Will Graham

Will Graham is a fictional character 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.

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. 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 1975, he tracks a serial...
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