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AJ Quartermaine
Played by Billy Warlock
Written by Taryn

AJ was fine as a teen, but somewhere along the way he started having problems with responsibility, and eventually this behavior led to his alcoholism. Drinking led AJ into a continuous downward cycle. This  included a string of failed relationships.

AJ's half-brother is Jason, and his adopted sister was Emily. His parents were Alan and Monica Quartermaine, part of the richest family in town. His grandfather was Edward. He always wanted to be like Edward but had trouble living up to his expectations.  His grandmother was Lila. He was quite a disappointment to all of them, but they loved him, nonetheless. Tracy was his aunt and Ned was his cousin. Justus was another half-brother, but they didn't grow up together and were very different people.

AJ tended to blame his family for his problems.  Even though Jason is not Monica's son, Alan and Monica treated him better than they did AJ, who is their only "real" son.  Jason was a very good person and didn't mess up his life, plus he studied hard to be a doctor, like his parents.  AJ never had any direction in his life.  He wanted to run ELQ, but no one in the family trusted him to do that because he'd screwed up so much.  Also, they blamed AJ for the many bad things he has done.  Why AJ has a self-esteem problem to begin with, and why he is so much more screwed up then Jason was, we don't really know, but it could be that Alan and Monica did treat him differently. Either that, or Jason was the only Quartermaine able to lead a more normal life and not be affected by their mind games and constant bickering.

When AJ started classes at Port Charles University, he ran a loan shark operation and was arrested for drunk driving for the first time. He was later caught in a scandalous affair with an older woman named Nancy Eckert; due to this affair, Lila cut off his inheritance and sent him to work as an orderly at General Hospital. In 1992, AJ was arrested twice more for drunk driving. The first time, Alan left him in jail overnight, hoping it would teach him a lesson.  The second time, AJ's girlfriend, Nikki Langton, told the police that she had been at the wheel. Nikki was a truly bad person, so she was a bad influence on AJ  AJ and Nikki planned to marry, but Alan paid Nikki to leave town. Eventually, AJ took a job as a desk clerk at the Port Charles Hotel, which was owned by Ned. This soon led to AJ having an affair with Ned's girlfriend, Julia Barrett, who sold her shares in the hotel to him before leaving town. AJ later took up with Keesha, but they grew apart.  He tried to be a better person with her, but his true colors often came through, such as when he talked badly about people with AIDS (at the Nurse's Ball, in front of Stone, who was dying of AIDS, no less).

Many years later, AJ caused a car wreck that left Jason with brain damage. Ned took the blame for the accident, to protect the family, but AJ later confessed that Jason's accident was his fault. AJ was driving drunk, and Jason had jumped into the car to stop him.  AJ blamed himself and was also upset about how the rest of the family treated him.  He started to get drunk on a daily basis and eventually had a one-night-stand with Carly Roberts, who was also drunk. Carly became pregnant with his baby. He later planned to fight for sole custody, but Carly lied and said it was Jason’s baby. This lie continued to spread for a year.

Between this time, AJ tried to sober up, as he had on many occasions, but it didn't last. Later, AJ found out the truth about Michael from Robin and married Carly, who planned to show that AJ was an unfit father so she could divorce him and get custody.  Jason, who had raised the baby up to that point, visited often and was not happy about the arrangement.  AJ was appointed CEO of ELQ. AJ constantly suspected Carly of cheating with Jason.

When he learned she was pregnant again, he tried to pass it off as his. However, Sonny told everyone that it was his child. Sonny soon found out that AJ had paid for the arson that burned down his and Jason's warehouse. He kidnapped AJ and hung him up on a hook in a meathouse, forcing him to sign over full custody of Michael and to divorce Carly. Thrown out of ELQ and disinherited by the entire family, AJ began drinking again. He had several physical confrontations with Carly, including one on the stairs, which led to Carly losing her and Sonny’s baby. AJ became very self-destructive and continued drinking and began devising ways to squander his money. He got involved with Hannah Scott, but this relationship also ended.

After moving back into the Quartermaine mansion, he plotted with his long lost sister Skye to get his son Michael back. In January 2002, AJ began pursuing Courtney Matthews, Sonny's newfound sister.  AJ was using her, hoping that eventually he could make a deal with Sonny to get Michael back. AJ went as far as to marry Courtney. When Sonny found out, he nearly killed AJ. Thinking he had Sonny where he wanted him, AJ proposed a deal: if Sonny gave Michael back, he would divorce Courtney. Sonny said no, which led AJ back into drinking on his wedding night. He eventually realized that he loved Courtney. After Edward had all of AJ's money frozen, AJ drove drunk right into the strip club Oasis. Wanting to protect her husband, Courtney made a secret deal with the owner to become a stripper in exchange for the owner's silence regarding AJ's guilt in the accident. Regretting his actions, AJ tried to make it on his own and even got a job as a forklift driver to support his wife. AJ found out what Courtney was doing and became humiliated and angry, which led to him burning down the Oasis. Desperate for his wife to lean on him, AJ hired the former owner of the Oasis, Coleman, to stalk Courtney. While he was “out of town”, Jason started protected Courtney, at Sonny's request. The two grew closer. Courtney eventually found out the truth that AJ was the stalker. Seeing her husband for what he was, she left him. AJ made attempts to get Courtney back and even got a job at ELQ from Ned, but none of this worked. Since then, AJ tried to take over ELQ and became involved in the Dead Man's Hand plot. When he realized that nothing in his life was working for him, he decided to get away. His one last attempt at trying to become a victor led to him emptying out some of his family's bank accounts and running off with rich Lydia Karenin.

AJ often blamed others for his problems instead of taking responsibility. He was generally not a bad person, but he was weak.  He just needed love, but he didn't really know how to give himself to another person.  He often lied and schemed instead of being honest, and he often picked the wrong kind of woman.  His relationship with Courtney was great, but the new writers decided to put her with Jason instead, so they invented that stalker storyline to make AJ look really bad.

Later,  kidnapped Michael after faking his death in 2005, as he was scheming with evil Faith. He hid out in his family's home. Alan helped him but realized that AJ was not acting rationally. Jason figured out where AJ was. AJ shot Alan in the back, and he and Jason got into a fight. AJ fell off the balcony and broke his back. In the hospital, he was killed by Dr. Asher because AJ had tried to blackmail him into helping him certify that he was crazy when he kidnapped Michael. AJ also had tried to have Asher kill Jason after Jason's car accident (thinking that he was saving him from being a vegetable). It was a terrible end to poor AJ.

 The writers basically ruined his character and then gave the actor nothing to do, so Billy Warlock chose not to renew his contract when it came up.  We really miss him! It was the beginning of the end for most of the Quartermaine family.

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Page updated 5/1/12