 Drake Hogestyn (qv) was hired in 1986 to take over the role of  "Roman Brady" after Wayne Northrop (qv) left the series after a  falling out with the shows writers. Several years later Northrop  approached the producers of the show about him returning to the  series, which created a problem because Hogestyn had quickly became  one of the shows most popular actors. In order to keep Hogestyn on  the show while allowing Northrop to return to the series as Roman, a  storyline was crafted that revealed that Hogestyns Roman was  actually a mercenary named John Black who had been brainwashed into  thinking he was Roman Brady as punishment for betraying his employer  Stefano Dimera. This allowed Hogestyn to continue on the show while  allowing Wayne Northrop to resume his previous role.