Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan)

Duke Lavery is a fictional character on the popular ABC soap opera, General Hospital. The character was created and originated in 1986 by Ian Buchanan. Buchanan played the role of Duke from 1986 until 1989. Greg Beecroft took over the role from 1989 to 1990, when the character was killed off. In 2012, however, it was revealed that Duke was not dead after all when Buchanan returned in the role. It was a shock to most viewers since the Media did not announce it.

Arrival and family revelations
Duke, who was previously afflicted with paralysis recovered from his injury and received a light prison sentence for his mob activities. In early 1987, it was revealed that Duke was the son of the imprisoned Angus McKay and Sister Camilla McKay, the beautiful, yet troubled young nun was his half-sister and also the daughter of Angus. In earlier years before it was discovered that they were related, Camilla had fallen for Duke. The mystery surrounding Camilla deepened even further, when it became apparent that she was being haunted and deeply troubled by a night in her past that she could not remember. The night of mystery occurred the night she spent in L'Orleans, Canada. Duke's father Angus, even though imprisoned and elderly desperately wanted to end the violence and mob rivalry between the McKay and Jerome families. In order to halt the upcoming mob war, Angus made the ultimate sacrifice and he drank poison and died. With his dying breath, Angus made Duke promise to look after Camilla. Soon after Angus' death, Duke was paroled and now a free man he returned to the club and set out to raise the necessary funds to pay the heavy fine for his past crimes. When his debt was repaid, Duke would finally be free to marry the love of his life, Anna Devane. Anna accompanied Duke to L'Orleans for Angus' funeral and while there, he intuition went into overdrive. She started to put the pieces together and realized that there must have been more to Duke and Camilla's past besides a simple sibling rivalry. Duke denied it vehemently, but Anna was right. The truth was the revelation that Duke was Camilla's brother, sent her to commit a murder that she couldn't remember. Now four years later, Camilla was trying to remember the truth, but Duke warned against it, telling Camilla that the truth would destroy both of their lives.

Romance with Anna Devane
After doing some more digging, Camilla discovered that Angus was not her real father after all, nor was Duke her brother. She abandoned the sisterhood and began focusing on a scheme to win Duke back. She contacted a sleazy reporter named Mark Calin and by digging in Duke and Camilla's past, Calin discovered that Duke had covered up a murder back in L'Orleans four years ago. On Duke and Anna's wedding day, Calin exposed Duke's dark secret and in the middle of the ceremony, the wedding was crashed with reporters. During all the chaos, Camilla's memories from that night came back to her and she realized that the person she murdered was Evan Jerome. Camilla was acquitted of her crime in Canada, but she came to the realization that she could never win Duke's love. So with a heavy heart, she eventually left Port Charles. Anna later broke up with Duke and started up her own PI agency. Anna's ex-husband Robert Scorpio returned back to Port Charles and partnered with Anna in her agency, but Robert returned with the sad news that his beloved wife Holly Sutton had been killed in a plane crash.

Robert attempted to win back his former love Anna, but in the end Anna chose to be with Duke. Robert watched as Duke and Anna rekindled their love and married in a Scottish wedding and decided to move on. When Anna is kidnapped by the insane Grant Putnam, Duke desperately turned to underworld crime boss Victor Jerome to help find her. Duke and Robert both independently tracked down Grant in the Adirondack Mountains. In a final snowmobile chase, Robert caught up to Grant and in a heart-stopping climax, he rescued the evil killer just as he was about to plummet from a cliff. After subduing Grant, Robert turned to Anna, who raced into his comforting arms, overjoyed that her ordeal was finally over. Just then, Duke arrived on the scene and stood in stunned silence as he witnessed the sight of his wife in her ex-husband's arms. Duke struggled to keep his mob involvement a secret, but when Victor Jerome's son Julian Jerome took a bullet meant for Duke, he made a deathbed request for Duke to help his father legitimize the mob, and a grieving Victor intended to hold Duke to that promise. Meanwhile, Victor's daughter Olivia Jerome became attracted to Duke. Olivia was obsessed with ruling the mob and ordered the hit on her brother Julian. When Olivia realized that she couldn't lure Duke away from his pregnant wife Anna, she decided to kill him instead. Anna became her unintended victim however, when she was caught in an elevator rigged crash, set by Olivia. Anna was rushed to General Hospital, but she ended up miscarrying her and Duke's child due to the fall. Olivia was later gunned down in her hotel suite and when the police arrived on the scene, the found Anna with a gun, standing over Olivia's body.

Feud with the Jeromes and "death"
Olivia went into a coma and Anna was charged with attempted murder. However the charges against Anna were false and the real killer turned out to be Dino, Olivia's one-time henchman and the illegitimate son of Victor Jerome. When Olivia woke up and recovered from her injuries, she was shipped off to a mental institution. Anna was overjoyed when Olivia was found guilty of mob activities and shipped off to a mental institution. Olivia escaped several times in the future, but her reign of terror against Duke and Anna was finally over. Sadly though, Anna's marriage was also over. After Duke testified against the mob, his life and the lives of his loves ones were put in danger. Fearing that Anna and her daughter Robin Scorpio's lives were in danger, Duke scarified himself and faked his death in a warehouse explosion, entering the Witness Protection program. After hearing of Victor Jerome's death, Duke thought that it would now be safe for him to live back on the outside world. However, what Duke didn't know was that Victor's not-so-dead son Julian, was alive and hell-bent on getting revenge for his father.

The Jerome crime family, that had been weakened by the death of their boss Victor re-grouped under the command of his son Julian. Julian had two main objectives; to neutralize his dangerous sister Olivia and to see Duke Lavery truly dead. Julian planned to kill Duke and frame his sister Olivia for the crime. Thinking it was safe, Duke finally returned to Port Charles with a new face, a new name and no Scottish accent. Duke had undergone plastic surgery while in the witness protection program and gained a new face and identity. He returned under the alias of Johnathan Paget was posed as an art dealer. As art dealer Jonathan Paget, he handled Sean Donely's purchase of some rare Chinese porcelain, from the Wellington Collection. Duke wanted to go right to his beloved wife Anna and reunite with her, but he knew Julian Jerome was on his trail. Julian shot and killed his sister Olivia, who had clued Anna in on the fact that Duke was still alive. Before Duke and Anna could be reunited, Duke was gunned down by Julian and he supposedly died in Anna's arms.

Back from the dead
In 2012, Duke's stepdaughter, Robin, seemingly dies in a lab explosion at General Hospital. She is later revealed to be alive, however. Dr. Ewen Keenan had orchestrated her "death" on the orders of Jerry Jacks, who is also presumed dead. Everyone believes Robin is dead, but Heather Webber tells Robin's mother Anna that she saw Robin at Ferncliff. After investigating, Anna doesn't find Robin, but does find a brochure for a facility in Switzerland. Anna and Luke Spencer go there to look for Robin. They don't find her, but on August 27, 2012, Duke is revealed to be alive, and to have been the one who removed Robin from the Switzerland facility.