I don't really see anything in leon that resemble dante except for his eyes....or maybe i watched the RE: Degeneration before playing the game.Leon was just too serious in that...
Well only in RE4, does Leon adopt a Dante-like personality. (Cracking jokes, taunting enemies, throwing cool comebacks in any situation, DOING cool stuff, like hitting one boss with the dagger etc.). In his other versions he's way more normal. In RE2 he is just a simple policeman and in Degeneration he's like he came over from Men In Black. All-knowing and extremely serious while still doing amazing feats.
Dunno if in the wii remake of RE2 he's more like RE4 though.