Cole Thornhart (Van Hughes)

Cole Patrick Thornhart was a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. The character was originated on the now-canceled ABC soap opera One Life to Live by actor Brandon Buddy in 2006. Van Hughes began playing the role on One Life to Live in 2012.

Starr Manning
Cole arrived in Llanview in the fall of 2006 and became the high school's star football player. He met Starr Manning and the two began dating, even though Starr was not very popular at school. A girl named Brittany was jealous and had someone slip Cole drugs at a party. Cole became high and attacked Starr. It was then realized that Cole's mother, Marty Saybrooke, was the woman whom Starr's father, Todd Manning, had raped in college. Even after realizing this, and after Starr's father (who would later be revealed to actually not be Todd, but his twin brother Victor) forbade them from seeing each other, they couldn't stay away from each other and continued dating.

Later, Cole and Marty were kidnapped, and Marty's boyfriend at the time, John McBain went to rescue them. He was able to save Cole, but Marty was presumed dead when the van in which she was being kept fell off a cliff and exploded. Cole's father Patrick Thornhart was also presumed dead, so he was taken in by Marty's friend Nora Gannon.

Hope and drugs
In early 2008, Todd announced that he was moving his family to Hawaii. In fear that they'd never see each other again, Cole and Starr decided to make love for the first time. Todd walked in on them, though, and beat Cole nearly to death until Starr's mother Blair Cramer came in and stopped it. Todd decided to not move the family, but again forbade Starr and Cole from seeing each other. Starr then found out she was pregnant, but didn't want to tell Cole. She thought about having an abortion, but Cole, not knowing she was pregnant, got to her before she could go through with it. When he realized she was pregnant, he was able to help her decide to not have an abortion. He arranged for fake IDs for them, and they ran away together to raise their baby. Todd, Blair, and John tracked them down, however, and went to get them. Todd attacked Cole, and in the struggle, Starr went tumbling down a flight of stairs. At the hospital, Blair found out that Starr was pregnant; and Starr and Cole saw the first sonogram of their baby.

Starr decided to give the baby up for adoption, but Cole was against it. He talked to Nora, who's an attorney, about his rights and thought about suing Starr for custody and raising the baby on his own. Starr wanted to give the baby to Michael and Marcie McBain, John's brother and sister-in-law, to adopt. Cole decided to tell Todd about Starr being pregnant and about her plan to give the baby to the McBains, knowing Todd hated the McBains and wouldn't allow them to adopt his grandchild.

On November 6, 2008, a healthy baby girl, whom Marcie named Hope Manning McBain, was born. Todd, however, had planned to kidnap the baby at birth, run away, and raise her with Marty, who was actually alive, had amnesia, and was being held captive by Todd. Todd instructed the doctor to take the baby to her office, which she did, but then Todd changed his mind and decided not to kidnap his granddaughter; but, the baby was found dead in the doctor's office. The dead baby, however, was not actually Hope, but Chloe Brennan, the stillborn daughter of Starr's cousin Jessica who had been born at the same time. Jessica's alternate personality Bess had switched the two babies.

Starr and Cole were devastated at hearing their baby was dead. Cole felt the baby was his only link to his presumed dead parents. But then, he saw his mother Marty in the hospital, who had just been rescued from Todd's house. Cole, however, still felt his mother was dead because of her amnesia and the fact that she wasn't the same woman he had known. He began taking illegal drugs and flunking out of school. On one occasion, Cole was high on drugs and drove with Nora's son Matthew in the car. He crashed into oncoming traffic and was uninjured, but Matthew was paralyzed from the waist down. Nora eventually agreed not to press charges if Cole went into drug rehab. Cole continued to pop pills, however, and fake drug tests. He eventually gravitated back to Starr, though; and, with her help, got clean.

Then Starr and Cole found out that it was impossible that their baby had died from Rh disease like they'd been told because their blood types were compatible. They began to investigate the death of their daughter, and had her body exhumed, which revealed that the baby in the grave wasn't even their child. It was eventually revealed what happened, and Jessica returned baby Hope to Michael and Marcie. Starr and Cole were overjoyed that their daughter wasn't dead, but they had changed their minds about the adoption, but neither one of them would admit it.

Cole was saddened by not having his daughter with him, and went to the docks where he ran into his old drug dealer. The dealer slipped drugs on him, and when Cole was trying to get rid of them, the police showed up and arrested him. He was sentenced to two years in prison for violating his probation. When Cole went to tell Starr what happened, he learned that Michael and Marcie had returned Hope to Starr. Wanting to make a commitment to Starr before he went to prison, he asked her to marry him, and she accepted. They eventually were able to get Todd and Blair to sign the permission form for Starr since she was underage, and they planned to marry. Right before the end of the ceremony, however, John came in and declared that Cole wasn't going to prison. John had made a deal for Cole to work undercover for the police in exchange for him not going to prison. Starr and Cole decided to not get married.

Cole's undercover assignment was to help bust Russian mobsters who were allowing drugs to infiltrate the town. Todd, however, saw Cole selling drugs; and not knowing he was working undercover, accidentally blew his cover. A hit was put out on Cole, but it was botched by John. Starr and Hope were then kidnapped by the Russian mobsters, but the police eventually rescued them.

Hannah O'Connor and Eli Clarke
Later, Cole met Hannah O'Connor, who was his partner on a project at school. Hannah began flirting with Cole, and Todd and Starr began thinking Cole was cheating on Starr with her. Then, Marty was pushed down a flight of stairs and miscarried the baby she was carrying by John. Todd was a prime suspect, and Hannah lied and told Cole she saw Todd do it. Cole then went and beat Todd nearly to death, putting him in a coma. Cole was arrested for attempted murder but later released on bail.

Later, Blair's serial killer husband Eli Clarke kidnapped Starr, her sister Dani, and Hope. They tracked them down to a warehouse, and Eli released Dani, but then blew up the warehouse. Thinking Starr and Hope were still inside and that Eli had killed them, Cole shot and killed Eli. Starr and Hope were not inside the warehouse, however. They had escaped previously only to be kidnapped again by Hannah. They then escaped Hannah, however, and were reunited with Cole.

Cole pleaded guilty to killing Eli, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Before leaving for prison, he broke up with Starr and urged her to not wait for him.

Escape from prison
Just after midnight on New Years Day 2012, there was a black out and a major jailbreak. Cole showed up on Starr's doorstep, and she agreed to allow him to see Hope before he left to go live with his parents. (It had been revealed by this time that Cole's father Patrick was also alive.) Starr hid Cole in the cabana, but when they went back to the house, Hannah O'Connor was holding Starr's little brother Sam and had a gun Todd (the real Todd had returned by now). Hannah had also escaped from prison and went there looking for Cole.

Hannah fired the gun at Starr, but Cole was hit instead. They rushed Cole to the hospital. Cole nearly died, but actually survived. Todd agreed to help fake Cole's death and send him to live with his parents. Starr later moved with Hope to Los Angeles, and she was shocked to find Cole standing outside her door one day. Todd had sent Cole to LA to be with Starr and Hope, and to be Starr's bodyguard.

Death
In February of 2012, Starr, Cole, and Hope were going back to Llanview because Todd was facing charges for murdering his twin brother Victor. Their plane was diverted to Port Charles, New York because of weather. While driving and looking for a place to stay, Cole asked Starr to marry him. Before she could give her answer, a car swerved into their lane and hit them head-on. The car came to rest along the guardrail. Starr got out of the car, but Cole and Hope were unable to. The car ended up falling over the cliff and exploding, killing both Cole and Hope.

The other car was driven by Anthony Zacchara. His tires had been shot out by someone; Anthony claimed it was Sonny Corinthos, but Sonny was found not guilty of the crime in court.