Hank Gannon

Hank Gannon is a fictional character from the American ABC soap opera One Life to Live.

Casting

The role of Hank was originated by actor Nathan Purdee on January 31, 1992. Purdee continued regularly appearing in the role until July 18, 2003, and he returned for three episodes in April 2009.

Storylines

Divorced attorney Hank Gannon arrives in fictional Llanview hired to defend Sarah [Gordon (One Life to Live)|Sarah Gordon Buchanan] in the murder of Carlo Hesser. In 1993, he finds himself as the prosecuting district attorney head-to-head against ex-wife Nora Hanen in the infamous Todd Manning and [Marty Saybrooke rape storylines|Todd Manning and Marty Saybrooke rape trial]. Nora throws the case upon uncovering evidence implicating Todd in the rape, although Todd never serves jail time.
After years of prosecuting Llanview criminals, Hank leaves his post as district attorney in 2003 after mishandling of the Mitch Laurence murder case. He returns to Llanview with his daughter Rachel in April 2009 upon the news that Nora's son Matthew was paralyzed in a car accident.

Reception

In 2020, Candace Young and Charlie Mason put Hank on their list of Daytime's Most Important African-American Characters, commenting "By the time we met Nathan Purdee's "The Cannon," he'd already traded the football field for the courtroom" and that he was a "mvp" who could "still score".