| Belle Black | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Days of Our Lives character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Duration |
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| First appearance | October 21, 1993 (1993-10-21) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | James E. Reilly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by |
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Belle Black is a fictional character from Days of Our Lives, an American soap opera on the NBC network. Created by then-head writer James E. Reilly and introduced by then-executive producers Ken Corday and Tom Langan, the role of Belle was portrayed by multiple infant and child actresses. In 1999, the role was rapidly aged and actress Kirsten Storms made her debut in the role as a teenage Belle. Storms remained with the soap until her decision to exit in 2004, and the role was ultimate recast, albeit briefly, with actress Charity Rahmer. After less than one month in the role, Rahmer was let go from the soap and the role was recast again, this time with actress Martha Madison, who first appeared in the role on August 8, 2004. Madison remained with the series until her firing, last appearing on March 21, 2008. In June 2015, Madison confirmed her return to the soap, in celebration of the soap's fiftieth anniversary. Madison returned on November 25, 2015. In March 2016, Madison was again let go from the role, only to be re-hired several months later.
Belle is the only child of supercouple John and Marlena (Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall), and half-sibling to D.J. Craig, Eric (Jensen Ackles, Greg Vaughan) and Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney), Brady Black (Kyle Lowder, Eric Martsolf) and Paul Narita (Christopher Sean). She is also one-half of supercouple Shawn and Belle, opposite Shawn-Douglas Brady (Jason Cook, Brandon Beemer).
In June 2015, Madison confirmed her return to the soap on her podcast, Soap Box. She confirmed she had begun taping as Belle two weeks earlier and would return on November 25, 2015.[1] On March 22, 2016, Daytime Confidential broke news that Madison had once again been let go from the soap, following a change in writing regime. However, months later in September, it was confirmed that shortly following her firing, Madison was re-hired at the soap.[2] In July 2017, Soap Opera Digest announced that Madison, along with Beemer, would once again be returning to the serial.[3]
Belle returned to Salem to celebrate Thanksgiving 2015 with the Brady family, along with a teenage Claire (Olivia Rose Keegan). She later visits her parents, and announces she and Shawn-Douglas (Cook) are getting a divorce, following her having an affair on Shawn-Douglas while the pair lived in Maine. She also becomes entangled in Sami's scheme to takedown the DiMera family when she leaves Belle an unknown amount of funds from multiple bank accounts. When Belle is served divorce documents from Shawn-Douglas, she begins to reignite a kinship with Philip (John-Paul Lavoisier), and during a trip to Las Vegas she receives a call from Shawn-Douglas (Beemer) who confesses he wants to give their marriage a second chance. In September 2016, Belle accepts a job offer at DiMera Enterprises and relocates to Hong Kong to help the internalizing of DiMera's division located in the city.
