Winston Mayer

Colonel Winston Mayer is a fictional character on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. He is portrayed by Daniel Hugh Kelly and made his first appearance on July 5, 2007.

Character history
He arrives in Oakdale to visit his son, Noah, who is dating Maddie Coleman. Winston encourages the relationship, even offering to help pay for the couple to buy a new bed so they could move in together. It is later revealed that Noah is hiding the truth from his father: Noah in fact has feelings for Luke Snyder, not Maddie, and admits as much to them both, even as he fears Winston's reaction.

Winston flies into a rage upon discovering Noah and Luke kissing, but appears to have a change of heart, convincing Noah to invite Luke on a fishing trip. It turns out to be a trap: During the trip, he tries to kill Luke; the murder attempt fails, but leaves Luke paralyzed from the waist down. Winston tries to kill Luke again at the hospital but was stopped by Dusty Donovan and arrested for the murder of his wife, Cheri. He left the show on November 20, 2007 when he was taken off to prison following a final confrontation with Luke and Noah.

Kelly returned for a second run in the role of Winston Mayer beginning on May 6, 2008. In this episode, Noah visits him in prison. Two weeks later, Winston escapes and took Noah's sham wife, Ameera, to New York City. He then tries to take Ameera back to her native Iraq, but when Luke and the police arrive, he jumps off the side of his boat.

Winston is thought to be dead until he uses Adam Hughes, who is pretending to be Riley Morgan, to get Noah to come to an abandoned army base. The plan fails after Casey Hughes discovers that Riley is a fraud, and tells Noah about his father's plan. Winston then pulls Noah outside the Java coffee shop and takes him back to the base to ask him for help in his escape. Luke and his father, Damian Grimaldi, show up and have Colonel Mayer arrested.