Drug dealer, abusive father, and all-around bad dude.
James Read first appeared on Days of our Lives as Clyde Weston, viewers learned he was Ben Weston’s abusive father. Soon, it was revealed that though it was bad enough he beat his children, he raped Ben’s sister, Tammy Sue AKA Jordan Ridgeway. And that’s not all.
A Pal to Orpheus, Clyde didn’t make his money from kidnapping half of Salem. Nor did he have a background in the ISA. Instead, Clyde was involved in drug dealing. He was the mastermind behind drug running from Poplar Bluff to Salem.
Read has been portraying Clyde since July 2014. He’s been in and out of Salem over the years, turning up like a bad penny, making Salemites lives a living hell.
Clyde met Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow) when she’d been investigating Jordan Ridgeway, a new physiotherapist at Salem University Hospital. Kate was jealous of her boyfriend at the time, Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) spending time with his therapist and was hoping to find dirt on her.
Instead, she found Clyde, who told Kate that his kids had run away from him and he was hoping to reconnect with them.
That wasn’t exactly how things went down. Clyde’s abuse meant that Tammy Sue took her kid brother Ben on the run and in hiding from their dastardly dad. Clyde arrived in Salem and met with EJ DiMera.
He started working for EJ, running drugs from Poplar Bluff to Salem.
Misdeeds
Clyde’s bodyguard Miguel shot and killed EJ DiMera and Clyde covered it up. Course, EJ was brought back to life by Dr. Rolf.
Clyde soon got in Victor Kiriakis’ (John Aniston) way and Victor’s henchman shot Clyde. Clyde didn’t take that sitting down and took revenge but not on Victor directly, he stabbed Sonny Kiriakis. After that, the men called a truce.
Clyde got under Stefano DiMera’s (Joe Mascolo) skin as he was spreading his drugs through Salem, using JJ Deveraux (Casey Moss) as a dealer. When Clyde wound up in prison for killing JJ’s girlfriend Paige Larson (True O’Brien), he was rocked to the core to learn his son Ben actually committed the crime.
Orpheus (George DelHoyo), and Xander Kiriakis (Paul Telfer), and Clyde escaped prison.
Clyde helped Orpheus to kidnap Dr. Kayla Johnson (Mary Beth Evans) and her son Joey Johnson (James Lastovic).
When Andre DiMera helped Clyde to attempt to murder Chad DiMera (Billy Flynn) and kidnap his son, Thomas, because he thought Thomas was Ben’s son, he was caught, placed under arrest, and wound up back in prison.
Ben Weston went to prison for his sister and Clyde’s daughter’s murder, and the father and son reconnected. Clyde had been scheming to get Xander to admit to the murder and when Will Horton (Chandler Massey) got in his way, he tried to shank him.
Clyde reappeared in spring 2020 after hearing his son was marrying Ciara Brady (Victoria Konefal). When Orpheus arranged another prison break, Clyde was the first one to escape.
Clyde returned Thursday, February 18, 2021 and again in February 2022.