| Greg Nelson | |||||||||||
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| Laurence Lau as Greg Nelson | |||||||||||
| All My Children | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Laurence Lau (1981-84, 1984-86, 2008) Don Scardino (1984) Jack Armstrong (1986) | ||||||||||
| Current status | Former; Recurring | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1981-84, 1984-86, 2008 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 1981 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | 2008 | ||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Left Town | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Family | Nelson Family | ||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Teacher | ||||||||||
| Residence | Seattle | ||||||||||
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Greg Nelson is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera, All My Children, portrayed by Laurence Lau.
Storylines[]
Greg Nelson was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His mother, Enid Nelson, preferred that he dated a woman like Liza Colby, another member of Pine Valley’s upper crust. But someone else had caught Greg’s eye. Jenny Gardner was a beautiful woman from the wrong side of the tracks. Greg knew his mother would disapprove, but he could not ignore his attraction.
Greg did not know why Jenny broke up with him. She soon left town. Liza saw this as the perfect opportunity to pursue him again. But, Greg was not interested. Jesse came back to town to tell Greg why Jenny had left. But, Liza had implicated Jesse in raping her. He was taken away to prison awaiting trial. The trial brought Jenny home. She confronted Liza about all her lies. She had lied about being raped by Jesse. She had blackmailed Jenny into leaving town by threatening to tell Greg about her father, Ray Gardner’s, crimes. Greg told Jenny that none of that mattered. After the trial, they reunited. That Christmas, Greg proposed to her.
That New Year’s Eve Greg accidentally stumbled on Ray in the Martin cellar with a bomb. He told him that Jenny was in the house too. Ray ran out of the cellar trying to disarm the bomb while Greg ran into the living room and told everyone to take cover. When he heard the explosion, he knew Ray was dead.
Greg had to contend with a lot of criticism when he announced his intent on marrying Jenny. His mother, Enid, overdosed on drugs. Liza and Amanda continued to plot. But most of all, Jenny’s insecurities plagued their happiness. One day, Jenny’s brother Tad Martin had played a pornographic film at the student union as a practical joke. Only, someone had super imposed Jenny’s face over the woman in the picture. She ran to the rooftop of the University to escape the crowd. Greg followed, but slipped and fell off the roof. When he awoke, he knew something was wrong. He was paralyzed. Through his depression, Greg thought it was best to push Jenny away so as to not burden her with a crippled. Jenny finally left Greg for her modeling job in New York. Slowly, Greg began to recover. He found his pillar of support in Myrtle Fargate. Myrtle encouraged Greg to not give up on Jenny. But, when news came that she was engaged to her modeling partner Tony Barclay, Greg thought all hope was lost.
Jenny and Greg met up in New York before the wedding. It was as if no time had passed. Greg admitted his own insecurities after the accident. Before coming home to Pine Valley, Greg professed his love for Jenny, praying she would change her mind about marrying Tony.
Greg found out Amanda Cousins and his mother had plotted to keep a letter away from him. The letter contained Jenny’s declaration of love. He got on the first train to New York, determined to stop her wedding to Tony. He stormed the chapel and knocked Tony out. Greg explained the whole situation to Jenny. He proposed to her again, and this time she accepted. That Valentine’s day, they married. Greg and Jenny’s happiness was compromised by Tony’s growing obsession with his e-fiancé. Tad and the Nelsons went to the lake for a vacation. Greg had just bought a new jet ski. Jenny insisted on trying it out first. When she was riding it on the lake, it suddenly exploded. Tony had rigged it to combust with Greg as the original target. At the hospital, Greg pleaded with Jenny to hold on. But, the doctors knew the injuries were too severe. Jenny died that night.
Greg took Jenny’s lost hard. He again turned to Myrtle to help him through it. While visiting her grave one night, he met a woman named Sheila who had a remarkable resemblance to Jenny. Greg grew obsessed with her, trying to mold her into Jenny. Myrtle convinced Greg to let go of his late wife, and Sheila.
Greg was dating fellow bank teller Robin McCall when she and Tad were held up in a robbery at the bank. The event made him realize how much he loved Robin, and he proposed to her. Only, Robin had since fallen in love with Tad. Robin’s brother was the conman Wade Mathews. Wade encouraged Robin to pursue Tad so that he could weasel his way into his in-law, Phoebe Wallingford’s, life. When Greg learned about Robin’s feelings for Tad, he left her.
Pine Valley had too many bad memories for Greg. He accepted a new job in Hong Kong.
After years in international business, Greg settled in Seattle as a high school teacher. Though back in the states, he rarely visited or thought of Pine Valley. Greg was in for the surprise of his life when he got a call from Jesse, a man he had thought was dead for the last twenty years. Jesse and Angie were set to remarry, and Jesse wanted to surprise Angie by having Greg at the wedding. After a heartfelt reunion with his old friends, they made their way to Jenny’s grave. Greg also reunited with Tad and Opal. Tad introduced Greg to his little girl, Jenny Martin, named after Greg's late wife and Tad’s sister. Greg saw his Jenny in Tad’s daughter’s eyes.
Robert Gardner, Tad and Jenny’s deranged uncle, went on a shooting spree at the reception. Greg pushed Angie’s daughter, Cassandra Foster, out of the way of a bullet. In the end, Greg was lucky to be only superficially injured. Tad and Julia Keefer had both sustained critical injuries.