Jagger Cates was portrayed by Antonio Sabato, Jr. Jr. on General Hospital from 1992 to 1995 and in 2008 on Night Shift.
On February 2, 2024, Adam J. Harrington assumed the role on GH, with the character now referred to as John Cates. Harrington portrayed John on contract status until August 30, 2024, when the character was killed off. His body was last seen on September 3, 2024. On September 1, 2024, Harrington confirmed his exit from the show through a social media post.[6]
John Cates and his younger siblings Michael Cates and Gina Cates were orphaned as children. John was separated from the other two and fell into a rough crowd. He took the street name "Jagger". But he was still a good person on the inside, it just took some loving care from Karen Wexler to bring it out of him. In 1992, some thugs broke into Kelly's and roughed up the owner while attempting to rob the diner. Jagger was one of the thugs, but was shot when he tried to protect Ruby Anderson. While he is recovering, he stays at General Hospital. While he is there, the police threaten to arrest him if he doesn't turn in the rest of the boys he broke into Kelly's with.
Jagger refuses and while trying to escape the hospital while avoiding arrest, he meets Karen. On the roof of the hospital, Jagger is unable to take the ladder down because he is scared of heights, and Karen finds him and convinces him to stop his escape. He goes back downstairs and pretends to have been sitting there the whole time. He is later put into jail where he stays before the two other burglars join him, including Cal Atkins. Cal believes that Jagger turned him in and is the reason he is in jail, so he threatens to kill him. Later, Ruby decides not to press charges, so Jagger is released from jail.
Ruby forgave him for being involved in the robbery, and gave him a place to live and a job. He started classes at Port Charles High School as well. While working at Kelly's, Jagger and Karen become friends, and he develops feelings for her. However, Karen was forming a relationship with Jason Quartermaine at the time.
Brenda, Jagger, and Karen
Jagger started dating Karen Wexler and datedBrenda Barrett for a while too. Jagger located his sister Gina and hired Felicia Cummings and Mac Scorpio to find his brother Mike. Mike turned up at a party calling himself Stone. Someone slipped ecstasy into Karen's drink, and Stone rescued her.
After high school, Jagger tried to become a professional boxer with Marco Dane as his trainer/promoter. Jagger won a boxing match against A.J. Quartermaine. However, when Sonny Corinthos threatened Jagger to throw a fight, Jagger quit boxing. He also modeled briefly along with Brenda Barrett for Deception Cosmetics.
Jagger then decided to become a police officer and Karen got a scholarship to study medicine at college. The two became engaged. On the couple's wedding day, Karen's mother Rhonda Wexler revealed that Karen's father was Scott Baldwin. After they married, the couple moved to San Francisco where Karen attended medical school and Jagger became a police officer. Jagger returned to Port Charles in 1995 when he learned his brother Stone was dying of AIDS. He was able to spend time with him before he died. Then, Jagger went back to San Francisco.
Karen returned to town, without Jagger, in 1997 to do a medical internship at General Hospital. She met Dr. Joe Scanlon and fell for him, even though she had a police officer husband back home in San Francisco. Even though her marriage was on the rocks, she wanted to make it work, and tried hard to stay faithful. Karen decided to go back to San Francisco to see Jagger, thinking it would help their marriage and divert her feelings for Joe. When she went home, she found out that Jagger had been having an affair and their marriage was over. Karen then came back to Port Charles.
Night Shift[]
In 2008, Jagger returned to Port Charles. He had become an FBI agent and was now a single father, fighting for custody of his son named Stone Cates, Jr., after his brother Stone. Jagger's old friend Dr. Robin Scorpio recognized the signs of Autism in young Stone, and convinced Jagger to have him tested and to see a therapist. Stone was diagnosed with Autism, and Jagger ultimately returned to San Francisco with his son.
General Hospital Return (2024)[]
Jagger - now John - back in town (2024)
On February 2, 2024, Jagger (Adam J. Harrington) returned to Port Charles and bumped into Carly Spencer at Bobbie's, which used to be known as Kelly's until Bobbie Spencer passed away. Jagger introduced himself to Carly as "John" and he saw Leo Quartermaine hug Carly. Inside, John seemed to be watching Leo carefully as the boy fidgeted. He walked over and tried to talk to him about the book he's reading. Leo says he can't talk to strangers, so he shows him his badge and says he's Agent John with the FBI. Leo introduced himself and they talked about Leo's book of animals. Eventually, Olivia noticed Leo talking to the agent and went inside to find out who Leo's friend is. She sent Leo to wash his hands before John introduced himself and said his son also is on the spectrum and he was just trying to distract Leo as he was getting agitated watching her and her friend argue. Olivia asked about his son and he says he's grown and on his own now. John gets a call, excuses himself and says, "No one makes a move until I get there."
Suddenly Agent John burst into the room with two other agents and demanded that Anna and Jordan Ashford drop their guns, shutting down their sting operation in regards to meeting with a man named O'Neil, the arms dealer who sold the gun used to shoot Curtis Ashford back in 2023. Anna and Jordan slowly put their guns down, and Anna assumed he's the agent in charge of the investigation. Agent John then asked Anna if she recognized him and Anna realized that he was Jagger.
After O'Neil was taken into custody, Anna introduced Jagger to Jordan but Jagger revealed that he goes by "John" now since he outgrew the nickname "Jagger". John also revealed that they're interfering with his case and he already had his agents warn Jordan to stay out of it. After John told Jordan and Anna that neither one of them are officers anymore, Jordan suggested that he deputize them. John tells Anna and Jordan that Curtis' shooting is part of something much bigger. After giving them just enough information to satisfy their curiosity, John arrested Anna and Jordan, but released them after Anna decided to accept the position to become the Commissioner of the P.C.P.D. once again.
On March 4, John, Anna, the FBI and the PCPD raid one of Selina Wu's warehouses where Selina, Sonny and Ava Jerome are meeting as they set a trap to figure out who the mysterious assassin was that tried to kill Sonny multiple times. John claimed that they were investigating allegations of racketeering and RICO violations at the warehouse. As they conducted a search, a sniper took a shot at Sonny, but ended up missing his shot. Afterwards, Detective Dante Falconeri pursued the suspects since there was a two-man team, but ended up getting shot with bullet-piercing rounds and was taken to the hospital.
In the aftermath of the shooting, John ended up telling Anna and Ava about why he hates Sonny; it's because of what Sonny did to Karen Wexler. John told Anna and Ava that Sonny got Karen hooked on drugs, had her stripping in his club and in the end, he slept with her.
On March 7, John paid a visit to Damian Spinelli and Maxie Jones a visit, hoping to get the video footage of the two-man sniper team on the roof of the warehouse. Maxie recognized John as Jagger and he recognized her too, but threatened to have her and Spinelli arrested for interfering in a federal investigation. In order to save Maxie, Spinelli reluctantly let John have the footage, which revealed that Jason Morgan, who was thought to have been dead since November 2021, was actually alive and on the roof. John decided to go after Jason, so he later revealed to Anna that Jason is alive and is considered a suspect in Dante's shooting, especially since Jason was on the rooftop of the warehouse when the shot was fired.
John and Anna paid Carly a visit to search her house for Jason since they believed he would turn to her for help, but Carly refused to let them search her house in order to protect Jason, who was hiding out in her house. However, John told Carly that they actually have a warrant and they searched for Jason, but he was gone. However, Anna told John about somewhere else Jason would go, so they caught up with him at the footbridge Jason normally hangs out at and tried to get him to surrender, but Jason jumped off the footbridge to avoid being captured. John told Anna that Jason was most likely dead.
Romancing Ava Jerome (2024)
On March 14, it was revealed that John had Jason captured back in November 2021 and brought to Quantico, where he introduced himself as "Special Agent John Cates" due to being aware that Jason doesn't remember him. Jason insisted that he had nothing to say without his attorney, so John told Jason that he didn't have to say anything at that point since they had irrefutable proof of RICO violations which carried a 20-year prison sentence, revealing that Jason had been forced to work for the FBI.
On March 25, after John learned that Jason turned himself in, he went down to the PCPD where Detective Harrison Chase introduced Jason to John, unaware that they already knew each other. After John told Chase he'd take the interrogation from there, he privately confronted Jason on what he was doing and when Jason insisted that he was setting the record straight to prove he didn't shoot Dante, John warned him that the evidence against him said otherwise.
Jason told John about how he and Hamish, the operative Jason was pretending to work with, were on the rooftop like he told him and made sure Hamish missed his shot at Sonny before telling him to leave the rifle on the rooftop, which John had instructed Jason to do that night. Jason revealed that he and Hamish were making their way back to Pier 50 to meet the extraction team but Dante caught up with them somehow so Jason stopped, Hamish didn't so Jason slowly turned around and revealed himself before Hamish came out and shot him. John told Jason it was a mistake for him to let Dante I.D. him but his cover has already been blown since Sonny had video surveillance in place when the hit took place. When John asked about Hamish, Jason told him that he's dead, so John told him that he didn't have time for this since Anna would arrive soon and he didn't want to be there when she did so he needed to tell him everything.
Jason revealed how after Hamish shot Dante, he tried to kill him and when they exchanged fire, he shot Hamish. John pointed out that they never found the body so Jason told him he left him where he was and guessed that the extraction team picked him up. Jason admitted that he called 911 for Dante and administered first aid. John wondered why Jason didn't call him and why he ran, so Jason said he had to keep moving since he had been shot and he stayed long enough until he heard the sirens. John told Jason he should have called him, so Jason told him how he left the line open for them to pinpoint Dante's location and John countered by saying there were backup protocols. John wondered where Jason went, so Jason told him he went to the bridge, but John knew he wasn't telling him everything since he and Anna were there before he got to the bridge and rightfully guessed that he went to Carly's house first. However, Jason stuck to his story, so John wondered where he went after he jumped off the bridge.
On August 30, 2024, Cates and Sonny agree to meet on the deck outside the Quartermaine Boathouse, so Sonny will turn himself in, if Cates releases Sonny's daughter, Kristina Corinthos-Davis, from custody. They meet as a storm comes in, and Cates is surprised when Sonny pulls a gun on him. The mobster is upset that Cates went after his family and shoots him twice, once in the heart and then the head, killing him.
After Death[]
Michael walks in on Sonny outside the boathouse with Cates' corpse on the ground. Michael picks up the bullet shells and covers for Sonny who claims to everyone else that he was upstairs having sex with Carly when Cates was killed. They briefly pretend to be a couple in case the FBI is watching. Sonny has Jason melt down the murder weapon.
In September 2024, FBI Agent Noah Reynolds appears as federal prosecutor representing all of the FBI at the arraignment of Alexis Davis regarding the murder of Agent John Cates. Ric and Liz saw Alexis throw a gun off a bridge. She found it in Kristina's purse and got scared. Kristina stole it from a lockbox in Sonny's penthouse and told Alexis that she pulled into the Quartermaine driveway with the gun. She planned to kill Cates before changing her mind and leaving. In court, Alexis is denied bail and remanded to Pentonville Penitentiary where she is told she will await trial.
In October, Sonny arranges to meet with Reynolds and confess to Cates' murder to free Alexis but Dante stops him from confessing. Martin comes into the PCPD and asks Anna why the new evidence hasn't been shared in court yet. She explains that the missing gun, which Alexis tossed off a bridge, was just discovered at the PCPD but the ballistics don't match the gun used to kill Cates.
Back in court, Martin gives a report on the gun and moves to dismiss Alexis' charges. Reynolds argues against this but after the judge takes some time to consider the new evidence, the charges against Alexis are dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Ric later implies that he had Sonny's gun dropped off at the PCPD. It is unknown if the FBI is still building a case against Sonny.
Arrested for violating a restraining order against Gina [July 23, 1993]
Got into a physical fight with Sonny Corinthos and rendered him unconscious [Sep 27, 1993]
Punched Sonny [Oct 25, 1993]
Punched A.J. [Dec 28, 1993]
Punched his brother, Stone twice, knocking him unconscious [Mar 11, 1994]
Abuse of power; took over the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Pikeman Security Group in order to use that as an excuse to take down Sonny Corinthos [Nov 19, 2021-Jul 17, 2024; abuse of power revealed on Jul 29, 2024]
Had Jason Morgan arrested by two F.B.I. agents and flown to Quantico [Nov 19, 2021; revealed on Mar 14, 2024]
Blackmailed Jason into working for him as an F.B.I. informant by threatening to send Carly Spencer to prison for 20 years on RICO violations and criminal conspiracy if he refused [Nov 19, 2021-Jul 30, 2024; revealed on Mar 14, 2024; Jason was revealed to be an F.B.I. informant on Mar 26, 2024; Jason was revealed to be protecting Carly on Apr 2, 2024; Carly was cleared of all charges on Jul 30, 2024]
Blackmailed Jason into going deep undercover to infiltrate Pikeman as a private military contractor under the alias "Alan Jacobs" in order to take them down [Nov 19, 2021-Mar 4, 2024; Jason was revealed to be an operative on Mar 4, 2024; Jason's cover was revealed to be blown on Mar 25, 2024; Jason was revealed to be infiltrating Pikeman on Mar 26, 2024]
Worked with the F.B.I. to fake Jason's death to help him establish his cover as "Alan Jacobs" [Nov 19, 2021; Jason was revealed to be alive on Mar 4, 2024; John and the F.B.I.'s involvement in officially faking Jason's death revealed on Apr 9, 2024]
Withheld the information that Jason was on the rooftop of Selina Wu's warehouse with a Pikeman operative named Hamish, who prepared to take a shot at Sonny with a sniper during a raid that he, the F.B.I., Anna Devane and the P.C.P.D. led at her warehouse [Mar 4-25, 2024; revealed on Mar 26, 2024]
Questioned Danny Morgan on his father, Jason's whereabouts without his mother, Sam McCall present [Mar 19, 2024]
Blackmailed Jason into staying in Port Charles to use himself as bait to lure Pikeman out of hiding since Jason's cover was blown [Apr 2-Jul 18, 2024]
Blackmailed Jason into giving him evidence against Sonny or getting on a bus to Quantico by threatening to send Carly to Pentonville; failed as the trial against Carly was dropped [Jul 22-30, 2024]
Tried to make a new deal with Jason to free Carly by having him testify against Sonny [Jul 28-29, 2024; failed]
Withheld the information that Sonny's meds have been tampered with [Jul 29-Aug 30, 2024]
Tried to provoke Sonny into attacking him; failed as Michael held Sonny back [Jul 30, 2024]
Abuse of power; framed and then wrongfully arrested Kristina Corinthos-Davis on charges of attempted murder against Ava Jerome [Aug 19, 2024]
Blackmailed Linda Boyle into posing as an FBI Agent to kill Ava; failed as Jason rescued Ava [revealed on Aug 28, 2024; blackmail revealed on Aug 30, 2024]
Health and Vitals[]
Shot in the neck by one of his fellow accomplices while trying to rob Kelly's [Apr 8, 1992]
Knocked unconscious when he hit his head below deck on the Quartermaine boat [Jul 9, 1992]
Became stranded on a deserted island with Jason Quartermaine and Karen Wexler after the boat they were on capsized during a storm [Jul 16, 1992]
Motorcycle accident with his brother, Stone [Mar 11, 1994; hospitalized]
Beaten up by two of Sonny's men sent by Brick under Sonny's orders; Carly Spencer chased them away [Apr 9, 2024; revealed to be on Sonny and Brick's orders Apr 16, 2024]
Nearly attacked by Sonny after trying but failing to provoke him [Jul 30, 2024]
