Mitch Laurence
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| Mitch Laurence | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Roscoe Born as Mitch Laurence (1986) |
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| One Life to Live | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Roscoe Born (1985-1987, 2002-2003) | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe by Jessica Buchanan to protect Todd Manning | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Aliases | Michael Lazarus | ||||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | Con artist | ||||||||||||
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Mitch Laurence was a fictional character, portrayed by Roscoe Born, on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, from 1985 to 1987 and again from 2002 to 2003.
[edit] Enter Mitch
Charismatic Mitch Laurence arrived in Llanview in 1985 and set his sights on ex-girlfriend Tina Clayton, who had just discovered she was the daughter of deceased millionaire Victor Lord. Finding out that Victor's estate would revert to Tina if Victor's other daughter Viki Lord Buchanan had a relapse of her multiple personality disorder, Mitch convinced Tina to assist him in his plan to do just that. But when Tina realized that Mitch actually intended to murder Viki's husband Clint Buchanan and frame Viki, she tried to stop him. Mitch killed Harry O'Neill instead, and Tina was arrested.
Tina was later exonerated and Mitch went to prison; he "found God" and managed to be freed, soon becoming the leader of a religious cult and preying upon his young female disciples. He then orchestrated the kidnapping of Clint and Viki Buchanan's newborn daughter Jessica by his follower Allison Perkins (daughter of Statesville Prison's warden). Jessica was eventually returned, and Mitch was killed on July 18, 1987 by a blow to the back of the head from Dorian Cramer Lord as he attempted to rape her daughter, Cassie Callison.
[edit] Resurrection
Natalie Balsom came to Llanview in 2001, soon revealing that she was actually the biological daughter of Viki and Clint Buchanan. At first it was believed that when Allison Perkins had kidnapped the Buchanan baby in 1987, another child was returned and grew up to be Jessica. But when a DNA test on Jessica proved that she was also Viki's daughter, the real story came out.
Mitch Laurence had secretly raped a drugged Viki around the same time she conceived a child with Clint. Viki unknowingly became pregnant with fraternal twins, one fathered by Clint (Natalie) and the other fathered by Mitch (Jessica). Dr. Walter Balsom, who had been one of Mitch's disciples, took Mitch's daughter during delivery, and Viki never knew she'd had more than one child. Mitch, however, wanted his daughter to grow up loved by Viki in the lap of luxury, and sent Allison to kidnap Clint's child. They replaced her with Mitch's daughter (who would become Jessica), and gave Clint's daughter (who would become Natalie) to Dr. Balsom and his wife Roxy.
In 2002, Mitch returned from the dead; he had not actually died at Dorian's hands, but Dr. Balsom had helped him make it look that way. As "Michael Lazarus" Mitch wooed Natalie Buchanan into marriage. The union was soon annulled, but in 2003 Mitch married a newly-returned-to-town Dorian, who wanted in on Mitch's true plan: to take control of Victor Lord's estate. A very-much-alive Victor had been living in seclusion but was now in need of a heart transplant; Mitch had promised him a perfect match in exchange for his fortune, and Victor had agreed. Mitch's own daughter Jessica had the matching organ but he offered up Natalie instead; Viki's arrival stopped the operation, and Victor soon died in front of his shocked daughter. Later, Jessica accidentally pushed Mitch into the Llantano River.
Mitch regained his sight (after an accident blinded him), and was rescued by Viki's half-brother Todd Manning (who had been impersonating Mitch's brother Walker). Mitch kidnapped Jessica again and dragged her to Lion's Heart, the gothic mansion where Victor had been living all those years. Viki and Antonio rescued Jessica and Mitch was arrested. He was later released from jail by Todd, who led him to the docks to make an escape. Mitch tried to kill Todd, and Jessica appeared and knocked Mitch over the head with a lead pipe, killing him instantly. Todd didn't want her to take the blame, so he planted false evidence to point the finger of suspicion at others. The body was discovered by Tina's daughter Sarah "Flash" Roberts, and though Todd and Jessica each confessed to killing Mitch, Police Commissioner Bo Buchanan was inclined to look the other way and abandon the case.
