Todd Manning – Everything You Need To Know
The death of Franco Baldwin has some fans speculating that we might see Todd Manning on GENERAL HOSPITAL again. For those unfamiliar with the character, Roger Howarth played Todd on ONE LIFE TO LIVE from 1992 through 2003 at which point the role was recast with actor Trevor St. John. But in 2011, a storyline twist brought Howarth back to the soap for the final years until OLTL’s cancelation in 2013 at which point the Daytime Emmy winner brought Todd over to GH. Unfortunately, due to a legal battle with Prospect Park over the rights to the OLTL characters, GH was unable to use Todd anymore and chose to write the character off to have Howarth play a recast of Franco, instead. But now that the rights are back in ABC’s hands, Todd could very well show up in Port Charles again one day. So if you need a refresher on the character, we’ve got you covered!
Todd Manning was introduced as a football player attending Llanview University who raped Marty Saybrooke along with a couple of his frat brothers. After another woman came forward accusing Todd of rape, his attorney, Nora Hanen, caused a mistrial. Todd continued to torment Marty, who tricked him into confessing which finally led to him going to jail. When his frat brother, Powell Lord, expressed remorse and got a lighter sentence, Todd plotted revenge and escaped from prison which led to a series of violent events ending with Todd shot and presumed dead after falling into the Llantano River.
After being re-apprehended, Todd’s prison van was in an accident, and rescuing Marty, Jessica, and C.J. from the other vehicle helped get him early parole. He was again accused of rape but Marty reluctantly gave Todd an alibi for one of the attacks and it was later revealed that Powell was the serial rapist. Apologizing to Marty for the pain he put her through, Todd called himself a monster and sought counseling. He fell in love with Blair Cramer and learned that he was the son of Victor Lord and Irene Manning, making him very wealthy.
Blair and Todd had a rocky relationship starting when she tricked him into marrying her by lying that she was pregnant. She eventually did become pregnant for real, but then Todd was shot and presumed dead. When he returned to Llanview, Todd found Blair in bed with another man and met his daughter, Starr. He paid attorney Téa Delgado to marry him so he could have custody of Starr, which led to a love triangle with Blair. Todd faked multiple personalities to avoid being convicted of murdering Georgie Phillips, but when his lie came out, he left town in 2003 and Téa annulled their marriage.
In 2011, Todd returned to Llanview to discover that his twin brother, Victor Lord Jr., had been living his life for almost a decade! He was also upset to discover he’d lost years with Danielle, the daughter he’d had with Téa. When Victor was killed, Todd was the prime suspect, so he framed Téa’s brother, Tomás and ended up killing his own murderous mother, Irene. But in the end, Todd was arrested for Victor’s murder.
Hearing that Starr had been involved in a car accident that killed her daughter, Hope, and boyfriend Cole, Todd skipped bail and went to Port Charles where he blamed local mobster Sonny Corinthos for their deaths. After the murder charges against him were dropped, Todd helped Téa give birth to a stillborn child. While trying to get help, Heather Webber told him the baby was dead and he then found himself stumbling upon Sam Morgan, who had also just given birth. When Téa arrived, she assumed the infant Todd was holding was her son and Heather convinced him to let her keep thinking that.
While Téa returned to Llanview with the baby, Todd remained in Port Charles and took over The Press, renaming it The Sun. Heather tried blackmailing Todd into helping her, but this just led to him discovering she’d lied that Jason wasn’t the father of Sam’s child. in the end, the baby switch was revealed, and Sam and Jason were reunited with their son, who they named Danny. Todd blamed the switch on Heather and secretly revealed the truth of Danny’s paternity. He also started a relationship with Carly Benson and tried to kill Johnny Zacchara for causing Hope and Cole’s deaths.
After being sent to Ferncliff for tests, Todd managed to escape with Heather and found himself accused of attempting to kidnap Danny after he’d actually rescued the tot. The charges were later dropped and after Carly dumped him, Todd returned to Llanview to help his daughter, Danielle, who nearly died of a drug overdose. Victor was revealed to be alive, leading the two brothers to renew their conflict. After they called a truce for the sake of their families, a mysterious organization abducted Victor and forced Todd to go to a mysterious address. Before leaving Llanview, Todd made love with Blair one last time and it was revealed that they were remarried.
Stay tuned to see if Todd ever resurfaces again!
