Hannibal Lecter
Encyclopedia
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
. The novel and its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs
(1988), feature Lecter as the primary antagonist
and two other killers as the secondary antagonist of each story. 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
.
as a brilliant psychiatrist
who is incarcerated after having been revealed to be a cannibalistic serial killer
. In the backstory, FBI special agent Will Graham
, who investigated Lecter's murders but was unaware of his involvement, initially consulted Lecter about the case before realizing he was the culprit; Lecter nearly killed Graham when he was captured. The plot finds Graham consulting Lecter in order to catch another serial killer, Francis Dolarhyde
, known by the nickname "The Tooth Fairy". Through the classifieds of a tabloid
, The National Tattler, Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, enabling him to disfigure Graham and attempt to kill his family.
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 had previously met Buffalo Bill, the former lover of his patient (and eventual victim) Benjamin Raspail; he keeps this information to himself, however, preferring to give Starling information in the form of clues and riddles designed to help her figure it out for herself. Lecter eventually stages a dramatic, bloody escape from captivity and disappears.
In the third novel, 1999's Hannibal
, Lecter lives in Florence
, Italy
, under an assumed name, while Mason Verger, his surviving victim, attempts to capture Lecter with the intention of feeding him to wild boars. Verger enlists the help of Rinaldo Pazzi, a disgraced Italian police inspector, and Paul Krendler, a corrupt Justice Department
official. Lecter kills Pazzi and returns to the United States to escape Verger's Sardinian henchmen, only to be captured. After helping kill Verger, Lecter rescues Starling (who had followed Lecter with the intent of arresting him herself, only to be overtaken by Verger's henchmen) takes her to his rented lake house to treat her, after she was shot with several tranquilizer darts. During her time there he keeps her sedated, attempting to transform her into his dead sister Mischa through a regimen of classical conditioning
and mind-altering drugs. One day, he invites her to a formal dinner where the guest and first course is Paul Krendler, whose brain they consume together. On this night, Starling tells Lecter that Mischa's memory can live within him instead of taking her place. She then offers him her breast, and they become lovers. The novel ends three years later with the couple living in Argentina
.
Subsequently, Harris wrote a 2006 prequel, 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 beloved sister Mischa, in 1941 when a German Stuka bomber attacks the Soviet tank that was in front of their forest hideaway, collecting water. Shortly thereafter, Lecter and Mischa are captured by a band of Nazi collaborators turned 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 (where he is bullied by the other children and abused
by the dean) until he turns 16, when he is adopted by his uncle Robert and his Japanese
wife, Lady Murasaki. After his uncle dies, Lecter forms a close, pseudo-romantic relationship with his step-aunt; during this time he also 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. He kills for the first time as a teenager, brutally murdering a fishmonger who insults Murasaki; he then 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.
. Due to copyright issues, the filmmakers changed the spelling of Lecter's name to "Lecktor". He was played by Scottish
actor Brian Cox.
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.
". Parts of the killer's modus operandi were used as reference for the novel Hannibal, which was released in 1999. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio
, Hopkins said that he used the characteristics of Katharine Hepburn
and HAL 9000
from 2001: A Space Odyssey as inspiration for his performance.
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. 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).
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 psychopath
." 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. One of the Hilfswillige members also claimed that Lecter unwittingly ate his sister as well.
In 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". The novel also reveals that Lecter's left hand has a condition called mid ray duplication polydactyly
, i.e. a duplicated middle finger. 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". He is also said to have small white teeth and dark, slicked-back hair with a widow's peak
.
, French and Saunders
, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
, South Park
, the Nickelodeon
program Fairly OddParents, Fillmore!
, The Office, Whose Line Is It Anyway, Family Guy
, Happy Tree Friends
, The Cable Guy
, Austin Powers in Goldmember
, Addams Family Values
, The Critic
and Clerks 2.
The character has also been parodied in a musical, entitled SILENCE! The Musical
.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by 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...
and in the films adapted from them.
Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
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...
. The novel and its sequel, 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...
(1988), feature Lecter as the primary antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
and two other killers as the secondary antagonist of each story. In the third novel, Hannibal
Hannibal (novel)
Hannibal is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 1999. It is the third in his series featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter and the second to feature FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel takes place seven years after the events of The Silence of the Lambs and deals with the intended...
(1999), Lecter becomes the main character. His role as protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
and anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
occurs in the fourth novel, Hannibal Rising
Hannibal Rising
Hannibal Rising is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 2006. It is a prequel to his three previous books featuring his character, the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The novel was released with an initial printing of at least 1.5 million copies and met with a mixed...
(2006), which explores his childhood and development into a serial killer.
The first film adapted from the Harris novels was 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...
, based on Red Dragon, features Brian Cox as Lecter, spelled "Lecktor". In 2002, a second adaptation
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....
of Red Dragon was made under the original title, featuring Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, who had played Lecter in the motion pictures The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
. Hopkins won an Academy Award
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. In 2003, Hannibal Lecter (as portrayed by Hopkins) was chosen by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
as the #1 movie villain
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
.
Novels
Hannibal Lecter is introduced in the 1981 novel Red DragonRed Dragon
Red Dragon is a novel by Thomas Harris, first published in 1981. It was the first novel to feature Harris's character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The novel was adapted as a film, Manhunter, in 1986 which featured Brian Cox as Lecter...
as a brilliant 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...
who is incarcerated after having been revealed to be a cannibalistic 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...
. In the backstory, FBI special agent 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...
, who investigated Lecter's murders but was unaware of his involvement, initially consulted Lecter about the case before realizing he was the culprit; Lecter nearly killed Graham when he was captured. The plot finds Graham consulting Lecter in order to catch another serial 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...
, known by the nickname "The Tooth Fairy". Through the classifieds of a tabloid
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
, The National Tattler, Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, enabling him to disfigure Graham and attempt to kill his family.
In the 1988 sequel 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...
, Lecter assists an FBI agent-in-training named 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....
in catching a serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill". Lecter and Starling form an unusual relationship in which he provides her with a profile
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,...
of the killer and his modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
in exchange for details about her unhappy childhood. Lecter had previously met Buffalo Bill, the former lover of his patient (and eventual victim) Benjamin Raspail; he keeps this information to himself, however, preferring to give Starling information in the form of clues and riddles designed to help her figure it out for herself. Lecter eventually stages a dramatic, bloody escape from captivity and disappears.
In the third novel, 1999's Hannibal
Hannibal (novel)
Hannibal is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 1999. It is the third in his series featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter and the second to feature FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel takes place seven years after the events of The Silence of the Lambs and deals with the intended...
, Lecter lives in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, under an assumed name, while Mason Verger, his surviving victim, attempts to capture Lecter with the intention of feeding him to wild boars. Verger enlists the help of Rinaldo Pazzi, a disgraced Italian police inspector, and Paul Krendler, a corrupt Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
official. Lecter kills Pazzi and returns to the United States to escape Verger's Sardinian henchmen, only to be captured. After helping kill Verger, Lecter rescues Starling (who had followed Lecter with the intent of arresting him herself, only to be overtaken by Verger's henchmen) takes her to his rented lake house to treat her, after she was shot with several tranquilizer darts. During her time there he keeps her sedated, attempting to transform her into his dead sister Mischa through a regimen of classical conditioning
Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov...
and mind-altering drugs. One day, he invites her to a formal dinner where the guest and first course is Paul Krendler, whose brain they consume together. On this night, Starling tells Lecter that Mischa's memory can live within him instead of taking her place. She then offers him her breast, and they become lovers. The novel ends three years later with the couple living in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
Subsequently, Harris wrote a 2006 prequel, Hannibal Rising
Hannibal Rising
Hannibal Rising is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 2006. It is a prequel to his three previous books featuring his character, the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The novel was released with an initial printing of at least 1.5 million copies and met with a mixed...
, after film producer Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
(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
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
in 1933, to being orphaned, along with his beloved sister Mischa, in 1941 when a German Stuka bomber attacks the Soviet tank that was in front of their forest hideaway, collecting water. Shortly thereafter, Lecter and Mischa are captured by a band of Nazi collaborators turned deserters, who murder and cannibalize Mischa before her brother's eyes. Lecter is so traumatized that he is rendered temporarily mute
Selective mutism
Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person, most often a child, who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations, or to specific people...
and later becomes fixated on cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. Lecter escapes from the deserters and takes up residence in an orphanage (where he is bullied by the other children and abused
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...
by the dean) until he turns 16, when he is adopted by his uncle Robert and his Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
wife, Lady Murasaki. After his uncle dies, Lecter forms a close, pseudo-romantic relationship with his step-aunt; during this time he also shows great intellectual aptitude, entering medical school at a young age. During this period, he is tutored in the Japanese martial art of kenjutsu
Kenjutsu
, meaning "the method, or technique, of the sword." This is opposed to kendo, which means the way of the sword. Kenjutsu is the umbrella term for all traditional schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration...
by Murasaki, who descended from a house of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
Samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
. Despite his seemingly comfortable life, Lecter is consumed by a savage obsession with avenging Mischa's death. He kills for the first time as a teenager, brutally murdering a fishmonger who insults Murasaki; he then 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.
In film
Red Dragon was first adapted to film in 1986 as the Michael Mann film 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...
. Due to copyright issues, the filmmakers changed the spelling of Lecter's name to "Lecktor". He was played by Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
actor Brian Cox.
In 1991, Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
produced a Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
-directed adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, in which Lecter was played by Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
actor Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
. Hopkins' Academy Award–winning performance made Lecter into a cultural icon. In 2001, Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
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
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....
was adapted again, this time under its original title, with Hopkins again as Lecter 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...
as 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...
.
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
Gaspard Ulliel
Gaspard Ulliel is a French film actor and model. He began appearing in made-for-television films during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and then began to be known as a film actor in France, as well as starring in the title role in the thriller Hannibal Rising.-Life and career:Ulliel was born in...
. Both the novel and the film received generally negative critical reception.
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 FlorenceMonster of Florence
The Monster of Florence, also known as Il Mostro, is an epithet commonly used for the perpetrator, or the perpetrators, of 16 murders that took place between 1968 and 1985 in the province of Florence, Italy...
". Parts of the killer's modus operandi were used as reference for the novel Hannibal, which was released in 1999. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio
Inside the Actors Studio is a series on the Bravo cable television channel, hosted by James Lipton. It is produced and directed by Jeff Wurtz; the executive producer is James Lipton. The program, which premiered in 1994, is distributed internationally by CABLEready and is broadcast in 125 countries...
, Hopkins said that he used the characteristics of Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
and HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
from 2001: A Space Odyssey as inspiration for his performance.
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
Cleveland, Mississippi
Cleveland is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,334 as of the 2010 census.Cleveland has a fairly large commercial economy, with numerous restaurants, stores, and services along U.S. Highway 61...
, 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
Charlotte Greig
Charlotte Greig is a British novelist, playwright, singer and song-writer.-Early life:Charlotte Greig's father was in the navy and the family travelled the world. In 1962, she attended Charsfield village school, later described in Ronald Blythe's book Akenfield, where she learned to sing folk songs...
asserts that the serial killer Albert Fish
Albert Fish
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and The Boogey Man. A child rapist and cannibal, he boasted that he "had children in every state," and at one time put the figure at...
was the inspiration, at least in part, for Lecter. Greig also states that to explain Lecter's pathology, Harris borrowed the story of reported serial killer and cannibal Andrei Chikatilo
Andrei Chikatilo
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Ukrainian-born Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper who murdered a minimum of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990...
'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).
Red Dragon firmly states that Lecter does not fit any known psychological profile
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,...
. However, Lecter's keeper, 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:...
, claims that Lecter is a "pure psychopath
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
." Lecter's pathology is explored in greater detail in Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, which explain that he was irreparably traumatized
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
as a child in Lithuania in 1944 when he witnessed the murder and cannibalism of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, by Lithuanian Hilfswillige. One of the Hilfswillige members also claimed that Lecter unwittingly ate his sister as well.
In 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". The novel also reveals that Lecter's left hand has a condition called mid ray duplication polydactyly
Polydactyly
Polydactyly or polydactylism , also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly in humans, dogs, and cats having supernumerary fingers or toes....
, i.e. a duplicated middle finger. 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". He is also said to have small white teeth and dark, slicked-back hair with a widow's peak
Widow's peak
A widow's peak is a distinct point in the hairline in the center of the forehead. This hair anomaly is a result of a lower-than-usual position of the intersection of the bilateral periorbital fields of hair-growth suppression on the forehead.-Definition:...
.
Popular culture
Hannibal Lecter (specifically Hopkins' portrayal) 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 SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, French and Saunders
French and Saunders
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....
, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
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Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a 2010 family action comedy film directed by Brad Peyton. The film stars Chris O'Donnell and Jack McBrayer. The film also stars the voices of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate, Katt Williams, Bette Midler, and Neil Patrick Harris...
, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, the Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
program Fairly OddParents, Fillmore!
Fillmore!
Fillmore! is an American animated television series which was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series was created by Scott M. Gimple...
, The Office, Whose Line Is It Anyway, Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, Happy Tree Friends
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, The Cable Guy
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The Cable Guy is a 1996 black comedy film, directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. The film also features Leslie Mann, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson...
, Austin Powers in Goldmember
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Austin Powers in Goldmember is a 2002 American spy comedy film and the third installment of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. The movie was directed by Jay Roach, and co-written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers. Myers also plays the roles of Dr. Evil, Goldmember,...
, Addams Family Values
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Addams Family Values is a 1993 sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The film was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci...
, The Critic
The Critic
The Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
and Clerks 2.
The character has also been parodied in a musical, entitled SILENCE! The Musical
SILENCE! The Musical
SILENCE! The Musical is an award winning musical created by Jon and Al Kaplan as a parody of the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. The project began in 2003 as an internet musical made up of nine songs that retold the entire story. The audio tracks became popular to the extent that a live show...
.
See also
- Dorangel Vargas, a serial killer known as the "Hannibal Lecter of the Andes"