Francis Dolarhyde
Encyclopedia
Francis Dolarhyde is a fictional character and the main antagonist featured in the Thomas Harris
novel
Red Dragon.
nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other apparent oral fixations. He refers to his other self
as "The Great Red Dragon" after William Blake
's painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
".
on June 14, 1938 with a cleft lip and palate, he is abandoned by his mother and cared for in an orphanage until the age of five. He is then taken in by his grandmother, who subjects him to severe emotional and physical abuse
. He begins torturing animals at a young age to vent his anger over the abuse. After his grandmother becomes afflicted with dementia
, Dolarhyde is turned over to the care of his estranged mother and her husband in St. Louis; he is further abused by this family and is sent back to the orphanage after being caught hanging his stepsister's cat. After being caught breaking into a house at age 17, he enlists in the United States Army
. While on his tour in Japan and neighboring countries, he learns how to develop film and receives cosmetic surgery for his cleft palate. He later gets a job with the Gateway Corp. as the production chief in their home movies division.
Dolarhyde is a bodybuilder and exceptionally strong; it is mentioned in the novel that even in his early forties, Dolarhyde could have successfully competed in regional bodybuilding competitions.
Dolarhyde begins his killing spree by murdering two families within a month after discovering The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, which gives voice to his alternate personality. He commits both crimes on or near a full moon
; it is hinted in the book that he had killed before that, however. He chooses his victims through the home movies that he edits as a film processing technician. He believes that by killing people — or "transforming" them, as he calls it — he can fully "become" the Dragon. On a trip to Hong Kong
during his army service, he has a large dragon tattooed across his back and had two sets of false teeth
made; one of them normal for his usual life, the other distorted and razor sharp for his killings, based on a mold of his grandmother's teeth. There is also a sexual component to his crimes; he molests
the corpse of one adult female victim, and he often masturbates
to the films he himself makes while committing murder.
FBI
profiler
Will Graham
is asked to return from early retirement to aid in his capture. Graham had previously captured Garrett Jacob Hobbs and Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter
, a cannibalistic
psychiatrist
and serial killer, whom Dolarhyde idolizes. Graham visits Lecter in the Chesapeake Mental Institute, hoping that the doctor would be able to help identify the Dragon or at least assist in creating a psychological profile. Following this meeting, Lecter "helps" by sending Dolarhyde Graham's address in code with the note, "Kill them all." Dolarhyde is foiled when FBI Director Jack Crawford
intercepts the message in time to warn Graham's family and the local sheriff.
Dolarhyde reads The National Tattler, a tabloid, which runs sensationalistic stories, collecting clippings about Lecter's arrest and trial, about Graham, and about his own murders. In an attempt to provoke Dolarhyde out of hiding, Graham gives an interview to Freddy Lounds of The Tattler, in which he refers to the "Tooth-Fairy" as impotent
, homosexual
, and possibly the product of incest
; he also implies that Lecter is offended that the killer considers himself Lecter's equal. The interview enrages Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, intimidates him into recanting his article on tape, and then bites his lips off. Dolarhyde returns to Chicago, sets Lounds on fire, and rolls him down an incline into The Tattlers parking garage.
Dolarhyde develops a relationship with a blind
female coworker named Reba McClane. The relationship quells his murderous impulses at first, but her presence only infuriates the other part of Dolarhyde's psyche
. Desperate now to retain control of himself, Dolarhyde flies to New York, where he devours the original Blake watercolor, believing that doing so would destroy the Dragon. This plan fails, though, as his ingestion of the painting only makes the Dragon angrier. Dolarhyde kills coworker Ralph Mandy after seeing him with Reba at the door to her house. He then plans to kill her and himself by setting his house on fire with her in it. He relents at the last minute, however, and apparently shoots himself in the face with a shotgun.
It turns out, however, that he has actually shot the corpse of a previous victim. Being blind, McClane was fooled when she felt the shattered head of the corpse. Dolarhyde comes to Graham's home in Florida, where he stabs Graham in the face, severely disfiguring him. Graham's wife Molly shoots Dolarhyde, killing him.
Dolarhyde has been twice portrayed in film adaptations of Harris' novel: By Tom Noonan
(in which he was called 'Dollarhyde') in 1986's Manhunter
, and by Ralph Fiennes
in 2002's Red Dragon
. In deleted scenes in Red Dragon, Dolarhyde's Great Red Dragon personality is voiced by Frank Langella
.
In Manhunter, Dolarhyde was filmed two different ways; shirtless with an elaborate tattoo covering his upper torso and back (as opposed to Dolarhyde's tattoos in the book, which only covered his back), and with a shirt on thus covering his tattoo. The former was not used in the finished film, partly because the tattoos were considered too distracting and similar to the ones
that the Yakuza
wore. The look, however, appeared on promotional photos for the film.
In the first movie, Graham kills Dolarhyde, while in the second, both he and his wife have a hand in Dolarhyde's death, with Graham firing the majority of the shots in a crossfire with Dolarhyde, and his wife finishing him off as Dolarhyde rises back up, even with the bullet wounds.
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...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Red Dragon.
Character overview
Dolarhyde is a serial killerSerial 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...
nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other apparent oral fixations. He refers to his other self
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
as "The Great Red Dragon" after William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
's painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
The Great Red Dragon Paintings
The Great Red Dragon Paintings are a series of watercolour paintings by the English poet and painter William Blake, painted between 1805 and 1810. It was during this period that Blake was commissioned to create over a hundred paintings intended to illustrate books of the Bible...
".
Character history
Dolarhyde's backstory is supplied in the novel and alluded to in the film adaptations. Born in Springfield, MissouriSpringfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
on June 14, 1938 with a cleft lip and palate, he is abandoned by his mother and cared for in an orphanage until the age of five. He is then taken in by his grandmother, who subjects him to severe emotional and physical abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
. He begins torturing animals at a young age to vent his anger over the abuse. After his grandmother becomes afflicted with dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
, Dolarhyde is turned over to the care of his estranged mother and her husband in St. Louis; he is further abused by this family and is sent back to the orphanage after being caught hanging his stepsister's cat. After being caught breaking into a house at age 17, he enlists in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. While on his tour in Japan and neighboring countries, he learns how to develop film and receives cosmetic surgery for his cleft palate. He later gets a job with the Gateway Corp. as the production chief in their home movies division.
Dolarhyde is a bodybuilder and exceptionally strong; it is mentioned in the novel that even in his early forties, Dolarhyde could have successfully competed in regional bodybuilding competitions.
Dolarhyde begins his killing spree by murdering two families within a month after discovering The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, which gives voice to his alternate personality. He commits both crimes on or near a full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
; it is hinted in the book that he had killed before that, however. He chooses his victims through the home movies that he edits as a film processing technician. He believes that by killing people — or "transforming" them, as he calls it — he can fully "become" the Dragon. On a trip to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
during his army service, he has a large dragon tattooed across his back and had two sets of false teeth
Dentures
Dentures are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and which are supported by surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable, however there are many different denture designs, some which rely on bonding or clasping onto teeth or dental...
made; one of them normal for his usual life, the other distorted and razor sharp for his killings, based on a mold of his grandmother's teeth. There is also a sexual component to his crimes; he molests
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
the corpse of one adult female victim, and he often masturbates
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
to the films he himself makes while committing murder.
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
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,...
Will Graham
Will Graham
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...
is asked to return from early retirement to aid in his capture. Graham had previously captured Garrett Jacob Hobbs and Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" 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...
, a cannibalistic
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
and serial killer, whom Dolarhyde idolizes. Graham visits Lecter in the Chesapeake Mental Institute, hoping that the doctor would be able to help identify the Dragon or at least assist in creating a psychological profile. Following this meeting, Lecter "helps" by sending Dolarhyde Graham's address in code with the note, "Kill them all." Dolarhyde is foiled when FBI Director 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...
intercepts the message in time to warn Graham's family and the local sheriff.
Dolarhyde reads The National Tattler, a tabloid, which runs sensationalistic stories, collecting clippings about Lecter's arrest and trial, about Graham, and about his own murders. In an attempt to provoke Dolarhyde out of hiding, Graham gives an interview to Freddy Lounds of The Tattler, in which he refers to the "Tooth-Fairy" as impotent
Erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction is sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis during sexual performance....
, homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, and possibly the product of incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
; he also implies that Lecter is offended that the killer considers himself Lecter's equal. The interview enrages Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, intimidates him into recanting his article on tape, and then bites his lips off. Dolarhyde returns to Chicago, sets Lounds on fire, and rolls him down an incline into The Tattlers parking garage.
Dolarhyde develops a relationship with a 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...
female coworker named Reba McClane. The relationship quells his murderous impulses at first, but her presence only infuriates the other part of Dolarhyde's psyche
Psyche (psychology)
The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
. Desperate now to retain control of himself, Dolarhyde flies to New York, where he devours the original Blake watercolor, believing that doing so would destroy the Dragon. This plan fails, though, as his ingestion of the painting only makes the Dragon angrier. Dolarhyde kills coworker Ralph Mandy after seeing him with Reba at the door to her house. He then plans to kill her and himself by setting his house on fire with her in it. He relents at the last minute, however, and apparently shoots himself in the face with a shotgun.
It turns out, however, that he has actually shot the corpse of a previous victim. Being blind, McClane was fooled when she felt the shattered head of the corpse. Dolarhyde comes to Graham's home in Florida, where he stabs Graham in the face, severely disfiguring him. Graham's wife Molly shoots Dolarhyde, killing him.
Film adaptations
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
(in which he was called 'Dollarhyde') in 1986's 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 by Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
in 2002's 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....
. In deleted scenes in Red Dragon, Dolarhyde's Great Red Dragon personality is voiced by Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
.
In Manhunter, Dolarhyde was filmed two different ways; shirtless with an elaborate tattoo covering his upper torso and back (as opposed to Dolarhyde's tattoos in the book, which only covered his back), and with a shirt on thus covering his tattoo. The former was not used in the finished film, partly because the tattoos were considered too distracting and similar to the ones
Irezumi
Irezumi is a Japanese word that refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark; a form of tattooing....
that the Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
wore. The look, however, appeared on promotional photos for the film.
In the first movie, Graham kills Dolarhyde, while in the second, both he and his wife have a hand in Dolarhyde's death, with Graham firing the majority of the shots in a crossfire with Dolarhyde, and his wife finishing him off as Dolarhyde rises back up, even with the bullet wounds.