| Craig Wesley | |||||||||||
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| Kevin Spirtas As Craig Wesley | |||||||||||
| Days of our Lives | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Kevin Spirtas | ||||||||||
| Current status | Former; Regular | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1997–2003, 2005, 2009 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | August 4,1997 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | September 3, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Left Town | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Surgeon in New York Former surgeon at University Hospital Former bacteriologist in L.A. | ||||||||||
| Title | Married | ||||||||||
| Residence | Formerly at the Wesley home in Salem, Illinois New York | ||||||||||
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Dr.Craig Wesley is a fictional character from the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives portrayed by Kevin Spirtas on and off from 1997-2009.
Storylines
Craig Wesley entered into the scene when Mike and Carrie went to a medical conference in Los Angeles. Mike and Craig had gone to medical school together, and Craig frequently topped Mike in everything they did. When Craig was first introduced, he was newly married to an attractive woman named Missy. He and Missy shared a table with Mike and Carrie, who were 'pretending' to be lovers, and sharing passionate kisses. This charade had to come to an end when Craig and his wife Nancy moved to Salem, and Craig became Mike's competition for the Chief of Staff position at Salem University Hospital. Carrie was forced to admit that she wasn't Mike's lover, but really Austin Reed's wife.
Despite numerous schemes to get Mike out of the running, including capitalizing on Laura's having recently been arrested for Kristen's murder and framing Mike to make it look like he had an affair, Mike won the chief of staff position. Then Craig encouraged Mike's former lover Ali, a nurse who Mike had been sleeping with and had mentioned better jobs to, to launch a sexual harassment suit. In the resulting furor, Craig won the job of Chief of Staff. Things didn't go smooth for the Wesley family for long. Although Nancy and Craig were high-school sweethearts, Nancy confessed that when she was 16, she had given a baby girl up for adoption. Now that the girl was a teenager, Nancy had brought her home to live with them.
Craig with Nancy and their daughter, Chloe
Although Craig was initially reluctant to accept into his home a child that proved his wife's unfaithfulness to him, he soon grew to love Chloe. It was a few years before he was able to convince Nancy to tell him the truth...as a teenager, she had been raped by her father's friend and business partner, and Chloe had been the result. Craig and Nancy were just starting to talk about trying again for a family of their own when Chloe became ill with leukemia. At that point, Craig and Nancy were able to conceive a child they hoped would be a perfect match for Chloe. Along the way, Craig got the best news imaginable...despite the timing being off, Chloe was really Craig's daughter after all.
The birth of their second daughter, Joy, was an event made all the much sweeter by her being a perfect match for Chloe. With Chloe in remission, the Wesley family moved to New York, and Chloe headed to Europe to give her singing career another chance. After Chloe's accident when she was awaiting surgery, Craig was devastated that he couldn't be with his daughter, although he was able to visit a few times. He returned to Salem briefly for Chloe's wedding, and sang for her and Brady.
When Chloe was poisoned and slipped into a coma in August of 2009, Craig returned for a brief time to sit vigil by his daughter's bedside.