Julie Cooper

Template:* Character E *Julie was a secondary character, who became main in the Season 2, of "The O.C.". She is portrayed by Melinda Clarke.

Julie is the mother of the late Marissa Cooper, the mother of Kaitlin Cooper and it is also the mother of a baby male, whose name is unknown, that she had with Ryan biological father.

Julie is also ex-wife/ex-fianceé of Jimmy Cooper and the widow of Caleb Nichol. Anyway, after having had many stories with various men, she decides following the death of her eldest daughter Marissa, and for the sake of her two younger childrens Kaitlin and unknown name, to remain single, and try to make it, this time, only with her own strength, without anyone giving her a help. Anyway, she decides to remain friends with Frank Atwood for the sake of their child, even though the two are still in love with each other. In addition, she decides to remain friends with Gordon Bullit, following the fact that Kaitlin has grown fond of him, seeing him as a kind of father figure.

Story of the Character

Life before Season 1

Originally born in Riverside, she left her former boyfriend Lance Baldwin for Jimmy Cooper, and started a new life in Newport Beach. When she remains pregnant with Jimmy at the age of eighteen, Julie marries him .... only for money, of course.

Season 1

Julie, is presented to us, as the classic woman, who would do anything for money. After meeting Jimmy Cooper, a rich family man, Julie falls in love with him and at eighteen years old, becomes pregnant, shortly after, the two get married and Julie gives birth to their first daughter : Marissa Cooper. After living for many years in poverty and have arrived in high society all in a sudden, it changed Julie, infact, she not longer the Riverside girl who was before, now has become a classy woman, wicked, manipulative and calculating, which has remained with Jimmy, only for his money, spending and spreads as her wishes, for her own and his daughters. But, when Jimmy stole money from his clients' trust funds, Julie soon divorced from him, claiming she deserved better. She soon had a passionate love affair with her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Luke Ward. She also begins to date Kirsten's father, Caleb Nichol.

Season 2

Once she married Caleb Nichol, she became one of the most powerful women in Newport. Her husband made her CEO of his company, the Newport Group, and in order to give it a new look, Julie decided to launch a magazine, Newport Living.

Her fame would soon come back to haunt her, however, when her ex-lover Lance came back into her life. He threatened to release a copy of an adult video she had participated in years earlier, if she did not give him $500,000. When her husband Caleb dismissed her concerns and didn't pay him, Lance released the tape at a party originally intended for the magazine launch.

Outraged and embarrassed, Caleb filed for divorce. According to the marriage agreement, Julie was entitled to a sum of 3 million dollars if and only if she had been married for a period of one year. When Caleb tried to file for the divorce the two had only been married for a period of 11 months and 27 days. In addition to the divorce, Caleb fired Julie as CEO of his company. This was done shortly after he received pictures of Julie kissing Lance at his motel room. The timing of Caleb's attacks would essentially leave her with nothing from the marriage.

Left with the possibility of being poor once again, Julie began to devise plans to regain the life she once had. Lance had offered to kill Caleb, but Julie refused the offer. When Caleb pushed her too far by filing for divorce only days before their one-year anniversary, Julie decided to finish the job herself and attempted to give him an overdose of sleeping pills in his drink. Caleb realized and craftily played at her conscience until she found herself unable to deliver his death blow. Minutes later, he died anyway because of a heart attack.

Season 3

Julie tries far to blame Ryan Atwood for the shooting in which Marissa had played his brother, Trey. His plan fails and still turns away from Marissa. Despite the news of the second marriage with Jimmy Cooper, of which she is in love again, this brings her back to the her daughter. Julie does not know, however, that the man actually wants to get his hands on the legacy of Caleb Nichol to pay a debt. When she discovers that the wealthy businessman has gone bankrupt, Jimmy escapes from Newport to sow the loan sharks. Julie is alone again and without certainties. Julie sends her daughter to her best friend, Summer, and goes to live in a grimy trailer on the outskirts of Newport Beach. When she meets the scammer, Charlotte Morgan thinks of organizing a charity party and riches ladies of Newport: the women are in fact pocketed the proceeds, Charlotte would have fled by taking the blame and Julie could have begun to live in luxury. But he realized that the friendship that binds her to Kirsten is too strong she decides to cancel everything. At first Kirsten is upset but then recognizes that Julie is her only real friend and establishes with her a dating agency, the Newmatch. Meanwhile in his life reappears his younger daughter Kaitlin who wants to stay with her and Marissa. However, after the incident involving one of his friends Johnny Harper, I decide to return to boarding school but clarifies his relationship with his mother from whom he felt abandoned. Julie reassures herself to the charming surgeon Neil Roberts, the father of Summer. The man asks her to marry her and settle down by her. The woman then decides to move also to keep an eye on Marissa and her relationship with Kevin Volchok, a dangerous boy. At first Marissa blames her for being a bad mother but when she realizes that Julie is right When Marissa, on her graduation day, died a more understanding woman, she accepts her daughter's decision. On the day of departure Julie explains to Marissa that if she made mistakes she did them for her and that she just wanted to give her a better life than hers. The girl moved says (for the first time in the whole series) to love her and to be proud of being his daughter for the courage that Julie shows in every situation. Finally, the young woman recommends to her sister Kaitlin, who has now settled in Newport, to take care of her mother. Relationships have definitely strengthened but fate wants Marissa to die that same night, in an accident caused by Volchok on purpose.

Season 4

After the death of her daughter Marissa, Julie wants to find the man who killed her. She thus takes on a private investigator and provides the information received from the man to Ryan. The information leads Ryan and Seth to chase Volchok to Mexico. Sandy and Kirsten decide to chase their son. Sandy is angry with Julie for sending Ryan and Seth on a "homicidal mission" and banishes her from the Cohen Thanksgiving dinner. Once Volchok is arrested, Julie comes to Cohen's home, apologizing to Sandy, who decides to let her in. Before dinner, Julie and Ryan decide to go to the pool house to talk about Marissa and to remember her.

After Volchok is in jail, Julie finally is able to start over. She breaks up with Neil and manages to stay in his house, living with Kaitlin, Taylor and eventually Summer, while he moves to Seattle. Soon thereafter, she begins have one night stands with younger men, for example with her German personal trainer or Kaitlin's tennis instructor Spencer Bullit, with whom she starts to transform New Match into an whorehouse, but also with his father Gordon Bullit from Texas.

When Frank Atwood returned to Newport to see his son, she welcomes him with an open heart and falls in love with him. She hides their relationship for a long time, but then they start to date officially. Kaitlin doesn't really like having Frank as a stepdad and tries to convince her mother to marry Bullit, but in the end she decides to continue dating Frank.

During the earthquake she is locked with her daughter in an ice cream parlour, but she's not harmed. In the last episode of the series, Julie is pregnant with Frank's child. By the end of the series, however, she decides to remain single in order to be able to get away on her own for once in her life. So Julie decides not to marry Bullit, or even to accept Frank's marriage proposal. However the three, manage to maintain a friendly relationship. She then starts college and gets an undergraduate degree.

Memorable Quotes

See Memorable Quotes by Julie Cooper

References

Appearances

Season 1

• Pilot
• The Model Home
• The Gamble
• The Debut
• The Outsider
• The Girlfriend
• The Rescue
• The Perfect Couple
• The Homecoming
• The Secret
• The Best Chrismukkah Ever
• The Links
• The Truth
• The Heartbreak
• The Telenovela
• The Goodbye Girl
• The L.A.
• The Nana
• The Shower
• The Strip
• The Ties That Bind

Season 2

• The Distance
• The Way We Were
• The New Kids on the Block
• The New Era
• The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't
• The Power of Love
• The Ex-Factor
• The Accomplice
• The Lonely Hearts Club
• The Test
• The Rainy Day Women
• The Mallpisode
• The Blaze of Glory
• The Brothers Grim
• The Rager
• The O.C. Confidential
• The Showdown
• The O.Sea
• The Dearly Beloved

Season 3

• The Aftermath
• The Shape of Things to Come
• The End of Innocence
• The Last Waltz
• The Perfect Storm
• The Swells
• The Anger Management
• The Game Plan
• The Disconnect
• The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah
• The Safe Harbor
• The Sister Act
• The Pot Stirrer
• The Cliffhanger
• The Heavy Lifting
• The Road Warrior
• The Journey
• The Undertow
• The Secrets and Lies
• The Day After Tomorrow
• The Dawn Patrol
• The College Try
• The Party Favor
• The Man of The Year
• The Graduates

Season 4

• The Avengers
• The Gringos
• The Cold Turkey
• The Metamorphosis
• The Sleeping Beauty
• The Summer Bummer
• The Chrismukk-huh?
• The Earth Girls Are Easy
• The My Two Dads
• The French Connection
• The Dream Lover
• The Groundhog Day
• The Case of the Franks
• The Shake Up
• The Night Moves
• The End's Not Near, It's Here

Mentioned

Season 2

• The Risky Business