What You Need To Know About General Hospital's Pine Valley Guest Jackson Montgomery

Fans of the defunct soap "All My Children" were ecstatic when news broke that Walt Willey would be bringing his character Jackson "Jack" Montgomery (Walt Willey) to "General Hospital," and were subsequently thrilled when he confirmed his return would be on July 12, via a Twitter post.

In 2010, ABC created a web series called "What If" in which several characters from "AMC," "GH," and "One Life to Live" met up in a 10-episode arc. Over the years, many characters have crossed between the network's soaps, particularly when "OLTL" was canceled and a handful of Llanview's denizens briefly went over to Port Charles. Former super spy Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) had crossed from "GH" to "AMC" for a time, and now another citizen of Pine Valley, Jackson, is coming to "Port Charles." But who exactly is he?

Jack is a lawyer who was the former district attorney in Pine Valley. He had an on-again off-again relationship with the wealthy Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), and the two were married from 2005 to 2007. Prior to that, was married to Laurel Banning (Felicity LaFortune) and helped cover up the fact that she killed her ex-husband Denny Benton (Kale Browne) when he attacked her. He also adopted her daughter, Lily. He later became the guardian of troubled teen Reginald Porter (then Chadwick Boseman) and ultimately adopted him. Jack also eventually learned that he had a daughter named Greenlee Smythe (Rebecca Budig) from an affair he had with Mary Greenlee (Anna Stuart).

Jackson Montgomery isn't a bad guy, but he has caused trouble, including misappropriating funds for his brother's political campaign. He also assaulted a few people including Eliot Freeman (Stan Albers). When he eventually rekindled things with Erica Kane, he learned that she was actually an imposter who had plastic surgery. The real Erica and Jack tried working things out, but her other pursuits came first, so they broke up. After he had previously helped cover up Denny's murder, Jack was disbarred for a few months but had since gotten on track and is now seeing clients, even from Port Charles. 

Michael E. Knight played Tad Martin on "All My Children" from 1982 to 2011, and now portrays attorney Martin Grey on "General Hospital." Martin is dating Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring), but lately, she's noticed he's been a little off, so she and Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner) traveled to Pine Valley to investigate one of his former marriages. There, they met Jackson Montgomery under the pretense that Lucy needed help with her late husband's Pennsylvania estate. While she engaged with Jackson, Felicia searched his office for clues about Martin's ex and came up empty. Meanwhile, Martin told Anna Devane that his third ex-wife was actually paying him $50,000 a month, and Soaps speculated that Erica Kane could be that ex, on the heels of Jackson's appearance. Only time will tell if another Pine Valley resident pays a visit to "GH."