Alice is the daughter of Sid and Abigail Grayson. She is the widow of Tom Horton, and the matriarch of the Horton family. She is the mother of Tommy, Addie, Mickey, Bill, and Marie Horton; grandmother of Mike, Jennifer, Janice, Jessica, Sarah and Sandy Horton, and of Julie and Steven Olson, Melissa Anderson, Lucas Roberts, and Hope Williams; great-grandmother of David Banning, Jeremy Horton, Abigail Deveraux, Shawn-Douglas & Zack Brady, and Will Reed; great-great-grandmother of Scotty Banning.
Alice has never had much of a story, but she has always been the backbone of the Horton family. She grew up in Salem, the daughter of a poor carpenter, and married her high-school sweetheart, Tom Horton, in a small civil wedding in city hall. By November 1965, Alice finally accepted that her children were now grown up. However, she remained witness to their trials and tribulations throughout the years and always offered her advice and support. Though for Alice life was relatively peaceful and uneventful, save for the disgraces occurring to her family and friends, in latter years she began to have a few adventures of her own.
In 1977, Alice herself would be the one in need of that support when she was diagnosed with cancer by Dr. Walter Griffin. During this ordeal, Alice's faith in God wavered as she wondered why something like that could happen to her, something utterly shocking to Tom and the rest of the family because Alice had always been a devoted believer. Despite her doubts, Alice ultimately put her life in the hands of God, and her prayers were answered when Bill discovered a misdiagnosis. Walter Griffin, influenced by the tragic memory of his wife's cancer-induced death, had been hasty in his diagnosis of Alice.
Later that year, Alice's faith would be tested once again. This time, it was Tom who suffered, as he suffered a heart attack. As he recovered, Alice prayed to God that he would come out of it fine. While this time her faith in God was strong, Alice was tested when her daughter Marie, now a Catholic nun, returned to take care of Tom. Alice actually felt jealous of her own daughter for all the attention she gave him. Yet, Alice came to terms with this feeling and overcame it.
In 1983, Alice was almost poisoned by Eugene Bradford's robot which was being used by the hospital to dispense medication and mail. It turned out that the robot had been tampered with by Alex Marshall, who was working for Stefano DiMera at the time.
The following year, Alice became convinced that her granddaughter Hope belonged with wrong-side-of-the-tracks Bo Brady, and helped them any way she could to give their relationship a boost. Hope's parents, Doug and Julie, were against the match and favored the upstanding Larry Welch over Bo. When Hope became engaged to Larry, Alice tried to talk sense into her but nothing worked. The day of the wedding, Alice bumped into Bo in the church and agreed to help him stop the wedding. Alice helped Bo kidnap Hope from the church and put Howie Hoffstedder, Bo's cigar-smoking friend, in Hope's place! Even though Hope and Larry married some time later, Alice arranged for Bo and Hope to meet in the underground tunnels under Blondie's so that Hope could tell Bo how she really felt about him.
Over the course of the year, Alice continued to help the couple, and even traveled to New Orleans to help them steal a valuable prism from an exhibit at the World's Fair that would help connect Larry and his boss, Maxwell Hathaway, to an international crime organization called The Cartel. During that time, Alice also sleuthed with Tom in Salem to connect The Cartel with the murders of their bridge pals, Blanche & Harold Dailey.
In late 1985, Tom and Alice played the roles of parents once again, having done it in 1965 with Julie. This time, it was Jennifer who came to live with them and use them as parental figures.
In 1987, Alice's old boyfriend, Dr. Simon Hopkins, came to town and worked at University Hospital. Simon seemed like nice enough old man, and the only thing that rubbed anyone the wrong way was the way he incessantly tried to rekindle a relationship with Alice. However, he was there as part of a plot designed by Victor Kiriakis to acquire a disk of important value. When Simon's connections to Victor came to light, as well as his part in the assassination attempt of Harper Deveraux, he tried to escape from the police by holding Alice hostage. Fortunately, Simon was shot and Alice was saved.
In 1988, Alice began to notice a strange behavior in Tom. He would spend time away from the house at night and lie about his whereabouts. Poor Alice began to think that Tom was having an affair! When she finally confronted him with her suspicions, Tom read her a love poem. He had been moonlighting at The Beat Bar, a poetry and coffee bar, as Norm de Plumme, the bar's hit sensation. Alice was touched by his words and forgave him for making worry.
However, the following year things did get more serious, as Alice found out that her marriage to Tom had never been legal. To make matters worse, Tom had known the entire time! The judge who had married them had never been sworn in, so the marriage was completely false. Although she was quite upset, he proposed to her once again. They remarried soon after in front of their children and grandchildren.
In 1990, Jennifer Horton traveled to New York to pose as her friend, the lost heiress Katerina Von Leuschner, to keep Katerina's fiancé Lawrence Alamain from finding her. Back in Salem, Alice knew about this and feared for Jennifer's safety, so she also traveled to New York. There, she posed as a woman named Cecily Smythe, who had been Katerina's governess, in order to keep Lawrence from getting suspicious. Alice convinced Jennifer to come back to Salem with her, but to do so they had to come up with the excuse that they wanted to visit a sick friend. Lawrence agreed to let them go without any hesitation. However, when Alice and Jennifer boarded an empty plane, they realized something was wrong. Just then, Lawrence boarded as well and told them that they'd be going back to his country. Once arrived, Alice noticed a caretaker who seemed to keep Lawrence's staff on their toes. The man only introduced himself as Poldy and seemed to be very taken with Alice. Naturally, Alice used her flirtatious charm to convince Poldy to drive her to the airport. Unfortunately, the car they used broke down on the way there. Even worse, Lawrence caught up to them. Poldy asked Lawrence to drive "Cecily" to the airport, but Alice knew she'd have no such luck. Lawrence proceeded to lock Alice in one of his "guest" rooms in the basement of his villa. Alice would later find out that Poldy was Leopold Alamain, Lawrence's father. Before being locked away, Alice got a shocking glimpse at one of Lawrence's other "guests." It was Frankie Brady.
Eventually, several Salemites, including Bo, Carly Manning, Shane Donovan, Kayla Brady, and Jack Deveraux, arrived in Lawrence's villa to rescue Alice and Jennifer. When Lawrence trapped everyone in his basement with a fake earthquake, Alice was injured by falling debris during a cave-in. Carly, a doctor, worried that Alice had a heart condition and begged everyone to keep Alice awake. Everyone did this by remembering the happier times they'd all enjoyed throughout the years (these were the special 25th anniversary episodes w/ flashbacks). Everyone was rescued, but because of the injuries during the cave-in, Alice suffered a stroke back in Salem. She eventually recovered but had to wear a pacemaker.
In 1991, Alice opened a restaurant with her daughter-in-law, Maggie, to raise money for the construction of a trauma center. Alice's Restaurant, formerly Shenanigans, was a hit, and the money was raised successfully. Alice ran the restaurant for a while after the center was built; however, she closed it down in late 1992. Meanwhile, she tried to boost the relationship between Bo and Carly just as she had with him and Hope many years before.
Nevertheless, Alice did not resolve to stay at home and do nothing. In the summer of 1993, Alice and Tom remodeled their home and founded the Horton Center. This was made possible by a substantial donation from John Black. The Horton Center would be a sort of boarding house where anyone who needed a safe haven would find one. Soon after opening the Center, she hired social worker Kristen Blake to help her and Tom. At the beginning, the Horton Center was looked down upon by Tom and Alice's neighbors, especially because one of the guests at the center was a young man with AIDS named Kevin Tursi. However, Alice managed to get the facts about AIDS through their heads, and the Horton Center was praised by the newspapers and the community. In her spare time, Alice also put her matchmaking skills to good use by having Kristen and John fall in love.
Later that year, Tom suffered a stroke and Alice went through the same ordeal that she'd suffered in 1977, although this time her faith in God remained firm and solid. As Tom lay asleep in his hospital bed, Alice promised that if he recovered, she'd agree to go fly fishing in Scotland with him (something he'd always wanted to do but she'd always thought would be boring.) Tom underwent a complicated operation and recovered without problems in time to celebrate Christmas with the family. Sadly, the following summer, Alice found Tom lying on his bed, apparently sleeping. Tom had died in his sleep of a heart attack. Yet, she mourned Tom with courage and hope.
When Gina came to Salem in 1994, she instantly became convinced that Gina was Hope. She saw her as a sign from Tom. Eventually, she asked Gina to become a "Horton", even before it was proven that she was really Hope. As time went by, Alice became more convinced that Gina was Hope, so she stopped Bo and Billie's wedding. She apologized, but she still believed Gina to be Hope, even after Gina confessed not to be Hope. She believed that Gina was Hope, and to prove it, she gave Gina a puzzle box that only Tom and Hope had known how to open. After Gina opened one side of the box, Alice became very excited. Unfortunately, Gina then lost the box (it had really been stolen.) Following months of searching, Billie Reed found the famous puzzle box at Carrie and Austin's wedding in 1995. Gina opened it in front of Alice and they both became convinced that she was Hope. However, Bo was skeptical. But then Alice found a secret compartment in the box, and it held a letter that Hope had written before her wedding to Bo in 1985. Bo read this letter out loud, and Gina cut him off halfway through, and she recited the end of it. To finally prove once and for all that she was Hope, Gina told Bo to check Hope's fingerprints on the letter and compare them to hers. They were a perfect match. Finally, everyone accepted Gina as Hope, and Alice got her granddaughter back.
Christmas in 1995 was an odd one, for Alice Horton did not spend it at home. For the first time ever, she was not there to hang the Horton ornaments. She had traveled to Guatemala to join Doug and Julie Williams, who were there helping impoverished children (in reality, actress Frances Reid had fallen ill and could not work.) Alice remained a firm presence in Salem thereafter, only giving support and advice, especially to Hope, who had never-ending problems with Bo. She was a great support to her when her wedding to Bo in 1996 was canceled. In 1998, Alice tried to help Hope investigate her missing years when Hope began to develop a strange artistic talent she'd never had. One picture that Hope drew caught Alice's eye, and she soon remembered that it was an exact replica of a famous painting by the artist Paul Renêt. This caused Hope to travel to Lugano, Switzerland and eventually discover that she was known by many in the European jet set as Princess Gina. Alice hasn't done much since then except dispense advice to Hope and perceive the odd behavior of Hope's impostor, the real Princess Gina. However, Alice will always remain one of the pillars of strength for the Horton Family.
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The character of Alice Horton has been played by Frances Reid from 1965 - present.
Bio courtesy of About.com
