Adam Chandler (David Canary), All My Children
Adam started out as a poor man in South Carolina. Somehow through hard work and determination (and maybe a little bit of backstabbing), he created a fortune. Rather than be thankful for the good life, he seems to spend all of his time defending his fortune or using it to get one over on others, usually in the name of "protecting his family".
Like most bad soap patriarchs, he always has some excuse for doing the terrible things he does, usually in the name of love. Love of family most of all. Some of Adam's past misdeeds include: keeping his twin brother locked up in a wing of his house; gas-lighting his wife Dixie so she would seem crazy and be institutionalized (so he could steal her baby); locked his wife Gloria in an abandoned warehouse (he thought she was faking her pregnancy and cheating on him), causing to miscarry; spying on his children; neglecting his daughter Hayley for years and then denying she was his; hired someone to shoot Palmer; spied on his own family members or paid others to spy on them; faked his death to test his wife Erica; stole Natalie's money by slipping her some papers she didn't know she was signing; blackmailed Erica into marrying him; committed fraud by having Stuart stand in for him in his divorce from Erica; swapped Jake's sperm with his own so that Liza would have his baby from the sperm bank; staged his own kidnapping to test wife Gloria; bribed a judge to make sure Mateo got custody of his child; slept with a judge while he was married to Liza, to get David out of trouble and protect his son; lied to the police about his son's drunk driving; plotted to kill Michael with Palmer; and much much more.
It's clear that Adam doesn't trust anyone, especially anyone who would love him. He throws his power and money around whenever he can. When the power and money are taken away, or he loses a loved one, he is at his most vulnerable and pitiful. He has now pased on those traits to his son J.R., who is currently trying to make his wife look like an irresponsible mother so he can steal their child in court, and he is framing his brother for it, to deflect attention away from him.
Adam seems to truly care for his family, but it's hard to say whether he sees them as individual human beings or just as extensions of himself. He often treats them more like possessions than people. His twin brother Stuart is the only one who seems to be able to love Adam completely, and he can also usually tell when Adam is up to something.
Palmer Courtlandt (James Mitchell) also used to be the same type of character as Adam, but they softened him over the years and barely use him now on the show. It's a real shame because the battles between Adam and Palmer were a fantastic sight to behold.
