Eric Forrester is a fictional character from the American CBS Daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, played by John McCook. He made his debut screen appearance on March 23, 1987, the show's first episode. The character appeared briefly on The Young and the Restless in 1993, 1995, 1996, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2017, and 2021. McCook had also played Lance Prentiss from 1976 to 1980. Many of Eric's storylines revolve around his relationships with Stephanie Forrester, Brooke Logan, Sheila Carter, Donna Logan, Beth Henderson, Jackie Marone, Quinn Fuller, Taylor Hayes, and various other women.
Backstory
Eric and his wife, Stephanie, are co-founders of the Los Angeles-based fashion house, Forrester Creations, with Eric as its lead designer. They have five children: Ridge, Thorne, Kristen, Felicia and Angela. Two different retcons have taken away two of his children. The Angela that Eric meets in 1988 proves to be an imposter who replaced the real Angela when she died in an accident years before. In 2001 it is revealed that the biological father of his firstborn, Ridge, is billionaire shipping magnate, Massimo Marone.
Forrester Creations was first started with a $50,000 loan from Stephanie's father, John Douglas, despite his disapproval of her marriage to Eric. With Stephanie working on the business side and Eric on the creative, Forrester Creations becomes a great success, both in prestige and profits. For a time, those profits are eaten away by a far less prestigious rival, Spectra Fashions, which makes knock-off fashions all too similar to Forrester designs.
Storylines
Eric is struggling in his marriage to Stephanie. Eric declares the marriage "stale" while Stephanie blames their woes on his assistant, Margo Lynley, with whom she suspects he is having an affair. Stephanie inadvertently brings an actual "other woman" into his life when she a catering company which has Beth Logan. After they meet, Eric wants to resume their love affair from thirty years before. Another employee is Beth's daughter, Brooke, who later proves an even more serious rival for Eric's affections.
Eric eventually leaves his wife for Beth, but what brings him back to the Forrester home is the revelation that he has a 24-year-old daughter he never knew: the microcephalic Angela. Stephanie had pretended she had had a stillbirth to spare Eric the pain of knowing his daughter was so severely disabled. Stephanie had hired a doctor to give Angela round-the-clock care in a secret house, never guessing that Angela would live until adulthood. It turns out the doctor, Todd Powell, had accidentally killed the real Angela years before. The daughter Eric meets is a perfectly functional imposter.
Other urgent matters—including the secret, withheld even from the partly amnesiac Thorne himself, that Thorne shot Ridge in the back of the head—keep Eric home for a while. And Stephanie's machinations, which bring Beth's estranged husband back in town, keep him out of that bed. But then his son, Ridge, and the publishing heiress, Caroline Spencer Forrester, discover the lies Brooke told to keep them apart and Caroline leaves Thorne for Ridge, Ridge ends his relationship with Brooke and Eric is drawn to Brooke.
Eric offers comfort to a distraught and emotionally disturbed Brooke. Eric began to pursue and support Brooke, and she eventually becomes pregnant with Eric's child. They keep their affair quiet as Eric is in the middle of a divorce and was fearful of what Stephanie might do. Stephanie initially learns of the relationship through Thorne, stunning Stephanie who had no idea her husband and Brooke were even involved. Eric marries Brooke and they welcome their first child, Rick Forrester. Ridge and Brooke become close again and Brooke decides to divorce Eric to be with Ridge. She becomes pregnant with what she believes is Ridge's child, Bridget Forrester, but it is revealed years later that Eric is the father. Eric remains very affectionate and protective of Brooke.