Rex Balsom
Fictional character from One Life to Live

Rex Balsom is a fictional character from the American daytime drama One Life to Live, portrayed by John-Paul Lavoisier from May 9, 2002, to the show's finale on January 12, 2012.
Casting and characterization
With the character named "Jamie" prior to production, then-Executive Producer Gary Tomlin "toyed with the idea" of putting Rex in a gay storyline and Lavoisier stated in Soap Opera Digest in 2003: "I was asked by the higher powers at the show how I would feel about doing something like that. I said, 'Absolutely, any plot you want to give me, I'll take on strong.' And they said, 'Okay, we just wanted to check.'" However, this idea never realized, with the character repeatedly paired with women. Calling Rex a "heterosexual horndog," Lavoisier noted he "added a glint in [Rex's] eye he'd lifted from Ryan Phillippe's ... Cruel Intentions character of Sebastian. 'They said, "Sure, go with that. Start with that." And that was pretty much it.'"
Storylines
Believing Roxy Balsom to be her biological mother, Jessica Buchanan travels to Michigan in 2002 to meet Roxy's son, Rex. Rex soon comes to Llanview to take advantage of the fact that Jessica is a member of a wealthy family. Raised by his father's sister, Corinne Balsom, Rex has an uneasy relationship with Roxy. It is ultimately revealed that Jessica and Natalie are actually fraternal twins and both the daughters of Victoria Lord Davidson.
The public source identifies “Rex Balsom” as fictional character from One Life to Live. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Balsom, Fictional and character.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rex Balsom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.