Handsome, smooth, and a real sleaze, Damian Smith, son of mobster Frank Smith, graced General Hospital from 1993-1996.  Played by DDG (drop dead gorgeous) blue-eyed Leigh McCloskey, his nefarious dealings finally ended (we think, anyway) when he died off camera.  And we know what that means.

Lately, Damian's name has come up because he is one of the many characters mentioned who might be "Fluke."  Would McCloskey return?

  The Magic 8 Ball is saying "answer hazy, try again."  The 59-year-old has been involved in some very interesting pursuits over the years, and acting is just one of them.

Acting Beginnings

McCloskey certainly started out as an actor, with all the bells and whistles: Juilliard School training, rooming with Frasier's Kelsey Grammer, a role in the very first miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), starring roles in three series: Executive Suite (1976), Married: the First Year (1979), and on Dallas as Mitch Cooper, Lucy's husband, from 1980-82, with additional appearances in 1985 and 1988.

The Los Angeles-born actor worked consistently in TV films, miniseries and feature films. Some of the most prominent ones:  Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976)and its sequel Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977) in which he played the title role, Bermuda Depths (1978),Trouble Shooters: Trapped Beneath the Earth (1993), and with Linda Gray (Dallas) in Accidental Meeting (1994).  In 2005, he starred in the television miniseries Gone But Not Forgotten.

Films include Inferno (1980) directed by Dario Argento, Just One of the Guys (1985), Fraternity Vacation (1985) (with Tim Robbins), and Cameron's Closet (1988). Guest star parts on TV run the gamut: Love Boat, Hotel, Jake and the Fatman, JAG, Life Goes On, Chicago Hope, Medical Center, Raven, many others.

McCloskey has never been a stranger to playing villains; he's been a bad guy on four science fiction TV shows: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.  Soaps are familiar territory to him, with roles on One Life to Live, Santa Barbara, and The Young and the Restless along with GH.

Artwork and Books

With a long list of credits, it's possible McCloskey just wanted an occasional break from acting, but what a break -- an entirely new career as an artist.

Let's start with his three Codex Tor illuminated books.  A Codex is a manuscript with decoration.  Examples would be borders and small illustrations, usually in gold or silver.  Volume One,  Winter Solstice, Volume Two, Summer Solstice, and Volume Three, Equinox, contain 500+ hand drawn and painted images, created over a 21-year time frame.

He also produced a new Tarot Card series, Tarot Revisioned, which consisted of black and white drawings done in pen and ink.  

On 9/11/2011, McCloskey started a 3-D painting, The Hieroglyph of the Human Soul.  This is a "cave painting" which covers the floor, walls, ceiling, furniture, and books of his studio in Malibu, California.  For this, he used "Watcher" language.  

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones used images from the Grimoire (Book of Spells), which McCloskey created for the film Shadow of the Vampire, for the group's Bigger Bang Tour. A giant screen displayed projected these images behind the group. 

McCloskey has applied his artistry to so much more, all totally over my head but very beautiful.  He is a man of wide interests that take in music, esotericism, string theory, and quantum physics; additionally, he has studied Hermeticism, Alchemy and Kabbalah.  His home is a salon, where he holds philosophical discussions twice a week.  A worldwide lecturer on his holography and visual philosophy, he is also a published essayist on a variety of subjects.

Who knew?

Balancing Careersand Home Life

As far as acting, the 59-year-old has kept his hand in, recurring as Dr. Kurt Costner on The Young and the Restless in 2013, and guest starring on Bones in 2011.  Most recently, he was in a short film, Before Your Eyes, written and directed by none other than A Martinez (ex-Roy Deluca #2).

In his personal life, McCloskey is the father of two daughters, Caytlyn Alexander and Brighton Aubreigh, with his wife of 36 years, director Carla Reinke.

I'm thinking he might be too busy at this point for General Hospital.  Would we love to see him back?  Oh, yes!  We soap fans can appreciate good looks, artistic talent, deep thinking, and brains as much as anyone.