010.
Protégé of the late Michael Shea, Dixon was a constant thorn in the side of many Oakdale residents. John's main rivals through the years were Dan Stewart and Bob Hughes. The son of a working-class family, John was jealous of the affluent Stewarts and Hughes and felt that their lives were served to them on a silver platter. John’s romantic entanglements kept Oakdale on its toes for decades.
Character history Kim Sullivan John's first romantic relationship was with widow Kim Reynolds. John saw Kim as the perfect doctor's wife and was determined to marry her. His opportunity came when he discovered that Kim was pregnant with her brother-in-law, John's professional rival, Bob Hughes's, baby. Although Kim was determined to raise the child on her own, John persuaded her to marry him to give the child a name. Sadly, the child died at birth. Desperate to keep his wife, John blackmailed her into staying married to him by threatening to tell Kim's sister the truth about her pregnancy. Although he was content to stay in a loveless marriage, soon the lack of intimacy got to him and he raped Kim. Having no legal recourse, Kim decided to leave John. After a terrible argument, Kim ran away from John. He followed and fell down the stairs becoming paralyzed. In his debilitated condition, John played on Kim's sympathy and guilted her into staying married to him. However, Kim would find herself falling for John's rival, Dr. Dan Stewart.
John had an obsessive need to stay married to Kim and conspired with Dan's ex-wife, Susan, to keep the two apart. Fed up with John, Kim was ready to leave him when she had an accident that resulted in amnesia. Technically still her husband, John took care of her, isolated her from everyone and convinced her to have a sexual relationship with him. By the time Kim's memory returned, she was pregnant with John's baby and Dan had left for South America. Kim decided to leave John for good despite his pleas to stay for the good of their baby. Losing Kim drove John to the brink of destruction. John started drinking heavily and was finally suspended from the hospital. Shaken by John's behavior, Kim demanded that John only be permitted supervised visits with their son, Andy.
Shooting Determined not to let Andy be raised as a Stewart, John kidnapped the boy. When Dan found Andy and confronted John, John went after him with a gun, only to be shot accidentally. John lied and told everyone that Dan tried to kill him and married Pat Holland so that she wouldn't be forced to testify against him. Pat had a change of heart, however, and told the truth in court. Pat then ran away to escape John's wrath and fell to her death. John then got help for his drinking problem and was eventually reinstated at the hospital.
Dee Stewart Not long after. John saved Melinda Grey, and Mary and Teddy Ellison in a fire. Mary had been the only person, up to this point, who had befriended John after the disastrous death of his wife, Pat. When John was brought to Memorial with serious injuries, surgery was recommended. The doctor on call was none other than Dan Stewart, so Dan had no choice but to operate on his rival. John developed a blood clot in his lung, and Dan feared he might not make it. Despite their history, Kim prayed for his recovery, since despite everything he'd done, John was still the father of her child. Fortunately, John recovered and later found a friend in Dee Stewart, Dan's younger sister. Dee was young and emotionally fragile following the death of her lover Ian McFarland, who died as they were having sex. John showed great kindness toward her. John's compassion turned to love very quickly.
Lyla Montgomery's arrival Unfortunately, it wasn't mutual, as Dee was in love with another man: her brother-in-law Brad. John knew how to control Dee, however, and he convinced her that he was the only man for her. John alienated Dee from her father, David Stewart, and made her believe that her sister was pregnant with Brad’s baby. On September 26, 1980, with nowhere left to turn, Dee hastily married John. None of the Stewarts except for David could bring themselves to watch the brief civil ceremony. Unfortunately, it was obvious to John that his new wife was in love with another and he became possessive toward Dee and flew into jealous rages over Brad. At the same time, an older lover of John's arrived in town, Nurse Lyla Montgomery. The two had a passionate affair in Chicago years ago when they were both students at Northwestern University, until Lyla threw him over for her husband, who was then a candidate for governor, John was still intrigued by Lyla, the woman who got away, but she wanted nothing to do with him and warned him to stay away from her. . Meanwhile, one night John forced his way into Dee's bed and Dee cried rape. In the course of the trial, John maintained his innocence and later learned something startling—Lyla's daughter, Margo, was his daughter.
In the end, John was exonerated when Dee finally admitted that she, while groggy from sleeping pills, willingly had sex with John believing him to be Brad. After the trial, John was run into by a hit and run driver in the Memorial Hospital parking lot. John claimed that he didn't see the driver, but Ellen Stewart was worried that it was David when David disappeared. While John recuperated for a few weeks at Memorial, he put a plan in motion to find out who had hit him. John assumed it was David, but wasn't sure; it could also have been James Stenbeck.
Hit and run While John was in his hospital bed, John told his doctor, Jeff Ward, that he was going to move into Margo's cottage at James' estate. At that point, Jeff told John, innocently enough, that he was concerned about Margo having an affair with the married James. Immediately after, John told Jeff that he was blind. Jeff was confused because John had not said anything after the surgery. Jeff could not find any physical reason as to John's blindness, but assumed that he was telling the truth. John was, of course, faking. Margo took pity on her newly discovered father and agreed to take him in. Sure enough, John continued to investigate the hit and run, and found out that James was the culprit while James would continue to try to kill John for several months.
"The Loner" About this time, John wrote a fictionalized account of his ordeal, entitled "The Loner." In the meantime, the exotic Ariel Aldrin moved to the apartment next to John. One of John's non-friends, Lisa Miller McColl was writing a gossip column under the pseudonym "Dolly Valentine" and she took great pleasure in manufacturing a romance between her nemesis John and Ariel. John accused Ariel of planning the item, but she denied it. When he invited her to dinner, Ariel accepted, and she told John that American women were too aggressive, but European women, like herself, were "created to make their men happy." John was in total accord. Soon, Armond Elliot, a movie producer friend of Ariel's offered to buy the rights to John's book. Ecstatic, John thought he was going to be rich and maybe even win an Oscar. His interest in Ariel increased. What he didn't know was that Armand was working for James, who quickly shelved the project. Because John had portrayed James as an adulterer and a crook, James wanted to ensure that the movie would never be made. Dee was relieved, too, since John's "fiction" discussed the inability of a woman to have normal sexual responses. James meanwhile, was becoming attracted to Dee. Unable to control themselves, Ariel and John had sex in the linen closet at Memorial. However, Ariel wanted more than a fling, she wanted the financial security a marriage would bring. Ariel did everything she could to make John jealous.
Ariel Aldrin Afraid of losing her, John went to purchase a diamond ring. The real ones were too expensive, so he bought a fake one. Dee was relieved that John had found someone and wished the couple luck. After Ariel made John promise her a big wedding, a house and travel, she agreed to be his wife. John told Ariel he wanted custody of his son, Andy, but this was not what she had in mind. When no one wanted to come to their wedding, so John suggested they marry in Jamaica. John wanted his bride to get pregnant, because he never had the chance to see Margo as a child, and a child would give him respectability. However, Ariel's mind was on material things, and when she had her ring appraised, two appraisers verified that the diamond was a fake. Ariel vowed to make John pay. First, she went on a shopping spree, then purchased twenty acres of land and made plans to build tennis courts and a pool. Despite his anger, John was still attracted to Ariel, and after having sex, she showed him the blueprints and told him the house would cost around a million dollars—she'd already made the down payment. John gave Ariel an ultimatum: no children, no house. Ariel agreed to have children, and John threw out her birth control pills.
The Stenbeck Fortune It was at this time that John learned something shocking: James Stenbeck was not the heir to the Stenbeck fortune. In fact, he was Ariel's brother. John found out when he discovered that he had a tape of James screaming that he wanted the birth certificates destroyed. James went to Stockholm to retrieve them. John followed and found the birth certificates in Greta Aldrin's house. When James arrived, John escaped out the window with the documents. He put copies in Greta's car, where Greta and James found and burned them. On one of the tapes, John heard Ariel and James talk about getting rid of him. With glee, John began to plot James's ruin. John was out driving when his brakes failed, and he lost control of the car and crashed. When he came to, John told Margo that either Ariel or James was trying to kill him. John cut Ariel out of his will and insurance policies and then he gave Margo sealed envelopes containing copies of James's birth certificates and addressed them to Gunnar St. Clair, Barbara and the New York Times—to be delivered in the event of his death. John pasted cut-out letters to form the question, "When is a Stenbeck not a Stenbeck?" James suspected John, but Ariel was sure John had no idea that James was not a Stenbeck. John's next note read "Sweet Dreams," and with it John sent a copy of James's birth certificate.
Meanwhile, in a rage after John refused to sign the deed to the new house, Ariel destroyed her engagement ring, but told John not to worry—she'd get another one, and this time it would be real. Maggie soon arrived with divorce papers. Ariel heard John listening to the tapes and realized that it was John who was behind the blackmail and the notes. Ariel stole the tapes and played them for James, who went wild. James assured her that he'd handle the situation. After Ariel left, James vowed that he would kill John and read up on undetectable poisons. Then he left a message for John saying Dee's life was in danger. John ran out, and seconds later James poisoned a jug of water on John's desk. John returned to his office and drank some water. Soon, he was lying on the floor, gasping for air. Later, John approached James with a gun and forced James to admit to the murder attempts and said he had proof that James wasn't a Stenbeck.