Todd Manning

Thomas Todd Manning is a fictional character from the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. Created by writer Michael Malone, the role was originated in 1992 by actor Roger Howarth. In 2003, Howarth departed from the series and the role was recast with actor Trevor St. John as Todd, physically altered by plastic surgery. Howarth returned to the role on May 13, 2011, and St. John departed the role in summer 2011. St. John's character was rewritten as Todd's identical twin brother, Victor Lord, Jr., conditioned to believe he was Todd and thereby assume Todd's identity. Upon One Life to Live's cancellation, Howarth agreed to appear in the soap opera General Hospital in March 2012, to help transition his on-screen daughter, Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson), to the series. He later signed a contract to continue his portrayal of Todd there for the foreseeable future.

Originally, the character was conceived as short-term; Howarth is credited with "turning what was a day player role into a compelling, long-term character". Todd is initially designed to be a ruthless, cunning and one-dimensional villain, with significant trouble with the law. This began to change when the popularity of his 1993 gang rape of Marty Saybrooke, noted as one of soap opera's classic, "most remembered and impactful" storylines, compelled the writers to evolve Todd into a complex character, often selfish and acting the villain but also compassionate and devoted to protecting his loved ones. The writers first added these aspects in 1994, while revealing Todd as the illegitimate son of Victor Lord and Irene Manning, making him the brother of their first child together, Tina Lord, and half-brother to Victor's elder heiress daughter and original One Life to Live heroine Victoria Lord.

The character's love life has also been carefully considered by the series. He is seen marrying longtime love Blair Cramer multiple times throughout the years and their union produces two living children, Starr and Jack. In 2009, he is presented with a second daughter, Danielle, conceived with his former wife and love Téa Delgado during a previous reunion.

Todd has been the subject of numerous soap opera articles, feminist studies, and inspired the creation of a doll in his likeness. He has remained a popular and controversial figure since his creation, and is considered one of soap opera's breakout characters.

Famous quotes containing the words todd and/or manning:

    You don’t have power if you surrender all your principles—you have office.
    —Ron Todd (b. 1927)

    The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men’s farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)