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| “ | It's just you and me now, sport... | „ |
| ~ Graham as he profiles the "Tooth Fairy" |
Will Graham is the hero of the novel Red Dragon and the two movie adaptions, Manhunter and Red Dragon. He is also the main protagonist of Hannibal TV Series and a mentioned character in The Silence of the Lambs.
History[]
Background[]
Born to a poor family in Louisiana, Will moved to New Orleans and got work as a homicide detective and eventually became a teacher at the FBI Academy and a skilled criminal profiler. Will has an eidetic memory and the ability to empathize with psychopaths, an ability he finds disturbing.
The Minnesota Shrike[]
Will's first life-changing case is the serial killer known as "The Minnesota Shrike", who murders college girls. After several months working on the case, Will uncovers the Shrike's identity: pipe threader Garret Jacob Hobbs. Will goes to Hobbs' house only to find that Hobbs has killed his wife and stabbed his daughter, Abigail. Will shoots Hobbs dead, saving Abigail's life. Will is deeply disturbed by the incident, and checks himself into the Bethesda Naval Hospital for mental health treatment. Will is released a month later and returns to the FBI.
The Chesapeake Ripper[]
Five years later, Will investigates a series of cannibalistic murders committed by a killer nicknamed The Chesapeake Ripper. While investigating the case, Will meets Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist who had been treating one of the killer's victims. After a brief conversation with Lecter, Will intuits that he is the killer. Will excuses himself and goes to use Lecter's phone; Lecter, who senses that Will is on to him, sneaks up behind him and stabs him in the gut, nearly disemboweling him. The police save Will and arrest Lecter, who is later found insane and institutionalized for life. Only while recovering in the hospital does Will realize how he had figured out the truth about Lecter; he had seen in Lecter's office the antique medical diagram "Wound Man", which had a wound pattern identical to that of the victim.
Traumatized, Will retires from the FBI and moves to Florida, where he marries a woman named Molly and becomes stepfather to her son, Willy.
The Tooth Fairy[]
Three years later, Will returns to the FBI after his old boss Jack Crawford asks him to consult on a case in which a killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy" is murdering entire families on a lunar cycle. When he hits a dead end, Will reluctantly consults with Lecter, now institutionalized in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter "helps" by putting Will's address in a coded message to the Tooth Fairy, thus endangering Will's family.
Will decides to draw the Tooth Fairy out by giving an interview with tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds an interview in which he insinuates that the killer is gay, impotent, and the product of incest. Sure enough, the killer, Francis Dolarhyde, is enraged upon reading the interview, and kidnaps and brutally murders Lounds. Will eventually discovers Dolarhyde's guilt and goes to arrest him, only to find that Dolarhyde has set his house on fire and apparently committed suicide. After comforting Dolarhyde's traumatized, blind girlfriend, Reba McClane, Will returns to Florida.
It is ultimately revealed that Dolarhyde faked his death, and breaks into Will's house, intent on killing Will and his family. Will and Dolarhyde get into a brutal fight in which Dolarhyde stabs Will in the face before Molly shoots and kills him. While he is recovering, Will receives a letter from Lecter wishing him well and hoping that he isn't "too ugly".
Aftermath[]
Will was left badly scarred and traumatized after the attack by Francis Dolarhyde. Years after the incident, Clarice Starling reflects that Will is now "a drunk with a face that's hard to look at," while Crawford says that "Will looks like damn Picasso painted him" after the attack.
Other appearances[]
Hannibal (TV Series)[]
- Main article: Will Graham (TV)
Will Graham is the main protagonist and anti-hero of the NBC Series Hannibal, in which he is played by Hugh Dancy. The show explores his relationship with Hannibal Lecter prior to the events of Red Dragon and acts as a retelling of the books.
It is revealed near the end of the series that Lecter is in love with Will, and it is also hinted that Will feels the same. Tweaking events of Red Dragon, Will decides to use Lecter as bait to lure out Francis Dolarhyde, which leads to the police escort being killed. Will and Lecter head to a house a cliffside where the both of them team up to overpower Dolarhyde and kill him. Will and Lecter embrace near the cliff edge, and both fall into the sea below; it is left ambiguous whether they survive.