| Jenna Bradshaw | |||||||||||||||
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| Fiona Hutchison as Jenna Bradshaw | |||||||||||||||
| Guiding Light | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by: | Fiona Hutchison (1992-1998, 2006 & 2009) Claire Beckman (1994; temp) | ||||||||||||||
| Duration: | 1992-1994, 1996-1998, 2006 & 2009 | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance: | March 30, 1992 | ||||||||||||||
| Last appearance: | August 2009 | ||||||||||||||
| Cause/reason: | Appeared as a ghost to Buzz Cooper | ||||||||||||||
| Created by: | Stephen Demorest Nancy Curlee Lorraine Broderick | ||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||
| Gender: | Female | ||||||||||||||
| Died: | December 7, 1998 | ||||||||||||||
| Cause of death: | Car accident | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation: | Partner with Harley in Detective firm | ||||||||||||||
| Residence: | Springfield, Illinois | ||||||||||||||
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Jenna Bradshaw Cooper (formerly Thorpe & Morgan) was a fictional character on the CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light.
Actress History:
- Fiona Hutchison(March 1992 to December 1994, December 1996 to December 1998 (Contract-Series Regular); May 2006, February 2009, August 2009(Special Guest Appearance)
- Claire Beckman(November 1994, Temp)
Character History:
Jenna Bradshaw was in Springfield on and off since 1992. When she first arrived in Springfield, as a jewel thief, it was to retrieve a brooch that she had put in a carrying bag belonging to police officer Harley Cooper. Jenna stayed in town when she decided Alexandra Spaulding would be her next big mark. Jenna successfully stole the Spaulding jewels, but was upset that Harley had pretended to be her protégé all the while trying to get evidence to arrest her. Jenna devised a plan to plant evidence on Harley and then use Mindy Lewis's wedding case to hide to rest of the jewels so that Melinda would carry them out of town unsuspectingly. Then the Blackout of July/1992 hit the Springfield Towers and Jenna was stuck in the elevator with Michelle Bauer. Instead of escaping up the shaft, she remained to calm Michelle's fears. At the last minute, she did escape up the shaft but was caught by Detective Mallet at the top. The jewels were then found by Harley hidden in Michelle's clothing. Soon after, Roger Thorpe, who spotted Jenna going up the shaft, became her mysterious benefactor. He bailed her out of jail, paid her hotel bill, etc. Jenna was intrigued and flattered and they began an affair.
Roger had plans to blackmail Alex for Jenna, but Jenna beat him to it. She pieced together information she heard the night of the robbery about Alex paying Roger to ruin Mindy and Nicks wedding and blackmailed Alex into dropping the charges. When attorney Ross Marler tried to have her deported as an illegal alien. Jenna set out to prove she had American citizenship since her father was American. She found a photo, which belonged to her mother, of a car, from the early 60's, in front of house. Jenna traced the license plate to Spaulding. She went to long time Spaulding stockholder Henry Chamberlain with the photo but when he saw it he became upset and lied to Jenna that he would try to help her. As Jenna closed in with more and more info, Henry lied and told her that he was her father. Jenna was genuinely overjoyed since she had come to adored Henry. Jenna later found out that Roger had once tried to ruin Henry and drove him to attempt suicide. When Jenna moved in with Henry, Roger was furious and did some digging. Roger found out her father was really Clyde Wynant an inventor that had discovered a revolutionary way to find oil which most of Spaulding's billions was built on. On Christmas Day Roger gave these papers to Jenna and she confronted Henry. Though she didn’t believe it at first, when Henry couldn't even tell her the color of her mother's eyes, she knew she had been lied to. Jenna was devastated at losing her new family and Roger re-inserted himself into her life. He fed her need for justice by telling her that Clyde had been cheated, framed and imprisoned where he was left to die, which is why he never came to claim her. Roger did not tell Jenna that he purchased a document from Brandon Spaulding's secretary Bess Lowell that proved that Wynant had been paid $5,000 for his invention. Jenna was awarded a huge settlement that only the transfer of Spaulding would compensate.
As Jenna gained control of Spaulding, she was on the verge of a relationship with Buzz Cooper but married to Roger. Buzz decided to leave them alone after learning she was pregnant. Buzz was about to propose to his ex-wife Nadine when he realized that he had to help Jenna get her marriage annulled. Jenna was now living at the firehouse with Buzz when Roger stopped by and told her he would take the baby away when it was born. This caused her a lot of unneeded stress and Jenna had a miscarriage. In light of those events Roger and Jenna quickly got the marriage annulled. Now separated from Roger, Jenna quickly ran into money trouble. Wanting to use Eleni's hand lotion recipe and market it, Jenna figured out the ingredients and decided to go into business with it without informing or crediting Eleni. Buzz helped her mix the ingredients etc., helping her to get the business off the ground. Beth Raines discovered Jenna's scheme and blackmailed her into letting her into the deal. Later Alan-Michael gave her seed money, $1,000, to get her product off the ground and create a presentation to woo investors. Alan-Michael introduced her to Spaulding contacts from the Pharmaceutical Division without informing Alex and offered Jenna a more substantial backing for a partnership but Jenna didn't want to step on Buzz's toes and turned him down.
Eleni then joined the company but Alex found out and threatened to sue Alan-Michael for using Spaulding contacts without her consent. Alan-Michael then left the company, as did Eleni who couldn't deal with Alex's lawsuit or A-M's romantic advances which put a strain on her marriage to Frank. Beth eventually herself departed the company due to the strain of Jenna's demands in addition to her own personal interuptions. Jenna, alone and pregnant, was approached by Alan to work for him in getting back Spaulding. When Jenna left town, Alan bought what was left of the company from her. While all this strain was being put on Buzz and Jenna's relationship, Nadine seized the moment. She convinced Buzz to marry her to get on a game show and win money. Jenna thought it was for real, which just gave her another reason to leave town. She left town, without telling Buzz she was pregnant with his child. She later gave birth to Henry Cooper Bradshaw in Rio De Janeiro on Christmas 1994.
Jenna returned to Springfield in Christmas of 1996 with her evil husband Jeffrey Morgan in tow. Knowing he was a criminal, the Coopers scammed Jeffrey in New York City and framed him for extortion using Phillip Spaulding's bonds. To cover all the bases Buzz and Eleni went to Switzerland and emptied Jeffrey's safety deposit box {He had evidence that could prove Jenna stole jewels all across Europe). After all their trouble, Jenna and Buzz still had to deal with one problem, and her name was Nola Reardon. She began stalking Buzz and scaring Jenna. Buzz finally learned it was her and confronted her at the Bauer cabin. He suffered a bizarre twist of fate and fell down a flight of stairs, developing amnesia. While Buzz was losing his memory, Jenna was busy getting some bad news of her own--she found out that she was pregnant with Jeffrey Morgan's baby. Soon after Buzz miraculously regained his memory and opted to raise Jenna's baby as his own.
Later, Jenna returned from a trip to England and Buzz wanted to get married as soon as they could. Jenna was hesitant though. Later, she and Harley went to Vanessa's first ever "Second Chances" meeting. In the middle of the meeting Jenna went into labor. Buzz showed up and went with Jenna to the hospital. When they arrived Buzz rushed off to find Griffin since he wanted to marry Jenna before the baby came. At first everyone thought that Buzz's plans were going to be spoiled by Charles, Jenna's doctor, but Buzz signed some papers and they were allowed to proceed with the ceremony. Harley was the maid of honor, Frank best man and anyone and everyone in that waiting room were witnesses! Soon after they became Mr. and Mrs. Buzz Cooper, Jenna gave birth to a baby boy who was named Ian Stavros Cooper. However, Love was not bliss for long when Jeffrey came back. He knew that Ian was his son after he overheard a conversation with Holly Reade. Jeffrey confronted Jenna anddemanded to see his son at once. Jenna got in the car with him on the pretense of going to see Ian and wrecked the car. Jeffrey died but so did Jenna, though she did live long enough to see Buzz and tell him she loved him and to take care of their children.
On Mother's Day 2006, Jenna paid an other-worldly visit to Coop, now an adult. At this point in his life, Coop was all set to marry Lizzie Spaulding whom he believed he'd gotten pregnant. Jenna tried to make Coop see that marrying Lizzie was not an option without letting on what she knew--the baby wasn't his. Although Coop initially decided to forgo his mother's advice, when the time came to propose to Lizzie, he found he couldn't do it. Later that day, Jenna, as well as Nadine, voiced their opinions about Olivia Spencer, who was caught in a triangle with Frank and Buzz. While Nadine thought Olivia would be bad for Frank but good for Buzz, Jenna didn’t like the driven Olivia for either man.
In 2009, Jenna appeared to a distressed Buzz in a dream and urged him to allow Coop to fight for the woman he loved, despite any danger from Alan Spaulding. Unfortunately, that would end in tragedy when Coop had a terrible accident while speeding to stop Beth Raines's wedding to Alan. Later, Jenna visited a distraught Buzz in a dream and convinced him make the decision that Buzz was putting off making--to pull the plug on a brain dead Coop.
Months later, Buzz discovered that Coop had planned to write a book about Jenna’s life. Not only had Coop looked through Jenna’s journal entries, he also had many audio tapes by Jenna. In addition, Coop looked for help from Cyrus Foley, a former jewel thief from Australia residing in Springfield. Deciding to carry on Coop’s research, Buzz asked Cyrus for his help in going through Jenna’s notes. Unbeknownst to Buzz, Cyrus’s motive for helping was so that Blake could finish the book that Coop had started so that the financially strapped Company would be saved. Their research showed that Jenna’s career as a jewel thief started in New York City. When the pair arrived, Jenna appeared to Cyrus in a dream and informed him what tape to listen to next. In the course of their research, Cyrus came across a mention of treasure that Jenna had hidden in Australia. Keeping the information hidden from Buzz, Cyrus booked a flight to Australia. Meanwhile, Buzz noticed the page that Cyrus had ripped out of the journal and, thanks to Frank, learned about the “hidden treasure.” Cyrus and Buzz arrived at Jenna’s old home at the same time and found a box with a letter. Apparently, when Jenna was fifteen, she had gotten pregnant and was sent to her family in Australia where she gave the baby up. Also inside the box was a dog tag with Jenna’s birthday engraved. Jenna stated that she gave an exact replica to her baby boy and planned to use it to find him one day. Amazingly, Cyrus had the identical dog tag. Cyrus admitted to Buzz that he had spent his life in and out of orphanages. The only clue to his mother’s identity was the dog tag. From that point on, Buzz warmly welcomed Cyrus as an honorary member of the Cooper family.