Jackson Montgomery

Infobox soap character
name = Jackson Montgomery
series = All My Children
portrayer = Walt Willey
first = 1987
last =
cause =
creator =



caption1 = Walt Willey as Jackson Montgomery


caption2 =


caption3 =
nickname = Jack
"Mont-Yummy" (by Carmen
alias =
gender = Male
born =
death =
age =
occupation = LawyerPine Valley District Attorney (suspended from duties on December 2 2003)Attorney in private practiceVolunteer for Habitat for HumanityFormer senior partner of Montgomery & Associates law firmFormer poolboy for the Smythes
title =
residence = 328 Chestnut Avenue,
Pine Valley, Pennsylvania
parents =
siblings = Travis Montgomery (brother, deceased)
* Christine "Kit" Montgomery (sister)
spouse = Laurel Banning (divorced)
* Erica Kane (divorced) [05/2005-08/2007]
romances = Mary Smythe (ex-lover)
* Erica Kane (affair/ex-lover/formerly engaged/formerly married)
* Brooke English (dated)
* Angelique Marick (dated)
* Laurel Banning (dated, deceased)
* Barbara Montgomery (affair/one-night stand)
children = Greenlee Smythe (daughter, with Mary Greenlee Smythe)
* Reggie Montgomery (adopted son)
* Lily Montgomery (adopted daughter, with Laurel Banning)
grandchildren =
grandparents =
aunts/uncles =
cousins =
relatives = Bianca Montgomery (niece)
* Molly Montgomery (niece)
* Sean Montgomery (nephew)
color = #C80815

Jackson "Jack" Montgomery is a fictional character from the daytime drama "All My Children". He has been portrayed by actor Walt Willey since 1987.

Character history

Coming to Pine Valley

Jackson Montgomery first comes to Pine Valley in order to help his brother, Travis Montgomery, with his campaign for Senate. Jack has ulterior motives in mind, though. He accepts bribes and messes with the budget of Travis' campaign in order for Travis to lose. This is to repay Travis for events in their childhood; when they were children, both brothers were involved in a boating accident that killed their sister, "Christine". Jack is always blamed for the death of Christine by his Southern matriarchal family. Travis is always seen as the "go-getter" while Jack is considered the black sheep. Jack had covered up the event for Travis, but finally gains revenge during Travis' campaign.

At the same time, Jack falls in love with Travis' wife, Erica Kane. The two begin to have an affair. When Travis finds out, he divorces Erica and wins the custody of their daughter, Bianca Montgomery. However, Jack refuses to lie about the affair on the stand during the custody trial, ending his relationship with Erica. Jack moves onto a relationship with Brooke English. Their romance is brief, but they remain friends over the years.

Laurel and Lily

One night, Jack is driving home when his headlights come upon the beautiful Laurel Banning. She needs help, and comes to Jack for it. They fall in love, move in together, and eventually marry. Jack also comes to love Laurel's daughter Lily Montgomery, an autistic girl with an ability to do complicated math. Jack adopts Lily, as his own daughter. Laurel needs help hiding out from Lily's demented father Denny.

Denny comes to Pine Valley, looking for Laurel and Lily. He threatens Laurel's life, and vows to gain custody of Lily. Laurel kills Denny in self-defense, and Jack helps cover it up by hiding the body in the Marick mine shaft. The body is found, and the truth comes out, causing Jack to be disbarred for six months. Jack has another affair with Erica while Laurel feels guilt for causing him to lose the ability to practice law. More problems continue to follow. Laurel's history of embezzlement, which she has done in order to keep Lily in a special school for autistic children, comes to light when she embezzles money in the "Mason Foundation".

Laurel soon becomes close to Trevor Dillon after he loses his wife Natalie Marlowe. They fall in love, and Jack bows out to Trevor. He divorces Laurel, so that she can marry Trevor. This allows Jack the opportunity to return to his love of law. He becoms involved with many highly publicized cases, including the Louie Greco trial. For his work, Jack is named the District Attorney of Pine Valley. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes his world, when a stray bullet claims the life of his old love, Laurel. Jack continues to raise his adopted daughter, Lily.

Jack's relationship with the Kane Women

Throughout his time in Pine Valley, Jack always tries to act as a support for Erica and Bianca, his niece. He becomes a strong beam in the structure of their life, often helping out both with whatever problems they may have had.

Jack is Erica's attorney in her kidnapping trial. Erica is sent to prison, but Jack still loves her. , Jack is the one who tells Erica. He keeps her up-to-date with Bianca's health. After Erica is released from prison, Jack declares his love for her, with Erica ecstatic. However, this is short-lived when Erica's ex-lover "Mike Roy" returns to Pine Valley, after being thought dead for years. He had staged his death years before due to an FBI project. Erica still cares greatly for him. She is torn between Mike and Jack. But she makes a mistake by sleeping with Mike, even though she still chooses Jack. Jack finds out and is furious, calling it the "obligatory horizontal goodbye". Erica tries to win Jack back, but he refuses to relent.

Jack then continues to practice law and remains a confidant to his niece, especially when Bianca "comes out" as a lesbian. But his relationship with Erica comes back to the forefront in 2001, when he is the lead prosecutor in the murder case against her. She is being charged with murder of Frankie Stone, Bianca's former girlfriend. He takes out all of his frustrations on Erica during the trial. The trial turns into a farce, with Erica being declared not guilty. Jack is left with a tarnished reputation for his behavior against her during the trial, but Erica seems to still love Jack. She tries to get back together with him, but he rejects her advances.

Greenlee

Eventually, Erica wears Jack down. He can no longer deny his romantic feelings for her. He becomes engaged with her, despite a past love coming back to Pine Valley. Mary Smythe returns to Pine Valley, trying to get back into the life of her daughter, Greenlee. Greenlee becomes suspicious of her motives, especially when Mary tries to become close to Jack.

Jack is shot outside the SOS Club and flatlines in the ER. Erica wills him back to life and while Jack lies in a coma, Erica professes her undying love for him and promises to marry him. Jack awakens and recovers, but collapses a few weeks later because of internal bleeding from that gunshot wound. Jack has a rare blood type and Erica goes on television to plead for a donor, and Mary rushes Greenlee to the hospital to donate the blood to save his life. Jack survives, but Mary remains obsessed with him. Mary tells Erica that she plans to have Jack for herself. On the eve of Jack and Erica's wedding day, Mary asks Greenlee to deliver a note to Jack. Jack refuses to take the note, and Greenlee keeps it and reads it. She realizes the truth about her childhood.

Greenlee finds that the note is dated to Jack from before she was born, back in 1976. It also reveals that "Roger Smythe" is not her father, but Jack is. Greenlee is angry at her mother for allowing her to grow up with a "father" that had hated her. Mary admits that she lied about who the father is because Roger was wealthy at the time, and Jack was poor. Greenlee soon notices the stationary of the note is the same as that of the "Valley Inn", where Mary has been staying. Mary admits that she forged the note, but that the content is the truth.

Mary shows Greenlee her journal and shows the entry that is written exactly nine months before Greenlee is born. It has been the last time that Jack and Mary slept together. Mary confesses that Greenlee's blood type matches with Jack's. Greenlee is the one who saved Jack's life following his heart condition. Greenlee is angry at all the twisted half-truths that her mother has told her over the years, and vows never to speak to her again.

Mary pleads with Greenlee to go to Jack and Erica's wedding, and plead with him to not marry Erica. She states that Erica has been blackmailing her to stay away from Jack. She uses it to manipulate Greenlee into going to the wedding, and hopes that Jack will leave Erica once and for all, for her. When Greenlee rushes into the wedding, Jack doesn't believe her claims. He thinks it is a scheme by Mary to win him back. But Greenlee reads the portion of the journal that her mother showed her. Greenlee declares that she doesn't want Jack as a father, and leaves the ceremony, ready to leave Pine Valley forever, only to be stopped by "Juan Pablo Renato Ruiz de Vasquez", who goes with her to Atlantic City to gamble and party, and forget about her problems.

Meanwhile, Jack goes through Joe Martin's files, and discovers that Greenlee had been the donor who had saved his life. His rare blood type allows for only family members to be able to donate blood. Therefore, Greenlee had to be Jack's daughter. Although his engagement with Erica seems to die out, Jack goes looking for Greenlee. With help from Tad Martin, Jack locates Greenlee in Atlantic City. When Jack goes to the hotel room of Juan Pablo, Greenlee isn't to be found and Juan Pablo denies knowing her.

However, Jack sees Greenlee's dress from the day of Jack's wedding, and demands to know her location. She has gone out for a walk and has gotten caught in a storm on the beach. She also gets her ankle caught in a rock, and begins to lash out in anger. Jack finds her and removes her ankle. Greenlee tries to act as though she isn't hurt, but can't walk. Jack picks her up and carries her to a close restaurant, where they stay at, until the storm goes away.

While the two share coffee and soup, they begin to talk about things. Greenlee realizes that Jack isn't at fault for being left out of her life. She realizes he is a good guy, and decides to give their relationship a try. Greenlee begins to look to Jack as the father she always wanted.

Married life with Erica

Jack and Erica marry at long last. On May 24 2005, he and Erica are wed in a beautiful ceremony. This comes just after Jack has adopted troubled teenager Reggie Montgomery. Coupled with his new relationship with Greenlee and the return of Lily from boarding school, Jack begins to have a stable family life. But Lily begins to give him headaches with her love life.

She falls in love with Jonathan Lavery, who had been a one-time crazed man and who had kidnapped her before, but is declared sane after a brain tumor is removed. He is now gentle, but Jack still isn't sure of his behavior. After Jonathan and Lily run away to New York, they get married. Jack is furious and declares that she is incompetent of running her own life. However, Jonathan suffers another brain hemorrhage, and goes into a coma. When he wakes up, the old Jonathan has returned. He tries to hide it from Lily, and has genuinely changed because of her.

Jack finds out that Jonathan is healthy, and uses it to drive a wedge between Lily and Jonathan. The two have their marriage annulled. Lily moves back into her father's house. At the same time, Jack's nephew Sean Montgomery moves in. Jack begins to use Sean as a babysitter for Lily.

Meanwhile, Jack's marriage to Erica, much like her other marriages, comes apart at the seams. While Erica deals with the revelation that her long thought abortion has turned into a fully grown son, Josh Madden, she also has to deal with the return of her first husband Jeff Martin. Jeff and Erica are Josh's parents. They try to relate to Josh, who has just found out that the person he has always thought of as his father, Dr. Greg Madden, has lied to him his whole life. While trying to help Josh, Jeff and Erica grow closer. Confused by her feelings about her newfound son and what was done to her years ago, she soon moves out of the house she shares with Jack, to the Valley Inn.

Upset at Erica's relationship with Jeff, Jack invites her old rival, Brooke English, to Thanksgiving Dinner. Brooke realizes that Jack isn't trying to start a relationship with her, but asks Jack to find happiness. Before Christmas, Sean tries to get his uncle and Erica back together, with the help of on-again, off-again girlfriend Colby Chandler. They woo Erica with gifts to represent Twelve Days of Christmas. Erica comes home and makes up with Jack. Shorty thereafter, Jack finds out that Sean and Colby have sent the gifts. When Erica finds out that Jack has lied about sending the gifts, she leaves with Jeff. She starts an affair with Jeff, despite the anger of her daughter, Bianca.

Jack is named the number one investigator in the Satin Slayer case. He also helps in his stepson Josh's plan to kidnap Babe Carey, by saving her life and saving her from another attack from the Satin Slayer, and in what Josh claims is to keep her away from J. R. Chandler's mistreatment of her. Although Greenlee has left Pine Valley after events with Ryan Lavery and Erica's daughter, Kendall Hart Slater, and Reggie has also left to play basketball close to a year ago, Jack remains the ever-loving father. He recently declared that he told Greenlee to stay away so she would be safe. He also remains as a guide to Lily and Sean.

Moving on from Erica

After he and Erica divorce in mid-2007, Jack begins to date Julia Santos, but nothing comes of it, as he still carries a torch for Erica. In January 2008, Erica is sent to prison and Jack tries his best to get her free. In addition, he begins to handle the case for Erica's cellmate and friend, Carmen Morales, who is later attracted to Jack. She begins to flirt with Jack, which he originally rebuffs, but soon Jack and Carmen go on their first date. Jack has to deal with Sean moving back to with his mother in Seattle and Lily leaving Pine Valley to begin the fall sememster at MIT.

External links

* [http://www.soapcentral.com/amc/whoswho/jackson.php Jackson Montgomery] from [http://www.soapcentral.com/ soapcentral.com]
* [http://abc.go.com/daytime/allmychildren/bios/jackson_montgomery.html Jackson Montgomery's character bio] from [http://abc.go.com ABC.com]