Will Graham
Encyclopedia
Will Graham is a fictional character
and the main protagonist in Thomas Harris
' 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is an FBI profiler
responsible for the original capture of the serial killer
Hannibal Lecter
and the man who is assigned to locate killer Francis Dolarhyde
.
Although successful, Graham is seriously injured by Dolarhyde and traumatised by the incident. Other than passing mentions in Harris' sequel The Silence of the Lambs
, he does not appear in any other book of the Hannibal series. In the film adaptations, Manhunter
and Red Dragon
, he is portrayed by William Petersen
and Edward Norton
, respectively.
Red Dragon establishes Graham's backstory. He had been a homicide detective in New Orleans who had grown up poor in several places, including Biloxi and Lake Erie
. He leaves New Orleans to attend graduate school in forensic science at George Washington University
. After attaining his degree, Graham goes to work for the FBI's crime lab. Following exceptional work both in the crime lab and in the field, Graham is given a post as teacher at the FBI Academy
. During both his field work while at the crime lab and the Academy, Graham is given the title of "Special Investigator" while he is in the field.
Graham is portrayed as having the ability to empathize with the serial killers he pursues; he is often disturbed, even disgusted, by this ability.
In 1970s, he tracks a serial killer in Minnesota
who had been murdering college coeds for eight months. In 1975, he eventually catches the killer, Garrett Jacob Hobbs, known as the "Minnesota Shrike", at the suspect's home, repeatedly slashing his own daughter's throat. As Graham appears, Hobbs' wife is on the apartment landing, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, and clutches at Graham before he breaks down the door. He then shoots Hobbs to death. Hobbs' daughter survives and eventually goes on with her life following intensive psychotherapy
. Graham is profoundly disturbed by the incident and is referred to the psychiatric ward of Bethesda Naval hospital. After a month in the hospital, he returns to the FBI.
In 1977, he tracks down another serial killer known as the "Chesapeake Ripper", who removes his victims' organs. He notices that a victim with multiple stab wounds has a healed stab wound; according to his medical records, from a hunting accident five years previous. He tracks down the doctor who treated the victim in the emergency room, Dr. Hannibal Lecter
, now a renowned psychiatrist
, to see if he remembers any suspicious circumstances surrounding the patient. Lecter is polite and helpful but claims not to remember very much. Graham, not satisfied, returns to see the doctor in his office, and seeing some antique medical books, realizes that Lecter is the killer he seeks. Graham goes to Lecter's outer office and makes a phone call to the FBI's Baltimore Field Office. Lecter, who has removed his shoes, sneaks up on Graham and slashes his abdomen
with a linoleum knife
, nearly disemboweling
him. FBI agents and Maryland State Troopers
arrive and arrest Lecter, and Graham spends months recovering in a hospital. It was only after a while in the hospital that he realized what had tipped him off — the antique medical diagram
Wound Man
, whose wounds match exactly those of the Ripper's victim. Graham's capture of Lecter makes him a media celebrity, and he is revered as a legend at the FBI. A tabloid reporter, Freddy Lounds, sneaks into the hospital where Graham is recuperating, photographing Graham's wounds, and humiliating him in the National Tattler. Graham retires after his recovery.
In 1980, Graham is living with his wife Molly, whom he met a year after the incident with Lecter, and her son Willy in Sugarloaf Key
, Florida
. His former boss, Jack Crawford
, persuades him to come out of retirement
and help the FBI catch a killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy" (actually a man named Francis Dolarhyde
), who had killed two families on a lunar cycle, the first in Birmingham
and the second in Atlanta
. After studying the crime scenes, Graham consults Lecter on the case, but Lecter only taunts him, and later sends Graham's address to Dolarhyde in code, threatening the safety of his wife and stepson. The family are moved first to a cottage owned by Crawford's brother, but Molly later decides to take Willy to stay with her late first husband's parents in Oregon
. Graham resumes tracking Dolarhyde and uses Lounds in an attempt to break the coded communication between Lecter and Dolarhyde by giving Lounds false information, insinuating that Dolarhyde is an impotent homosexual. Enraged, Dolarhyde kidnaps and brutally murders Lounds. After linking him to a video production company, Graham, Crawford, and FBI agents arrive at Dolarhyde's home to arrest him, only to find that the killer had set it on fire while his blind
girlfriend, Reba McClane, was inside; he then apparently committed suicide
. Graham rescues and consoles McClane, and returns home, believing Dolarhyde's reign of terror to be over.
However, Dolarhyde's apparent suicide is revealed to have been a ruse; he had shot a previous victim, fooling McClane into thinking he was dead. Dolarhyde attacks Graham and his family at their Florida home, stabbing Graham in the face before being killed by Graham's wife. Graham and his family survive, but he is left disfigured. Will Graham is briefly referred to in The Silence of the Lambs
, the sequel to Red Dragon when Clarice Starling
notes that “Will Graham, the keenest hound ever to run in Crawford’s pack, was a legend at the (FBI) Academy; he was also a drunk in Florida
now with a face that’s hard to look at...” Crawford tells her that "[Graham's] face looks like damned Picasso drew it." When Starling first meets Lecter, he asks her how Graham's face looks. Before Lecter's escape, Dr. Frederick Chilton
tells him that Crawford is not happy that Lecter "cut up his protege", referencing Graham.
by William Petersen
and again in Red Dragon
by Edward Norton
.
In both adaptations, his eventual disfigurement is downplayed, and he appears to survive with a relatively happy ending, the last scene of Red Dragon showing him reading a letter from Lecter on a boat with his wife and son. Red Dragon also changes the nature of his connection to Lecter; while in the novel he met Lecter for the first time while questioning him about the patient, in the film he and Lecter have apparently known each other for some time, with Graham often consulting Lecter on several of his cases until he intuits Lecter's true nature.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and the main protagonist in Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris is an American author and screenwriter, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter...
' 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is an FBI profiler
Offender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
responsible for the original capture of the serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
and the man who is assigned to locate killer Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde is a fictional character and the main antagonist featured in the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon.-Character overview:Dolarhyde is a serial killer nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other...
.
Although successful, Graham is seriously injured by Dolarhyde and traumatised by the incident. Other than passing mentions in Harris' sequel The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. It was directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine, and Scott Glenn...
, he does not appear in any other book of the Hannibal series. In the film adaptations, Manhunter
Manhunter (film)
Manhunter is a 1986 American thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it stars William Petersen as Will Graham and features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor...
and Red Dragon
Red Dragon (film)
Red Dragon is a 2002 thriller film based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. It is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs....
, he is portrayed by William Petersen
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He portrayed President John F...
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
, respectively.
Profile
- This history is based on the novel by Thomas Harris, not any of the screenplays in which Will Graham appears:
Red Dragon establishes Graham's backstory. He had been a homicide detective in New Orleans who had grown up poor in several places, including Biloxi and Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
. He leaves New Orleans to attend graduate school in forensic science at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
. After attaining his degree, Graham goes to work for the FBI's crime lab. Following exceptional work both in the crime lab and in the field, Graham is given a post as teacher at the FBI Academy
FBI Academy
The FBI Academy, located in Quantico, Virginia, is the training site for new Special Agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was first opened for use in 1972 on 385 acres of woodland. It is a relatively small government academy, housing three dormitory buildings and...
. During both his field work while at the crime lab and the Academy, Graham is given the title of "Special Investigator" while he is in the field.
Graham is portrayed as having the ability to empathize with the serial killers he pursues; he is often disturbed, even disgusted, by this ability.
In 1970s, he tracks a serial killer in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
who had been murdering college coeds for eight months. In 1975, he eventually catches the killer, Garrett Jacob Hobbs, known as the "Minnesota Shrike", at the suspect's home, repeatedly slashing his own daughter's throat. As Graham appears, Hobbs' wife is on the apartment landing, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, and clutches at Graham before he breaks down the door. He then shoots Hobbs to death. Hobbs' daughter survives and eventually goes on with her life following intensive psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
. Graham is profoundly disturbed by the incident and is referred to the psychiatric ward of Bethesda Naval hospital. After a month in the hospital, he returns to the FBI.
In 1977, he tracks down another serial killer known as the "Chesapeake Ripper", who removes his victims' organs. He notices that a victim with multiple stab wounds has a healed stab wound; according to his medical records, from a hunting accident five years previous. He tracks down the doctor who treated the victim in the emergency room, Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
, now a renowned psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, to see if he remembers any suspicious circumstances surrounding the patient. Lecter is polite and helpful but claims not to remember very much. Graham, not satisfied, returns to see the doctor in his office, and seeing some antique medical books, realizes that Lecter is the killer he seeks. Graham goes to Lecter's outer office and makes a phone call to the FBI's Baltimore Field Office. Lecter, who has removed his shoes, sneaks up on Graham and slashes his abdomen
Abdomen
In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
with a linoleum knife
Linoleum knife
A linoleum knife is a small knife that has a short, stiff blade with a curved point and a handle and is used to cut linoleum or other sheet materials such as wood panelling and veneer and sheet mica. The knife is similar in design to the sickle...
, nearly disemboweling
Disembowelment
Disembowelment is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract , usually through a horizontal incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture and execution...
him. FBI agents and Maryland State Troopers
Maryland State Police
The Maryland State Police is the official state police force of the state of Maryland. The Maryland State Police is headquartered at 1201 Reisterstown Road in the Pikesville CDP in unincorporated Baltimore County.-Organizational structure:...
arrive and arrest Lecter, and Graham spends months recovering in a hospital. It was only after a while in the hospital that he realized what had tipped him off — the antique medical diagram
Diagram
A diagram is a two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique. Sometimes, the technique uses a three-dimensional visualization which is then projected onto the two-dimensional surface...
Wound Man
Wound Man
Wound Man is an illustration which first appeared in European surgical texts in the Middle Ages. It laid out schematically the various wounds a person might suffer in battle or in accidents, often with surrounding or accompanying text stating treatments for the various injuries...
, whose wounds match exactly those of the Ripper's victim. Graham's capture of Lecter makes him a media celebrity, and he is revered as a legend at the FBI. A tabloid reporter, Freddy Lounds, sneaks into the hospital where Graham is recuperating, photographing Graham's wounds, and humiliating him in the National Tattler. Graham retires after his recovery.
In 1980, Graham is living with his wife Molly, whom he met a year after the incident with Lecter, and her son Willy in Sugarloaf Key
Sugarloaf Key
Sugarloaf Key is a single island in the lower Florida Keys that forms a loop on the Atlantic Ocean side giving the illusion of separate islands. Although frequently referred to simply and with technical accuracy as "Sugarloaf Key", this island contains two distinct island communities, known as...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. His former boss, Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford (character)
Jack Crawford is a fictional character who appears in the Hannibal Lecter series of books by Thomas Harris, in which Crawford is the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. He is modeled after John E...
, persuades him to come out of retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
and help the FBI catch a killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy" (actually a man named Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde is a fictional character and the main antagonist featured in the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon.-Character overview:Dolarhyde is a serial killer nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other...
), who had killed two families on a lunar cycle, the first in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
and the second in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. After studying the crime scenes, Graham consults Lecter on the case, but Lecter only taunts him, and later sends Graham's address to Dolarhyde in code, threatening the safety of his wife and stepson. The family are moved first to a cottage owned by Crawford's brother, but Molly later decides to take Willy to stay with her late first husband's parents in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Graham resumes tracking Dolarhyde and uses Lounds in an attempt to break the coded communication between Lecter and Dolarhyde by giving Lounds false information, insinuating that Dolarhyde is an impotent homosexual. Enraged, Dolarhyde kidnaps and brutally murders Lounds. After linking him to a video production company, Graham, Crawford, and FBI agents arrive at Dolarhyde's home to arrest him, only to find that the killer had set it on fire while his blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
girlfriend, Reba McClane, was inside; he then apparently committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Graham rescues and consoles McClane, and returns home, believing Dolarhyde's reign of terror to be over.
However, Dolarhyde's apparent suicide is revealed to have been a ruse; he had shot a previous victim, fooling McClane into thinking he was dead. Dolarhyde attacks Graham and his family at their Florida home, stabbing Graham in the face before being killed by Graham's wife. Graham and his family survive, but he is left disfigured. Will Graham is briefly referred to in The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs (novel)
The Silence of the Lambs is a novel by Thomas Harris. First published in 1988, it is the sequel to Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. Both novels feature the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, this time pitted against FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling.- Plot summary :The novel takes...
, the sequel to Red Dragon when Clarice Starling
Clarice Starling
Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and the protagonist in the novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris....
notes that “Will Graham, the keenest hound ever to run in Crawford’s pack, was a legend at the (FBI) Academy; he was also a drunk in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
now with a face that’s hard to look at...” Crawford tells her that "[Graham's] face looks like damned Picasso drew it." When Starling first meets Lecter, he asks her how Graham's face looks. Before Lecter's escape, Dr. Frederick Chilton
Frederick Chilton
Dr. Frederick Chilton is a fictional character appearing in Thomas Harris' novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.-Red Dragon:...
tells him that Crawford is not happy that Lecter "cut up his protege", referencing Graham.
Films
Graham has been portrayed twice on screen; in ManhunterManhunter (film)
Manhunter is a 1986 American thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it stars William Petersen as Will Graham and features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor...
by William Petersen
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He portrayed President John F...
and again in Red Dragon
Red Dragon (film)
Red Dragon is a 2002 thriller film based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. It is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs....
by Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
.
In both adaptations, his eventual disfigurement is downplayed, and he appears to survive with a relatively happy ending, the last scene of Red Dragon showing him reading a letter from Lecter on a boat with his wife and son. Red Dragon also changes the nature of his connection to Lecter; while in the novel he met Lecter for the first time while questioning him about the patient, in the film he and Lecter have apparently known each other for some time, with Graham often consulting Lecter on several of his cases until he intuits Lecter's true nature.