Cliff and Nina Warner
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Cliff Warner and Nina Cortlandt were a supercouple on the American soap opera All My Children. Cliff was played by Peter Bergman and Nina was played by Taylor Miller.
The two characters were in a popular on-again/off-again relationship that spanned the entire 1980s. Although they split up numerous times, they ended up marrying one another in four separate ceremonies.
History
The two met and fell in love while Cliff was working at Pine Valley General Hospital in 1979. Nina's father, multimillionaire Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell), disapproved of the relationship, and plotted over the years to break them up and keep them apart. Nina was a diabetic and developed retinopathy, which was making her go blind. Palmer refused to let her know that there was a cure, knowing that she would break up with Cliff in order not to be a burden to him. Eventually, Cliff found out about Nina's condition, and was able to get her treatment. They reconciled. In the meantime, Nina had met ne'er-do-well Sean Cudahy (Alan Dysart), who worked with Palmer to get Nina away from Cliff.
When nurse Sybil Thorne (Linda Gibboney) noticed that Cliff was falling for Nina, she plotted to get him all to herself. Cliff and Sybil made love, and Sybil ended up pregnant with his child. She alerted him to the fact just before his marriage to Nina in November 1980. Sybil ended up giving birth to a boy, named Bobby, and Nina eventually found out the baby's parentage from Sybil; Nina filed for divorce. Sybil was found murdered, and Cliff was arrested for the murder, but it was later found that Sean Cudahy was the killer.
Cliff and Nina reconciled and were remarried in 1982. Nina adopted Cliff's son, Bobby. However, Nina had started a secretarial job with Steve Jacobi (Dack Rambo), who was smitten with her. She battled with her attraction to him in an attempt to make her marriage to Cliff work. Nina was at Cortlandt Manor working with Steve one night, when a thunderstorm caused a power outage. Despite her attempts to stay true to her husband, Nina and Steve made love that evening.
Nina eventually separated from Cliff, as she had fallen in love with Steve. Before going away on an assignment, Steve persuaded Nina to go away with him so they could have some time alone. Their plane crashed, and everyone in Pine Valley, including Cliff, had assumed Nina was dead. She resurfaced unscathed in 1983, but Steve was very badly injured.
Nina told Cliff that Kim McGuire, an associate of Steve's, had died, and she blamed herself because Cliff was close with Kim. When Nina said that she should have died in the plane crash, Cliff took her in an embrace and told her, "I just thank God you're alive!" Cliff's new girlfriend, Devon McFadden (Tricia Pursley), saw the exchange of affection and ran off. Eventually, with her mother Ellen Dalton's (Kathleen Noone) urging, she left town to start afresh without Cliff.
Nina and Steve separated, but Cliff was now involved with Dr. Amy Stone (Catherine Christianson). When Dr. Stone was seriously injured by a drunk driver, Cliff was the only surgeon available to operate on her. Unfortunately, he could not save her, and blamed himself. But Nina was there to pick up the pieces. They married for the third time in 1986.
In 1987, Cliff became involved in an international rescue for a war-torn South American nation. He was reported killed while attempting to deliver medicine. Nina went to Martha's Vineyard to grieve, but an old friend, Matt Connolly (Michael Tylo), was there, and they made love. By the time they returned to Pine Valley, Nina and Matt were married. Cliff showed up, having been only held prisoner, and he and Nina had a wild night of passionate love-making. But when he found out that Nina had been involved with Matt, he left her.
Nina found out that she was pregnant, but did not know which man was the father. She eventually decided that she really loved Matt, and the two left town. She returned in 1989 in order to attend the wedding of good friends. By this time, Cliff had moved on and had become engaged to Angie Baxter Hubbard (Debbi Morgan), a co-worker of his at the hospital. When Nina ran into Cliff, the old sparks flew, and she decided to find out for sure who was the father of her son, Michael. It turned out to be Cliff. Nina did not want to break up Cliff and Angie but she eventually admitted to her newfound rival that she was still in love with him. She divorced Matt and confessed her love to Cliff, who reciprocated. Angie gracefully stepped aside and even helped the couple plan an intimate garden wedding for their fourth time down the aisle. In the end, the Warners left town for a new life in Denver, Colorado.
- Main article: supercouple
- See also: All My Children