More than 13 years after Jack Wagner set sail from The Bold and the Beautiful, he’s set to bring Nick Marone back in a big way starting Monday, June 16. And the timing couldn’t be better, heaven knows. Lost love Brooke Logan has been moping around since her latest breakup with Nick’s half brother, fickle Ridge Forrester. How poorly is she doing? Let’s just say we wouldn’t be surprised if she had a breakdown coming up. (More on that here.)
Luckily, Nick returns with a goal in mind — and one that will thrill viewers who have longed for the day that Brooke would stop letting Ridge treat her like ol’ reliable, someone he can get to forgive any offense by doing nothing more than calling her “my Logan.” Nick is determined “to wake Brooke up from this toxic pattern with Ridge and to win her heart. That’s it,” Wagner tells Soap Opera Digest. And if anybody can do it, our money’s on Nick, who’s thrown sparks with everyone from Bridget Forrester to Pam Douglas!
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Not only do Brooke’s feelings for her ex run as deep as the ocean on which he so often sails, but Nick comes back more confident than ever. Having inherited late father Massimo’s empire, Nick is now to the shipping industry what Victor Newman is to… well, whatever the hell industry it is Victor is in. That, Wagner teases, makes his interactions with Ridge hilariously dismissive. As in, think of the way that Bill Spencer regards the dressmaker, then multiply it by 10. “The things that I improvised were… a little shocking.”
By the time Wagner’s summer story arc wraps, his character has opened Brooke’s eyes to the possibility that maybe her (cough) destiny is the equivalent of last year’s fashions and the seaman is the guy who really floats her boat. Executive producer/headwriter Bradley Bell considers this Brooke/Nick rematch potentially the first chapter of a new romance for them, the actor says. And “the script I got today [is] a little jaw-dropping, this cliffhanger.” So you can bet your dinghy that the next time Wagner has a few months off from Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart, he’ll be getting the call for Nick to pick up where he left off.
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Wagner, for anyone who may not know — is there anyone? — made his soap debut in 1982 on the cable drama A New Day in Eden (which was co-produced by the future Stephanie Forrester, Susan Flannery). His ginormous break, however, came a year later when he was cast as Frisco Jones on General Hospital. There, he not only became an overnight sensation but met his future real-life wife Kristina Malandro, who was Felicia Cummings to his Frisco. Following a stint as Warren Lockridge on Santa Barbara, Wagner brought to life the dastardly Peter Burns on Melrose Place. In 2003, he returned to daytime via The Bold and the Beautiful, where he played Nick until 2012. Two years later, he nabbed the role of Bill Avery on When Calls the Heart. Wagner, who was once engaged to Melrose Place co-star Heather Locklear and dated Bold & Beautiful castmate Ashley Jones (Bridget), wed singer Michelle Wolf earlier this month.
