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Year of death : 1986

Married to : Janice Harrison (198?-1986), Mary DuVall (1986)

Profession : Doctor

Jon Lindstrom :
November 14 1985 (# 331) to July 30 1986 (# 509), August 02 1988 (# 1008)

At the end of 1985, untamable Mason Capwell finally seems to let his heart throbing for a woman, Sister Mary DuVall. It is time for the writers to create the one who will come to interpose in this beautiful love story , Dr. Mark McCormick, third side of an endearing and tragic new love triangle.

And when, by chance, arrives in this end of year Dr. Mark McCormick, an old friend of the nun, no one cannot imagine the dark heart who lives in him. It is in the private clinic where she works as a nurse that Mary finds Mark, her friend of youth. In love with her since always, Mark is well decided to conquer her heart. Especially that Mark, as a faithful friend, is there to support the DuVall family, then shaken by the affair of the rape of the young Christie. Having noticed the tender links which started to be tied between Mary and Mason, Mark does not hesitate to discredit Mason, seeking to open the eyes to her on his unstable and insensitive personality. Because Mary, tormented by her feelings, does not know what to do : in contact with the elder of the Capwell children, she felt a new fire which was waking up in her, a fire which fills her of joy, better than her Christian faith had done it until there.

And benefitting from a new rupture with Mason (he is then the lawyer of his young brother in the affair of the rape), Mark invites Mary in a cabin in the snow-covered mountains of Los Padres to ask her in marriage. But taken as a target by mad Kirk Cranston (who tries to be avenged of Eden and Cruz also present there), the cabin explodes in the middle of the night. Seriously wounded, Mark is led to the hospital, in a critical state. Believing himself, as the doctors say to him, on the point of death, he asks then Mary, deeply sad, to marry him. In addition to the health of her friend, she then has just definitively broke with Mason, because he was also having an affair with Gina DeMott, his mother-in-law. Certain that it is the ultimate vow of a dying man, Mary complies with his request. And in the most total precipitation of a hospital room, although deeply in love with Mason, Mary becomes the wife of Mark McCormick. But what seemed to be the last will of a dying man turns to be a mistake when, once the ceremony completed, Mark miraculously recovers from his injuries.

Become impotent after the accident, Mark lives from now on in the humiliation and the frustration to be able to satisfy the woman he succeeded in marrying. Mary, on her side, is always in love with Mason and feels guilty to have married Mark for bad reasons. She feels taken in an infernal trap, from which control escapes to her little by little. Understanding that Mary escapes from him every day more to Mason, Mark makes his young wife living a real hell, as much physically as morally. Having had the proof that the relation between Mason and Gina was only a machination from her part, Mary ends up succumbing to the advances of her lover, what pushes Mark in an insane anger. This one, mad of rage, beats her up and rapes her. Mark lost everything at this moment : if Mary already did not love him any more, she consequently does not even feel pity for him. She decides to ask the divorce, following the advice of her lover, when she discovers that she is waiting a child of Mason. And even if she hides to Mason the deep nature of Mark, the lawyer is not dupe of his rival's black soul.

Persuaded that Mary is pregnant of him, Mark is well decided to prevent the object of his love from leaving him. During his previous researches, Mason had discovered that Janice Harrison, the model he recently dated, was formerly married to Mark. This one had explained to him the reasons of their separation and of her change of identity (she was then called Wendy McCormick) : witness of a medical error of Mark which cost the life to a patient, Janice had felt threatened and, after the violences he inflicted to her, she had preferred to leave him and run far from him. This testimony against Mark turns to be the weapon able to ruin and his marriage and his reputation. And the violent fights which do not cease continue even in court, where Mark is defended by Julia Wainwright, whose unavowed purpose is to make her customer imprisoned.

Well decided to be hear by Mary once again and to prove his love to her, Mark joins her an evening of storm on the roof of the Capwell hotel where she took refuge. He has not time to plead his cause that a squall of wind carries away the letter "C" of the ensign of the hotel, which falls on Mary and immediately kills her. Face to a desperate and lost Mason, Mark is for a while sequestered and bound by Mason on the roof of the hotel. He however succeeds in reasoning him and to obtain his release and for exchange, Mark is obliged to sign a paper in which he admits having sexually abused of Mary.

If Mason, destroyed by the brutal death of Mary, finds refuge in alcohol, the things seem to be arranged for Mark. Relieved to escape to the justice of men thanks to the death of his wife, he decides to be withdrawn in the convent where she officiated, in order to find his marks again and to make the mourning of his wife. But, in the convent directed by Mother Isabel, another justice awaits Dr. Mark McCormick since he will find death in quite obscure conditions.

After years of silence, we have to wait the year 1988, to hear again about Dr. Mark McCormick. Whereas Cruz, helped by the police of Santa Barbara, seeks after the body of late Hal Clark, these are the bones of Mark which are found in the Capwell boathouse. An investigation for murder is immediately opened by the district attorney Keith Timmons. And very quickly, all the suspicions go on Mason Capwell. Because just after the death of Mary, Mason would have spent nearly two days to drink. The investigation initially led by Mason, then by Julia, reveals very quickly Mary's former convent for place of the crime. The investigation will end up demonstrating that Mark was killed by Sister Agatha. The day of the murder, she would have surprised Mark trying to rape another nun, deaf and dumb Sister Sarah. Then Sister Agatha, with the help of Father Michael Donnelly, threw the corpse to the sea, where it derived to the Capwell boathouse. A late end for a character who, from the eyes of the lovers of Mary's, well deserved such a punishment.

Mark McCormick will have crossed only during one year the world of Santa Barbara. Curiously, he does not take part of the list of the deeply bad beings who crossed the show (Kirk Cranston, Elena Nikolas...), whereas he is directly and indirectly responsible for the end of one of the most beautiful love stories of the show. In the same way, Mark, across the tomb, returned to be avenged of his worst enemy, Mason Capwell. And he was within an inch of eliminating a second time the one for who Mason's heart beats, the one who became for many people the substitute of Mary : the pretty lawyer Julia Wainwright...

Portrait written for this site by Lilian

Read also : The couple Janice Harrison and Mark McCormick . Mary DuVall and Mark McCormick's wedding