Zaphod Beeblebrox

In the film, Zaphod is Sam Rockwell. He's the one who whisked Trillian away from the party where she'd just met Arthur. Now he runs off with the Heart of Gold and Trillian, and the Infinite Improbability Drive has the ship pick up Arthur and Ford in space. Zaphod wants to find Magrathea, where he hopes to learn the Ultimate Question.

On the Vogon homeworld, Trillian finds out something ugly: Zaphod signed Earth's demolition order without reading it, thinking it was an autograph request. Meanwhile, the Vogons and Vice President Questular Rontok set off after the stolen ship.

On Viltvodle VI, Zaphod visits Humma Kavula, the rival he beat in the election, a religious leader played by John Malkovich. Kavula keeps one of Zaphod's heads as collateral and will only hand over Magrathea's coordinates in exchange for a gun that makes its target see the shooter's point of view.

On Magrathea, Trillian is the one who uses that gun on Zaphod. For the first time, he feels what she feels about the end of Earth. In the end, Zaphod heads off with the group for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

In the BBC series, Zaphod is Mark Wing-Davey, the same actor from the radio. Here, the second head is an animatronic, and there's a third arm, tucked into his jacket most of the time. The head kept breaking down, and when the arm had to show, a crew member hid behind the actor and slipped his own arm into the sleeve.

After Magrathea, an explosion sends the group to Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe. Zaphod and Ford talk Marvin into helping them steal the band Disaster Area's ship, not knowing it's set to dive into a sun.

Disaster Area's ship was ready for the band's big finale: a dive into the sun of Kakrafoon. Just before impact, Arthur and Ford teleport out. Zaphod stays on board with Trillian and Marvin, who had helped with the heist.

The series ends with Arthur and Ford on prehistoric Earth and never shows Zaphod again. The second season that would have continued the story was never made.

In Douglas Adams's books, Zaphod has a big role in the first two volumes and returns in Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing.... Mark Wing-Davey played him on the radio and in the 1981 series; Sam Rockwell, in the 2005 film.