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Character Profiles > Doug Willis Terence Donovan

Douglas [Doug] Willis 1990-1994, 2005
Lived: 28 Ramsay Street
Parents: Bert Willis
Marital Status: Pam Willis (1967-)
Siblings: Faye Hudson
Children: Adam, second child [name unknown], Gaby, Brad and Cody
Occupation: Builder

Rugged and down to earth, builder Doug Willis supported his mother and sister, Faye, after his ex-marine father, Bert, left them to return to the seas. At a friend's bucks party, Doug accepted a bet to travel across town in a taxi naked but was embarrassed when the driver of the taxi turned out to be a young woman, Pam Beresford, filling in for her father that night. It was love at first sight for the couple, and they started dating.

After they got married in 1967, Pam gave birth to a son, Adam. But tragedy struck when the couple's second child died of cot death and slumps in the building trade meant that Pam was the only one bringing in money through working as nurse at Erinsborough Hospital. The couple battled on, however, and things began to look up when Doug set up his own building business, Willis Construction. Doug and Pam went on to have three more children - Gaby, Brad and Cody, the latter being the apple of Doug's eye, always managing to get her way with him.

As the children grew, the family home began to empty with Gaby and Brad both moving overseas. When Doug did some renovations on Des Clarke's house, No. 28 Ramsay Street, in preparation for Des to sell up; Doug and Pam decided to buy it and leave their larger one behind them. The family quickly settled in well in Ramsay Street with Doug finding some good mates in the form of Joe Mangel and Jim Robinson, although he initially got on the wrong side of Jim by flirting with his wife Beverly at a dinner party thrown by the Robinsons to welcome the Willises to the neighbourhood. Later, Doug found a good mate in Lou Carpenter, with whom Doug would often share a few beers with after work down in the Waterhole.

Problems were never far away from Doug and Pam, however, and when they banned Cody from seeing the boy next door, Todd Landers, due to a drop in her school grades, Cody and Todd opted to run away. The Willises and Robinsons were worried sick about the kids' whereabouts, but there was relief all around when Cody returned after catching a bad flu from sleeping rough, and Todd was soon behind her. Meanwhile, Adam delighted Doug by quitting medicine because it meant Doug now finally had a chance of passing his business onto one of his sons. However, Adam was clearly not cut out for the building trade, and realising that Adam's heart belonged in medicine, Doug made life especially difficult for him on the site so that Adam would return to his studies.

The business bug bit Doug when he and Paul Robinson went into partnership on building a retirement village in the bush. Local councillor Felicity Brent threatened to vote against the planning decision but her plans were thwarted and work eventually began. But as Doug and Paul both began to fall into debt to cover the high costs of the development, the project collapsed. Sending Cody on a student exchange programme in the States for two years added to the Willis family's financial troubles, and when Doug and Pam had to bail Brad out of an Asian jail when he was wrongly accused of drug smuggling, it looked as if they would have to sell No. 28 and move to a smaller house. But Gaby, recently returned from her business degree in Japan, managed to trick one of Doug's debtors that she was the family lawyer - and he quickly handed over a cheque for $10,000, which saved the family from financial ruin.

Always an incorrigible flirt, Pam paid no attention to Doug's friendship with newcomer Brenda Riley, who had taken over the Coffee Shop from Madge and Harold Bishop. Doug, too, only saw the time he spent with Brenda as harmless flirting. But Brenda fell helplessly in love with Doug, and was convinced that he was in love with her too, and was going to leave Pam and the kids for her. Brenda finally threw herself at Doug and kissed him when they found themselves alone at the Coffee Shop one day, and a stunned Doug was relieved when Brenda's nephew, Guy, disturbed them in the nick of time. However, Gaby had witnessed the kiss, and told Pam, who confronted Doug about his relationship with Brenda. Doug insisted that it was nothing more than flirting, and even after Pam revealed Gaby had seen the kiss, he maintained that he was not having an affair with Brenda. Having realised how seriously Brenda had been taking his interest, Doug was forced to break the news to her that he had never felt anything other than friendship towards her, and a devastated Brenda could only put on a brave face as she tried to accept that Doug only had eyes for Pam.

The Willis house was thrown into a state of disarray when Doug's meddling and overbearing sister Faye came to stay. Pam detested her sister-in-law, and was determined to make the visit as short as possible. But Doug felt sorry for his sister, because she was all alone since her husband had died, and he was more open to putting up with her. However, Doug soon began to regret letting her stay when she had him locked in a battle with next door neighbour Dorothy Burke over her plans to erect a gazebo which would block sun getting to Doug's vegetable garden. It was only when Faye invited Doug's childhood sweetheart, Alexandra Lomax, to visit that Doug realised his sister was becoming too much and asked her to leave. The Willises were all shocked when she agreed, but they realised why she wasn't too bothered about going when they discovered Faye was only moving two doors down to No. 32.

When Doug's photo appeared in the Erinsborough News, he hadn't counted on it sparking a chain of events which would nearly destroy his marriage. After the photo appeared, locals began to recognise Doug so it was of no strange surprise to Doug when a woman named Jill Weir accidentally met him at the Coffee Shop and introduced herself to him by saying she thought his picture in the paper was very flattering. Jill then went on to become friendly with Pam, and Doug and Pam supported Jill through a custody battle with her mother-in-law over her young son, Ross. Jill won the case, and retained custody of Ross, but tragedy struck a few months later when the boy drowned. Doug and Pam rushed to support Jill, and she took to spending a lot of time around the Willis house. Doug gradually began to realise that Jill was attracted to him, and he started to worry as it developed into an infatuation. Things came to a head when Jill invented a story about her house being redecorated and Pam offered her a room at No. 28 for a while. Doug was furious and insisted Pam ask her to leave. But Pam was too caught up in her growing feelings for Jim Robinson to notice the extent of the problem with Jill and Doug. It wasn't until Jill took an overdose of pills in Doug and Pam's bed that Pam realised there was something strange about her friend. When Doug was away on a weekend trip, he was shocked when he phoned home and Jim answered the phone. Immediately suspecting Pam of having an affair with Jim, Doug was furious. So when Jill showed up at the hotel and seduced Doug in the hot tub, he gave in to her advances and slept with her. But Doug was so racked with guilt over his actions, that he confessed all to Pam as soon as he returned and Pam threw him out. It was only when Doug and Brad went missing at sea while on a fishing trip that Pam realised how much she still loved Doug, and when the men returned safely, Pam let Doug move back in and they put the incident behind them. However, Jill made one last desperate attempt at getting Doug to leave Pam for her by threatening to jump from her apartment building. After Doug and Lou succeeded in talking her down, they arranged for her to be sent to a hospital for treatment, and it became clear that Jill's mental state had seriously been affected by her son's death.

More drama followed for Doug when Gaby was almost raped by suave Simon Hunter while on a weekend at a guest house with him. Although Gaby managed to get away from Simon before he could do any serious harm to her, Doug and Brad rushed around to Hunter home to confront him, and Doug ended up hitting him. Simon used the assault as a way of preventing Gaby from reporting his crime to the police, by threatening to sue Doug for assault if she reported him. Although Doug was more than willing to be sued, Gaby decided she didn't want the matter dragging on any further, and she dropped all charges.

When Doug's long-lost father, Bert came to stay at the request of Gaby, who had unbeknown to Doug been in secret correspondence with her grandfather for many years, Bert tried to make amends with Doug for leaving him and the family. Doug, however, was unable to forgive his father for what he had done, and demanded he leave as soon as possible. But when Bert revealed to Wayne Duncan that he was dying, Wayne knew that he had to tell Doug, who otherwise would never give his father a fair hearing. When Doug learned the news, he realised that he couldn't let Bert die without putting past ghosts to rest, and he raced to the port to patch things up with him before he set sail.

When the residents of Ramsay Street attended the Melbourne Cup together, Doug was anxious to keep up with the more wealthy Raymond Lim, and when Raymond bet $5,000 on a race, Doug matched it, and placed the bet on Lauren Carpenter's horse Chucka Mental, who Doug and Pam had both bought shares in. But Chuckie only came in third, and Doug lost his entire week's work payroll on the horse. Doug was then faced with the nightmare task of trying to make the money back up before pay day, and he was ultimately forced to sell his shares in Chuckie to Raymond. His fortunes took an upturn when he landed the contract to rebuild the Waterhole after a gas explosion ruined the building. But just as he was due to commence work on it, a rival firm Constructocon, made Doug an offer to buy out Willis Construction. Doug initially refused to even consider the idea, but after the company was audited and discovered to be in debt of $70,000 to the tax department, he had no option but to sell. Constructocon kept Doug on their payroll as part of the sale, and Doug also managed to transfer Beth Brennan's apprenticeship over to the new firm too. But he was racked with guilt over the fact that the rest of his crew was left out of a job as a result of his decision. However, Doug ended up out of work himself when the head of Constructocon, Fred Baker fired him when he complained about the poor safety conditions on the building site. Doug sunk into a depression as a result, and began to fear he'd never find work again due to his age. Philip Martin came to his rescue when Beth turned down his offer of working a few extra shifts at the Waterhole and asked him to offer them to Doug instead. Doug was thrilled to be working again, and threw himself into the job. But he was devastated when Julie Martin let slip that Beth had rejected the shifts so Doug could have them, and he was furious that people were pitying him in such a way. He was further angered when Lou and Helen Daniels created odd jobs that they needed done around their houses so as to throw some money Doug's way. And as if his financial difficulties couldn't get any worse, Doug's ute was stolen, complete with $3,000 worth of tools in it.

Doug's pride had been so dented by the entire ordeal that he ended up lying to Pam about getting a job as a foreman and he spent his days at the park or the pub so that she would think he was at work. When Pam found out, she desperately tried to assure him that it didn't matter who was the main breadwinner, and they reached an agreement whereby Pam would take some extra shifts at the hospital and Doug could look after the dinners and household chores. But Doug wasn't able to stick being a house husband for long, and took on a job as a sales rep for a building supplier. Even though he wasn't really interested in sales work, it at least gave him the chance to hold his head up high again, and Doug resolved to stick with it until something better came along.

Brad's impending marriage to Beth was threatened when Beth's mother Bunny arrived in Erinsborough to try and talk her daughter out of marrying Brad. Bunny's interference drove the couple to elope and Doug and Pam only realised what they had done after discovering all their things were gone. Luckily, Doug found a bus timetable with a circle around a certain time, and they raced to the bus depot to stop Brad and Beth from leaving. The bus had already pulled out of the station, but this didn't stop Doug and Pam from chasing it, and after flagging it down, they boarded the bus to persuade Brad and Beth to come back to Ramsay Street for the wedding. Although Brad and Beth had already married that morning in a registry office, they opted not to tell Doug and Pam, and married a second time back on Ramsay Street. Doug was thrilled to welcome Beth into the family, after working so closely with her on the building site, and she had become like a third daughter to him. Youngest daughter Cody had returned from America around the same time, and caused concern for Doug and Pam with her depression and downbeat attitude. It eventually transpired that Cody had been married while in America, and Doug was furious. However, he provided her with a shoulder to cry on when her husband, Drew Grover showed up in Erinsborough looking for a divorce.

Gaby landed Doug with another shock when she returned from a month in Italy and announced she was pregnant. After she revealed the father was Jack Flynn, the pilot she had dated a few months before, Doug went to see Jack to demand he start taking some responsibility for the child - even though Gaby had made it clear to Doug that she wanted no contact with Jack. Jack was shocked to learn of Gaby's pregnancy, and went back to the Willis house with Doug to speak to her about playing a part in the baby's life. with Gaby eventually agreeing to let him be involved.

Meanwhile, Doug was thrilled to be asked to go into partnership with his old workmate, Norm, buying up old houses and renovating them to sell at a profit. Finally, an opportunity had come along where Doug could return to doing what he did best, and he jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, the bank turned down their loan application, and the dream collapsed. But when Cody found some old papers and used them to prepare notes on for a school debate, Doug and Pam realised that they were actually the tax papers that proved Doug and Pam had paid the money they were supposed to have owed the revenue months before. After receiving a refund of the money they had paid the tax department, Doug used the money to buy Kia-Ora, an old house nearby and he excitedly began restoring it on the side. But when the house was fixed up and ready to be sold, Cody was furious to learn that Doug was going to sell to a property developer who was planning to knock the house down and build apartments instead. The house had such a historical character to it that Cody was determined it shouldn't be knocked down, and she contacted the local news station who promptly showed up at the house with a news camera and petition from over 100 locals objecting to the sale of the property. Doug was disgusted by Cody's actions, particularly after the news show depicted him as greedy and with no regard for local history. Doug was also sacked from his sales job because of the negative image of him the report had generated. But Doug was thrilled when the mayor announced that the council was willing to buy the renovated house from him, and offered him the job of further renovations on the property. And after realising that Cody had played a large part in convincing the council to buy Kia-Ora, Doug managed to forgive Cody for the trouble she had caused.

No sooner had Doug started working for the council, however, than he found himself in hot water with his new boss, Andrew 'Macca' Mackenzie. Doug and Lou had begun making their own home brew and had been storing it in the shed at Kia-Ora. When Macca found out, he ordered them to get the beer off the premises immediately. In time, Doug and Macca became good mates, however, and Macca relaxed his position on the home brew and agreed to let them store it at Kia-Ora. Macca even went on to become involved with Lou and Doug in their mini brewing empire. The three men were thrilled when a woman, Megan, showed up at the Willis house one day wanting to purchase some of the home brew, and they happily took her down to Kia-Ora to sample some. However, Rick Alessi had overheard some police officers at the Waterhole discussing an undercover operation, and upon hearing Doug's name, realised they were about to be set up. After Rick told Cody, she rushed down to the house just in time to prevent Doug from selling any of the brew to Megan, and Megan confessed that she was an undercover officer. But she stressed that they hadn't taken the problem too seriously, and rarely came down so hard on home brewing but their new sergeant had been placed under pressure from Parkside Pacific after hearing some of the beer had been on sale at the Waterhole. Megan and her colleagues even ended up joining Doug and the others for a few home brews.

After giving birth to a baby boy Zac - named after Doug's grandfather Zachary - Gaby reunited with Jack and left Erinsborough to manage the new Lassiter's Hotel and Outback Artists Tour business in Darwin. Only a few weeks after leaving, Gaby called Doug to offer him the contract of building the new hotel, and knowing it was the chance of a lifetime, Doug and Pam decided to make a fresh start and sell up. Leaving Cody behind was the only problem, but she was unable to join them up north because there were no medical schools in the Northern Territory and she planned to study medicine after her HSC. After a farewell party was thrown for them at No. 24, Doug and Pam left Ramsay Street behind for their new life in Darwin, where Doug found plenty more work after finishing with Lassiter's.

Their newfound happiness was tinged with tragedy, however, when Cody was shot in a tragic shooting accident on Ramsay Street a year later. The building trade had slowed up at that stage and Doug was in the middle of a major building contract at the time of the shooting, so Pam made the journey to Erinsborough and kept a bedside vigil. There was relief all round when Cody showed clear signs of recovery, and Doug spoke to her on the phone straight away. But just as the family began making plans to hold a Willis family reunion in Darwin as soon as Cody was released from hospital, Cody took a turn and died. A few days later, Pam took her body back to Darwin where she and a heartbroken Doug buried their little girl.

Doug returned to Ramsay Street in 2005 when Annalise Hartman invited a host of former residents back to Erinsborough to view the screening of a special documentary she had filmed about the close-knit community. Doug revelled in the opportunity to kick back and have a few beers with his old mates, and was accompanied on the trip down from Darwin by Philip Martin. Phil had moved up north a few years back with his family, and both Doug and Philip had taken early retirement earlier in the year. Doug and Phil's first port of call upon arriving back in Erinsborough was Lou's house where they found Lou napping. Ever the prankster, Doug painted a beard onto Lou's face and it wasn't until they were reminiscing about old times down at the Scarlet Bar - the new name for the Waterhole - that Lou realised what his old mates had done. Doug and Phil tried to encourage Lou to join them on a big fishing trip that they were setting off for after the documentary, but Lou excused himself due to work committments. However, they later discovered Lou had been reluctant to accompany them because he was getting older and didn't think he would be up for the trip. Luckily, he changed his mind and followed them on their big trip a few days later.

Notes: Terence Donovan is the real life father of Jason Donovan (Scott Robinson).

Magic Moments
Episode 2239: The Willises' Departure

Biography by Moe

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