Leonardo "Leo" du Pres is a fictional character from the American ABC Daytime soap opera All My Children. The role was portrayed by actor Josh Duhamel from November 22, 1999, to the character's death onscreen on October 17, 2002. Duhamel reprised his role on December 24, 2003, and for two episodes in August 2011.
Duhamel won a Daytime Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for the role. His portrayal of the character, and the effect it had on viewers, was cited in a TV Guide interview as causing mania, an extension being Leo's death, as viewers could not grasp such a fate for their beloved con artist. On June 6, 2011, Entertainment Weekly reported that Duhamel would return in August to reprise his role as Leo du Pres in a dream of Greenlee Smythe's.
Storyline
Leo started off his life not knowing his father or his brother. Vanessa had had an affair with a married French vineyard owner, or so it was said. Leo's father refused to leave his wife, and Vanessa was forced to raise her son by herself. She took to a life of finding rich, eligible men to finance herself and her son.
For portions of Leo's life, Vanessa claimed to be his aunt in order to protect her image. Her desire to be among the elite of society prevented her from announcing that she'd had a child out of wedlock.
Short on cash and tired of his boarding school lifestyle, Leo headed to Pine Valley to finally meet his mother's newest husband, Palmer Cortlandt. There was one problem. Palmer was sure that Leo was Vanessa's younger lover. He had his cronies kidnap and drug Leo. Palmer even planned to make it look like Leo had killed Vanessa in a fit of jealousy. Palmer Cortlandt found out just before the staged shooting that Leo was Vanessa's son and jumped in front of the bullet. Leo was thought to be involved in the shooting, but he was never charged with anything. Vanessa learned that Palmer had staged the shooting and used a guilt trip to convince Palmer to hire Leo as a vice president at Cortlandt Electronics.
Leo didn't really like the idea of working for a living and continued mulling about town. He met up with Greenlee Smythe, and the two of them made plans to win the affection of their crushes, Becca Tyree for Leo and Scott Chandler for Greenlee. Greenlee went too far and hooked up with a shady character in an attempt to make Ryan jealous. Leo saved the day by tracking down Greenlee and Ken, but he took a switchblade to the hand in the process.
As it became clearer and clearer that Ryan Lavery wasn't going to fall for Greenlee, Greenlee developed a relationship with Leo du Pres. The two fooled around, but neither one put much thought into the fact that they could have a relationship with each other. The pair even teamed up on a bet as to whether or not Leo could seduce Becca Tyree into giving her virginity to him.
Greenlee covered for Ryan when he "borrowed" two million dollars from his Internet company's tills. She got involved with a sleazy loan shark, with ties to the underworld, named Wade Randall. Wade loaned Greenlee the money to cover Ryan's debt so that Ryan would not be arrested for embezzlement, but Wade immediately took Greenlee to task by demanding that she introduce him to her grandfather. Greenlee turned him in to the police, and he was arrested. Greenlee's trouble with Wade, though, was anything but over. Wade somehow managed to regain his freedom, and he immediately went after Greenlee for turning him in to the cops.
Wade held Greenlee at gunpoint and demanded that she get him a sizeable chunk of cash and a passport out of the country. Greenlee tried her best to get Leo out of the way by telling him that she didn't care about him and wanted nothing more to do with him. Nevertheless, Leo continued hanging around and almost got shot in the process. Wade later collared Greenlee and held her hostage for one million dollars in ransom. Woodruff agreed to drop off the money at the boathouse in order to win his granddaughter's freedom. Leo happened upon the scene and tried to muscle Wade into submission. He failed, and Wade locked Leo and Greenlee in a faulty elevator. Leo helped Greenlee escape the elevator before its cable snapped; Leo wasn't as lucky, though he did manage to escape before the elevator totally bottomed out.
Afterwards, Leo and Greenlee were closer than ever. Leo took Greenlee to the tropics to toast their new relationship. What Greenlee didn't know was that Leo was using her grandfather's ransom money to fund the getaway. When Greenlee learned the truth, she and Leo returned to Pine Valley, and Leo was subsequently arrested for theft. Greenlee asked her grandfather to have the charges against Leo dropped. Woodruff said that he'd talk to Leo.