Bill Compton

Bill arrives in Bon Temps and is nearly drained by a couple in the Merlotte's parking lot until Sookie saves him. They fall in love. After Bill kills Uncle Bartlett, who abused Sookie as a child, and a vampire named Longshadow, the Magister tries him and forces him to turn a teenager, Jessica Hamby. In the end, he walks into daylight to save Sookie from René and is badly burned, but recovers.

Bill tries to raise Jessica, who just wants freedom, and goes to Dallas with Sookie to help Eric find Godric. To save Bon Temps from Maryann, he seeks out Queen Sophie-Anne. In the end, he proposes to Sookie at a restaurant and is kidnapped while she's in the restroom.

Bill ends up in Mississippi with Russell Edgington and pledges loyalty to the king to protect Sookie. His maker Lorena tortures him, and he helps Sookie kill her. Feeding too hard on Sookie, he nearly kills her and saves her with his own blood. In the end, Eric reveals that Bill came to Bon Temps on the queen's orders to win Sookie over, and she cuts him out of her life.

A year later, Bill is the vampire King of Louisiana. He takes on Marnie and the witches seeking revenge on vampires while watching Sookie drift toward Eric. In the end, he kills Nan Flanagan, the vampires' spokeswoman.

Held by the Authority with Eric, Bill slowly falls for the cult of Lilith, the first vampire. At the end of S5, he drinks her blood, dissolves into a pool and rises again with enormous power. In S6, he saves vampires from the governor's camp but loses Lilith's powers.

Bill catches Hep-V by drinking from Sookie, who has become a carrier. He refuses the cure, releases Jessica from their bond, marries her off to Hoyt and leaves his house to Andy. Finally he asks Sookie to end him, and she stakes him in his Civil War-era grave.

In the books, Bill never has a progeny like Jessica; she was created for the show. Stephen Moyer won a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for the role.