Joshua Lewis (Guiding Light)

Joshua Lewis is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama Guiding Light. He was portrayed by Robert Newman from October 1, 1981 to December 1984, October 1986 to January 25, 1991, and August 30, 1993 to September 18, 2009.

Storylines

Josh grew up in Tulsa with his brother Billy and longtime love Reva Shayne. When he left for school, an angry Reva married his brother and Josh went to Tenerife to become a womanizer. He came and went through Springfield, seducing various women and managing rock bands. He created his own company, LTA, because of acrimony between him and his brother. However, when Alan began attacking Lewis Inc., Josh was pulled into the family fold for the fight. In the process, he returned to Reva's orbit, quickly rekindling what had begun all those years ago. His father, HB, was less enthusiastic about this turn and bribed her into marrying him. A furious Josh promptly got in a car accident which resulted in a lengthy paralysis. During this, his new stepmother teased and taunted him until they ended up in a torrid affair. When HB got her pregnant and became ill, a recovered Josh decided it was best to leave town and went to work on an oil rig.

Reva remained in Springfield and soon moved on with Kyle Sampson while Josh was nearly murdered by the Diamondhead organization. Returning to Cross Creek to hide out, Reva discovered him after running away from her wedding and they reunited just as a hit-man was on his trail. The couple were kidnapped and, luckily, rescued by Mindy. Reva discovered that she was pregnant but didn't tell Josh when he left for Venezuela after quitting Lewis. While there, he married Sonni, who supposedly died on their honeymoon. He returned with his friend Will Jeffries to discover Reva giving birth to Marah. While she tried to pass the baby off as his, Will convinced him that she was actually Kyle's. This ended the relationship again. All of this turned out to be false, Marah was actually Josh's and Sonni was really alive. But even this was wrong, Sonni was actually her twin sister Solita and this had all been a plot by Will. Reva discovered this and, although she was with Alan by then, told Josh. After he confronted them, 'Sonni' convinced him of her love and faked a pregnancy to keep him, then Will rigged his breaks and he drove off a bridge. Reva tried to rescue him but the freezing water almost killed her. After they recovered, they investigated Will and Sonni, tracking them to Venezuela, where Josh was nearly tried for attempted murder but got off when they discovered that Sonni had multiple personalities and was her supposedly dead sister.

Josh and Reva married and had another child, but she was growing paranoid and suffering from postpartum depression. Josh hired Harley to help keep an eye on her, but it wasn't enough to prevent her from breaking down and driving off a bridge. Harley stayed to look after him and they quickly fell into a tumultuous relationship which led to him proposing to her. The engagement was short lived when Billy subverted it by giving Josh an image he found of Reva on Italian TV. He became obsessed and abandoned Harley to go in search of Reva. He didn't find her, but he did find Tangie Hill who followed him back to Springfield. As their relationship unraveled, it came out that she had been sold to Roger Thorpe as a teenager. While the Lewis family went to war with Thorpe, Billy went to jail and Josh took over Lewis Oil. Following a split from Tangie, he hooked up with nurse Annie Dutton after being seriously injured in a fire while saving Marina Cooper. After being haunted by Reva's ghost, he had her declared legally dead so that he could marry Annie. Unfortunately for the newlyweds, Reva was alive and returned to destroy the marriage with Alan's help. Despite her efforts, he didn't abandon Annie and she decided to marry Buzz. This made Josh jealous and Annie started going mad, popping pills and blackmailing a friend to help her get pregnant. While Reva and Josh admitted their love for each other and she readied to divorce, he refused when he found that he had a baby on the way. When Annie lost the baby, she tried to frame Reva for it, but she managed to be cleared. Joshua soon divorced Annie (-later the marriage was invalidated due to Annie being married to a man named Eddie Banks-). This left the couple able to remarry, but this was not easy with Annie on the warpath and Alan as her backer. They brought back Reva's sister Cassie as a pawn, but things backfired badly for them. Josh couldn't rescue her however when Annie abducted Reva and left her to crash in an airplane.

Distraught over the loss, he hired Dr. Michael Burke to clone his supposedly dead wife from the eggs she'd left. Feeding the clone a rapid aging formula, he raised it to be exactly like his former wife. The clone fell in love with him and he couldn't resist her for long, but couldn't love her since she lacked his dead wife's spirit. The clone promptly ran away and abducted the living Reva who had been hiding out on an island. While they battled for their identities and Josh, Reva christened the clone Dolly and reunited with her husband. Unfortunately, the thought of losing Josh was too much and Dolly killed herself. Reva blamed Josh and this put a strain on their relationship. This was compounded when Annie returned in the guise of Teri Demarco and tried to break them up. When their children were then kidnapped, Josh managed to rescue them, but lost control of Lewis Oil. He married Reva again, but this quickly collapsed when she remembered her former life as first lady of San Cristobel. Josh was thrown off the island as she was abducted by Edmund. He quickly returned with a team to rescue her. He said goodbye to her though, after he realized that she was in love with Prince Richard. He tried to move on, founding Lewis Construction and beginning an emotionally fragile relationship with the devious Olivia Spenser. Concerned when she saw Olivia growing close to Alan, Reva began intervening in the marriage to Josh's dismay. When Reva was almost killed in an earthquake, he went to her rescue and alienated Olivia. In the meantime, Alan was attempting to take over Lewis through insider trading. With the help of time travel, Josh managed to blackmail Alan into backing off and saved the company. The couple still remained at odds, particularly over Shayne and the direction he was going in his life. Things were made worse when Marah got caught into the Caruthers fiasco. When blackmailer Carrie was shot, apparently by Marah, Josh took the rap until he was exonerated.

Putting this behind him, he tried to reunite with Reva only to be confronted with a series of family problems; nephew Bill's drinking and the appearance of Jonathan Randall. While he tried to protect Reva from her newfound son, he continued to alienate her and move closer to Cassie. Her health began deteriorating and she grew distant. After they split, he became the confidante of both Cassie and Olivia, the latter even trying to resume their broken relationship. He rejected her, divorced Reva again, then remarried her. After finding his father's blueprints for a veteran's hospital, he decided to make his dreams come true and build it. Reva became distant and deceptive again when she became ill and he found himself spending most of his time with Cassie. They slowly developed a relationship and he divorced Reva. When it came out that she was on her deathbed, he rushed to her side to offer his support, but insisted on remaining with Cassie.

During his relationship and marriage to Cassie, Josh became an ordained minister, but was ultimately fired from the job in early 2008.

In July 2008, Reva agreed to allow a movie to be made about her life, which showed the history between Josh and Reva, and made Josh realize that he has always loved Reva, leading (among other factors) to the breakdown of his marriage to Cassie. Although Josh was angry about the film and its implications at first, he was unable to deny his feelings of love for his ex-wife. Although he tried to win Reva back from her new love, Jeffrey O'Neil, Reva married Jeffrey and became pregnant.

In late 2008, Josh and Reva's son, Shayne, returned from his job overseas clearing land mines using a wheelchair. Josh devoted himself to Shayne's recovery.

In 2009, Josh revived a flirtation with Olivia, to the point of almost making love with her several times, but as she was in love with close friend Natalia and Josh was still in love with Reva, they never went through with it.

Josh supported Reva as she struggled with the return of her cancer and with the birth of her son, Colin. Edmund Winslow, who had menaced the Lewis family for a number of years, returned to town, befriending Shayne when he realized Shayne had been involved with his late daughter, Lara. Josh was wary of the friendship but Shayne wouldn't listen. When Edmund learned that Lara had been pregnant during the time of her death, he blamed Shayne, even though Shayne had had no idea of her pregnancy or her death until it was too late. He tried to kill Shayne, then planned to kidnap baby Colin. When Edmund was found dead, Josh was one of the suspects (the killer was Shayne's girlfriend, Dinah).

Jeffrey, who began to believe Edmund was still alive, left town to track down leads. He was presumed dead (actually he survived Edmund's attempt on his life, but chose to stay "dead" and track down Edmund, as Edmund told him if he let Reva know he was alive, Edmund would kill the children). Josh kept a vigil outside Reva's house for weeks, as she struggled to go outside her front door or to accept that Jeffrey was never returning. Initially Reva was angry with Josh, but over time they bonded through the lives of their children. Josh was overjoyed to learn that Shayne's child with Lara was in fact alive and living with Marina Cooper, making Josh a grandfather for the first time.

As everyone around Josh began to move in with their lives, Josh, who had spent most of his time taking care of them, decided to leave Springfield. He told Reva he still loved her, but he knew she needed more time to grieve. He told her he would return to Springfield in a year's time, and wait at the lighthouse to see if she wanted to try again. A year later, Josh went to the lighthouse, and Reva, along with young Colin, showed up. In the last scene in Guiding Light broadcast history, Josh and Reva drove off to start a new life.

Occupation

• CEO of Lewis Construction Company
• Co-Founder of Lewis Construction Company (with Harlan "Billy" Lewis II)
• Former Minister
• Former Owner of WSPR-TV
• Former President of Lewis Oil Company
• Former Manager for Floyd Parker
• Founder of "LTA" (Los Tres Amigos)