Hannibal Lecter

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Hannibal Tetralogy character

Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The

Silence of the Lambs
Birth name Hannibal Lecter VIII
D.O.B. January 20, 1933 (1936 in film)[1]
Dr. Hannibal Lecter M.D. / Count
Titles
Hannibal Lecter VIII
Lloyd Wyman
Aliases Dr. Fell
Mr. Closter
Nicknames Hannibal the Cannibal
Gender Male
Lithuanian (Father), Italian (Mother),
Nationality French (Citizenship), American (Long-
time residence)
Race Caucasian
Lithuanian nobility (Paternal)
Ancestry
Italian nobility (Maternal)
Mischa Lecter (Sister)
Relatives Count Robert Lecter (Uncle)
Lady Murasaki (Aunt-by-marriage)
Lady Murasaki
Romance
Clarice Starling (Novel)
Institut De Médecine St Marie, Paris,
France (M.D.)[citation needed]
Education Johns Hopkins University Hospital,
Baltimore, Maryland (Psychiatry
Residency Training)
M.O. Cannibalism and Torture
Victims 29+
Occupation(s) Forensic Psychiatrist
Created by Thomas Harris
Portrayed by: Brian Cox - Manhunter
 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the
Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon
Gaspard Ulliel - Hannibal Rising
Aaran Thomas - Hannibal Rising
(child)

Hannibal Lecter is a famous 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 psychiatrist and
cannibalistic serial killer. The novel and its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs (1988),
feature Lecter as one of two primary antagonists. In the third novel, Hannibal (1999),
Lecter becomes the main character. His role as protagonist and anti-hero occurs in the
fourth novel, Hannibal Rising (2006), which explores his childhood and development
into a serial killer.

The first film adapted from the Harris novels was Manhunter, based on Red Dragon,
features Brian Cox as Lecter, spelled "Lecktor". In 2002, a second adaptation of Red
Dragon was made under the original title, featuring Anthony Hopkins, who had played
Lecter in the motion pictures The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Hopkins won an
Academy Award for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. In 2003, Hannibal Lecter (as
portrayed by Hopkins) was chosen by the American Film Institute as the #1 movie
villain.[2]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Appearances
o 1.1 In literature
o 1.2 In film
• 2 Concept and creation
• 3 Popular culture
• 4 See also
• 5 References

• 6 External links

[edit] Appearances
[edit] In literature

Hannibal Lecter is introduced in the 1981 novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist
incarcerated after having been revealed to be a cannibalistic serial killer. The novel finds
FBI Special Agent Will Graham, who originally captured Lecter, consulting him in order
to catch another serial killer, Francis Dolarhyde, known only to law enforcement and
media by the pseudonyms "The Tooth Fairy" and "The Red Dragon."

In the 1988 sequel The Silence of the Lambs, Lecter assists an FBI agent-in-training
named Clarice Starling in catching a serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill". Lecter and
Starling form an unusual relationship in which he provides her with a profile of the killer
and his modus operandi in exchange for details about her unhappy childhood. Lecter
eventually stages a dramatic, bloody escape from captivity and disappears.

Following the success of The Silence of the Lambs and the immense popularity of Lecter,
Harris wrote a third novel, 1999's Hannibal. It takes place seven years after the end of
Silence of the Lambs and finds Lecter living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed name,
while Mason Verger, one of his surviving victims, attempts to capture him with the
intention of feeding him to a pack of wild boars. Lecter returns to the United States to
escape Verger's Sardinian henchmen, but they soon capture him anyway. Clarice Starling
comes to rescue Lecter, only to be knocked unconscious; after orchestrating Verger's
death, Lecter carries Starling to safety and the two escape. Having figured out that
Starling's corrupt superior, Paul Krendler, sold them both out to Verger's men, Lecter
recruits Starling in avenging themselves on him. He kidnaps Krendler, drugs him, and
performs a craniotomy upon him. Lecter, Starling and Krendler himself then feast upon
his brain, before Lecter kills him with a crossbow. Afterwards, Lecter and Starling
become lovers and disappear together, to be last seen by Lecter's former ward orderly,
Barney Matthews, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Subsequently, Harris wrote a 2006 prequel to the Lecter books, Hannibal Rising, after
film producer Dino De Laurentiis (who owned the cinematic rights to the Lecter
character), announced that he was going to make a film depicting Lecter's childhood and
development into a serial killer with or without Harris' help. (Harris would also write the
film's screenplay.) The novel chronicles Lecter's early life, from birth into an aristocratic
family in Lithuania in 1933, to being orphaned, along with his little sister Mischa, in
1944 when invading German and Soviet forces storm the family estate. Shortly thereafter,
Lecter and Mischa are captured by a band of Nazi deserters, who murder and cannibalize
Mischa before her brother's eyes. Lecter is so traumatized that he is rendered temporarily
mute and later becomes fixated on cannibalism. Lecter escapes from the deserters and
takes up residence in an orphanage until he is adopted by his uncle Robert and his
Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki. As Lecter grows into a young man, he forms a close,
pseudo-romantic relationship with the widowed Murasaki and shows great intellectual
aptitude, entering medical school at a young age. During this period, he is tutored in the
Japanese martial art of kenjutsu by Murasaki, who descended from a house of Hiroshima
Samurai. Despite his seemingly comfortable life, Lecter is consumed by a savage
obsession with avenging Mischa's death. After experiencing his first taste of murder,
Lecter methodically tracks down, tortures and murders each of the men who killed his
sister, in the process forsaking his relationship with Murasaki and seemingly losing all
traces of his humanity. The novel ends with Lecter being accepted into the Johns Hopkins
Medical Center.
[edit] In film

Brian Cox as Hannibal "Lecktor" in Manhunter. Cox was the first actor to portray the
character.

Gaspard Ulliel as young Lecter in Hannibal Rising.

Red Dragon was first adapted to film in 1986 as the Michael Mann film Manhunter. Due
to copyright issues, the filmmakers changed the spelling of Lecter's name to "Lecktor".
He was played by Scottish actor Brian Cox.[3]

In 1991, Orion Pictures produced a Jonathan Demme-directed adaptation of The Silence

of the Lambs, in which Lecter was played by Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins'
Academy Award–winning performance made Lecter into a cultural icon. In 2001,
Hannibal was adapted to film, with Hopkins reprising his role. The ending for the film
was changed from the novel due to the controversy that the novel's ending generated
upon its release in 1999: in the film adaptation, Starling attempts to apprehend Lecter,
who cuts off his own hand to free himself from her handcuffs. In 2002, Red Dragon was
adapted again, this time under its original title, with Hopkins again as Lecter and Edward
Norton as Will Graham.

In late 2006, the script for the film Hannibal Rising was adapted to novel format. The
novel was written to explain Lecter's development into a serial killer. In the film, the
young Lecter is portrayed by Gaspard Ulliel. Both the novel and the film received
generally negative critical reception.[4]

[edit] Concept and creation

Thomas Harris has given few interviews, and has never explained where he got
inspiration for Hannibal Lecter. However, in a making-of documentary for the film
version of Hannibal Rising, Lecter's early murders were said to be based on murders that
Harris had covered when he was a crime reporter in the 1960s. In 1992, Harris also
attended the ongoing trials of Pietro Pacciani, who was suspected of being the serial killer
nicknamed the "Monster of Florence". Parts of the killer's modus operandi were used as
reference for the novel Hannibal, which was released in 1999.

According to David Sexton, author of The Strange World of Thomas Harris: Inside the
Mind of the Creator of Hannibal Lecter, Harris once told a librarian in Cleveland,
Mississippi, that Lecter was inspired by William Coyne, a local murderer who had
escaped from prison in 1934 and gone on a rampage that included acts of murder and
cannibalism.

In her book Evil Serial Killers, Charlotte Greig asserts that the serial killer Albert Fish
was the inspiration, at least in part, for Lecter.[5] Greig also states that to explain Lecter's
pathology, Harris borrowed the story of reported serial killer and cannibal Andrei
Chikatilo's brother Stepan being kidnapped and eaten by starving neighbours (though she
states that it is unclear whether the story was true or whether Stepan Chikatilo even
existed).[6]

Red Dragon firmly states that Lecter does not fit any known psychological profile.
However, Lecter's keeper, Dr. Frederick Chilton, claims that Lecter is a "pure sociopath."
Lecter's pathology is explored in greater detail in Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, which
explain that he was irreparably traumatized as a child in Lithuania in 1944 when he
witnessed the murder and cannibalism of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, by
Lithuanian Hilfswillige. As well, his parents had been shot and killed prior to the death of
his sister. One of the Hilfswillige members also claimed that Lecter unwittingly ate his
sister as well.

In the novel "The Silence of the Lambs", Lecter is described through Clarice Starling's
eyes as "small, sleek, and in his hands and arms she saw wiry strength like her
own".</ref> The novel also reveals that Lecter's left hand has a condition called mid ray
duplication polydactyly, i.e. a duplicated middle finger.[7] In Hannibal, he performs
plastic surgery on his own face on several occasions, and removes his extra digit. Lecter's
eyes are a shade of maroon, and reflect the light in "pinpoints of red".[8] He is also said to
have small white teeth[9] and dark, slicked-back hair with a widow's peak.

[edit] Popular culture

Hannibal Lecter has often been the subject of parodies and references in general media.
These include an appearance in MAD magazine, as well as several television series and
films such as The Simpsons, the Nickelodeon program Fairly OddParents, The Office,
Whose Line Is It Anyway, South Park, Family Guy, Austin Powers in Goldmember,
Addams Family Values, The Critic and Clerks 2. In the 1993 comedy National
Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, F. Murray Abraham plays "Harold Leacher," a Lecter-like
character.
In 1992, Billy Crystal, while hosting the 64th Academy Awards, made his entrance in
mask and straitjacket as Hannibal Lecter. The character has also been parodied in a
musical, entitled SILENCE! The Musical.

[edit] See also

Novels portal

• Dorangel Vargas titled the "Hannibal Lecter of the Andes"

[edit] References
1. ^ (see case file extras on DVD of Red Dragon)
2. ^ "AFI's 100 Heroes & Villains". American Film Institute. June 2003.
http://www.filmsite.org/afi100heroesvilla.html. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
3. ^ BBC interview with Brian Cox on youtube.com
4. ^ Hannibal Rising at Rotten Tomatoes
5. ^ Grieg, Charlotte, Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters (2009), p.27
6. ^ Grieg, Charlotte, Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters (2009), p.102
7. ^ Silence of the Lambs p. 15, para. 2: "Dr. Lecter has six fingers on his left hand".
8. ^ Silence of the Lambs p. 16, para 4: "Dr. Lecter's eyes are maroon, and they
reflect the light in pinpoints of red".
9. ^ The Silence of the Lambs p. 17, para. 4: "He tapped his small white teeth against
the card and breathed in its smell".