Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal is born into a noble Lithuanian family. In 1944, the country lodge where the Lecters are hiding from the war is destroyed, and he and his little sister, Mischa, fall into the hands of starving deserters. Mischa doesn't survive.

Years later, Hannibal escapes a Soviet orphanage and moves to France to live with his aunt, Lady Murasaki. She teaches him to fight and tries to rein him in, but he kills a butcher who insulted her and, now a medical student, uses a truth serum to recall the names of the men who took Mischa. He hunts every one of them. When he reaches their leader, Grutas, Murasaki sees what her nephew has become and leaves him. Hannibal heads for North America.

In the NBC series, its own take on the story, Hannibal is a respected Baltimore psychiatrist who throws elaborate dinner parties. Jack Crawford asks him to evaluate FBI profiler Will Graham. Hannibal becomes Will's friend, therapist and manipulator, all while secretly being the Chesapeake Ripper.

He lets Will take the fall for a copycat's crimes and watches him get locked up. When Will gets out and starts setting a trap with Crawford, Hannibal sees through it. At the final dinner, he wounds Jack, Alana, Abigail and Will himself, then flies off with Bedelia Du Maurier.

Still in the series, Hannibal is living in Florence with Bedelia under another name. Will comes after him, Mason Verger wants revenge and Inspector Pazzi ends up dead. Free of Mason, Hannibal decides to turn himself in.

Three years later, behind bars, he becomes a player in the case of Francis Dolarhyde, the Red Dragon, and talks to the killer in secret. The FBI uses him as bait, he escapes and, together with Will, kills Dolarhyde. The two go over a cliff together.

In the films, Lecter is a psychiatrist who helps the FBI until Will Graham learns the truth in 1980. Both men are wounded, and Lecter, found not guilty by reason of insanity, is locked in a Baltimore psychiatric hospital.

Years later, Will comes back to him for help catching the Tooth Fairy. Lecter offers clues but secretly trades letters with the killer and gives him the address of Will's family. At the end, Dr. Chilton announces a visitor: a young woman from the FBI.

The visitor is Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who wants his help catching Buffalo Bill. Lecter agrees, as long as she pays with memories from her childhood. Conversation by conversation, he steers her to the killer.

When he's moved to Memphis, he kills his guards and escapes wearing one of their faces. After Clarice cracks the case, he calls her from a faraway island, says he won't come looking for her and hangs up to follow Dr. Chilton.

Ten years later, Lecter is living in Florence as Dr. Fell, a library curator. When Inspector Pazzi recognizes him, Lecter kills him and heads back to the US, drawn by news that Clarice is in trouble.

Mason Verger, the victim he disfigured, captures him to feed him to the hogs, and Clarice sets him free. Lecter takes his revenge on Paul Krendler at a grisly dinner. Clarice cuffs him to herself, and the film implies he sacrifices his own hand rather than hers. He escapes by plane, arm in a sling.

Anthony Hopkins played Lecter in three films and won Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs. Brian Cox got there first, in Manhunter (1986), with the name spelled Lecktor. Gaspard Ulliel played young Hannibal in Hannibal Rising, and Mads Mikkelsen took the NBC series version.