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| Larry Talbot | |
|---|---|
| The Wolf Man character | |
.png) Publicity photo ofLon Chaney Jr. in full make-up as the Wolf Man. | |
| Portrayed by | Lon Chaney Jr. (1941–48) Donald Gibb (1985) Flavio Bucci (1986) Jon Gries (1987) Carl Thibault (1987) Matt Birman (1989) Will Kemp (2004) Benicio del Toro (2010) Mario Marin-Borquez (2010) Josh Hartnett (2014–2016) Christopher Abbott (2025) |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Lawrence Stewart Talbot |
| Alias | The Wolf Man Mr. Talbot Velkan Valerious Ethan Chandler Mr.Taylor Lonnie Tallbutt The Prodigal Son The Desperate Guy |
| Species | Werewolf Human (formerly) |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Aristocrat Actor Astronomer Serial killer Cavalry soldier |
| Nationality | Welsh American (naturalized) |
Lawrence Stewart Talbot, also known asthe Wolf Man, is thetitle character of the 1941Universal filmThe Wolf Man and its sequels, created byCurt Siodmak. He was portrayed byLon Chaney Jr. In the2010 film, he is portrayed byBenicio del Toro and in the2025 film, he is portrayed byChristopher Abbott.
The Wolf Man was part of theUniversal Monsters ensemble.
Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home inLlanwelly, Wales, to reconcile with his father, Sir John Talbot. He had left for America eighteen years earlier, when his elder brother (also named John) was made heir to the estate, but he has returned following his brother's death in a hunting accident. While there, Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl named Gwen Conliffe, who runs an antique shop. As a pretext, he buys asilver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf (which she defines as a man who changes into a wolf "at certain times of the year").
That night, Larry attempts to rescue Gwen's friend Jenny from what he believes to be an attack by awolf. He kills the beast with his new walking stick, but is bitten in the process. Agypsy named Maleva later reveals to Larry that the animal which bit him was actually her son Bela in the form of a wolf. Bela had been a werewolf for years and now the curse oflycanthropy has been passed to Larry.
Larry transforms into a werewolf every night, in one instance murdering a villager. He has no memories of his time spent in werewolf form, but gradually comes to believe Maleva's story after she uses a spell to turn him back into his human form. After a panicked attempt to leave town, he transforms into a werewolf and is bludgeoned to death by his father, who does not recognize him, with his own walking stick. As he dies, Maleva casts a spell which returns him to human form. When the hunters arrive and see Larry dead, they assumed that Larry died killing the werewolf.
This film makes significant changes to the nature of Larry Talbot's werewolf curse. He now changes into Wolf Man form only during afull moon, rather than every night during the werewolf season as in the original film. He also now remembers all of his doings as the Wolf Man. The film reveals that the official story for his death is that the Talbot house was invaded by a wolf, and while trying to fight it off, John Talbot struck his son instead by mistake.
Four years later, Larry is awakened from death when grave robbers open his tomb under a full moon and remove the wolfsbane he was buried with. Once he realizes what happened, he is dismayed. Larry regards the attack by his father as his rightful death, and immortality an affliction. Seeking a cure for his apparent inability to die, he searches for Maleva. Maleva tells himDr. Henry Frankenstein could know how to remove his life force. They set out on a journey to the Frankenstein family's castle, where he hopes to find the notes of Dr. Henry Frankenstein. A month elapses during his search for Maleva and journey to meet Dr. Frankenstein, bringing another full moon. During his transformation into a werewolf, he falls into the castle's frozen catacombs and revivesFrankenstein's monster. Finding that the monster is unable to locate the notes of the recently deceased doctor, Larry seeks outLudwig Frankenstein's daughter Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, hoping she knows their hiding place. Frankenstein's monster crashes the village festival. Elsa gives the notes to Larry and Dr. Mannering, who has tracked Larry across Europe, so that they may be used to drain all life from both Larry and the monster. However, Dr. Mannering's desire to see Frankenstein's monster at full strength leads him to instead transfer Larry's life to the monster. Elsa attempts to stop this procedure. As a result, Larry's life is not fully transferred. The procedure takes place on the night of a full moon and Larry is transformed just as Frankenstein's monster regains his strength. After Frankenstein's monster carries off Elsa, the Wolf Man attacks him and the two title characters are swept away by aflood that results when the local tavern owner blows up the towndam to drown the castle's inhabitants.
The film focuses on the exploits of the vengeful Dr. Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) who escapes from prison. He is helped by thehunchback Daniel (J. Carroll Naish), for whom he promises to create a new, beautiful body. The two murder a traveling showman and take over his horror exhibit. To exact revenge on Hussmann, who had once caused his imprisonment, Niemann revivesCount Dracula. Dracula seduces Hussmann's granddaughter-in-law and kills Hussmann himself, but in a subsequent chase, Niemann disposes of Dracula's coffin, causing the vampire to perish in sunlight. Niemann and Daniel move on to the flooded ruins of Castle Frankenstein where they find the bodies of Frankenstein' monster and the Wolf Man (Lawrence Talbot), preserved in the frozen waters. Nieman thaws out the two and promises Talbot to find a cure from the curse. However, in fact he is more interested in reviving Frankenstein's monster and exacting revenge on two former associates than in his promises to Daniel or Talbot. Talbot transforms into a werewolf and kills a man, arousing the villagers.
Talbot is also envied by the hunchback Daniel as both love Ilonka, agypsy girl. She has fallen in love with Talbot, but is the object of Daniel's affection. Daniel reveals Talbot's curse to Ilonka, but she is not deterred and promises to help him in fighting the curse.
Things enter a critical stage at night as Niemann revives Frankenstein's monster and Talbot again turns into a werewolf. Talbot is shot by Ilonka with a silver bullet, thereby releasing him from the curse.
Even though both Dracula and Larry Talbot perished in the previous film, they are depicted as still alive in this entry and seeking a cure for their respective afflictions from a brilliant scientist named Dr. Franz Edelmann. Frankenstein's monster plays a minor role in this film, only being found when Talbot tries to drown himself. In the end, Talbot is finally cured of his affliction and falls in love with Edelmann's assistant Miliza Morrelle (Martha O'Driscoll). He then kills Edelman who has been contaminated with Dracula's blood and earlier requested Talbot to end his life if he proved unable to do so himself.
Thecomedy horror filmAbbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is the final appearance of the character in the original Universal Monsters cycle.
Chick Young (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) work as railway baggage-clerks who deliver two crates to McDougal's House of Horrors museum. The crates contain "the remains of the originalCount Dracula" (Bela Lugosi) and "the body of theFrankenstein Monster" (Glenn Strange). The monsters revive and go to the castle of Dr. Sandra Mornay, who has studied Dr. Frankenstein's notebooks, and is part of Dracula's scheme to replace the Monster'sbrain with Wilbur's. Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph) is secretly working for the insurance company that is processing McDougal's claim regarding the missing contents of the crates and hopes Wilbur will lead her to the missing 'exhibits'.
Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) has tracked Dracula and the Monster to the area and asks Chick and Wilbur to help him destroy them. That night the moon is full, and Talbot insists that he be locked in his room. The following night, at Sandra's castle, Wilbur encounters Dracula and the Monster, but escapes. Later, Sandra admits to Dracula that she has put the experiment on hold. Dracula bites her in the throat. Talbot and McDougal arrive unexpectedly, but Dracula deflects Talbot's accusations, making Talbot appear disturbed. While Dracula is with Joan, Talbot transforms into the Wolfman and injures McDougal. Under the spell of Dracula, Sandra is about to carry out the brain transplant when Talbot and Chick storm in. Just as Talbot is about to untie Wilbur, he once again transforms into the Wolf Man. Dracula flees, with the Wolf Man giving chase just as the Monster breaks his restraints and throws Sandra out the window. Dracula transforms into a bat, but the Wolf Man grabs him and both fall over a balcony into the rocky seas below. The boys head to a rowboat with the Monster in pursuit. Wilbur unties the boat, while Joan sets the pier on fire. The Monster turns around and marches into the flames, succumbing as the pier collapses into the water.
In the 2004 filmVan Helsing starringHugh Jackman, Lawrence Talbot is reimagined as a new character namedVelkan Valerious (portrayed byWill Kemp). Velkan gets bitten by a werewolf and is then dubbed the Wolfman. Unlike the previous films, a werewolf will rip out of its human skin rather than transform.
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In the2010 remake of the film, Lawrence Talbot is played byPuerto Rican actorBenicio del Toro, who was "cast for his resemblance to Lon Chaney Jr., with his clouded, thick features and his air of suffering." Lawrence is depicted as an "Anglo-Indian, which explains his complexion, and the film notes that he was educated in America, to explain his accent."[1] His ancestral home is also shown to be in Blackmoor, England. Mario Marin-Borquez portrays him as a child.
Having been sent to America as a child by his father Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) to live with his aunt following a year in an asylum after his mother's apparent suicide, Talbot goes on to become an actor. His brother Ben's fiancé Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) asks him to return to the family home to help find his missing brother. To his horror, he learns that Ben's brutally mutilated body was discovered shortly before his arrival. Attempting to investigate his brother's death, Lawrence is attacked and bitten by a werewolf after going to meet a Gypsy named Maleva. After having his wounds stitched up and being taken back to Talbot Hall, Lawrence goes through an unnaturally fast recovery leading up to the night of the full moon. The night of the full moon arrives and Lawrence finds his father creeping around Talbot Hall and follows him through the estate to his mother's burial crypt. Following a brief exchange, the full moon shines and Lawrence painfully transforms into a werewolf and begins his reign of terror among Blackmoor, brutally killing several villagers. The next morning Lawrence is woken by his father inside an old hollowed tree in front of the Talbots' estate, shortly after which Lawrence is arrested by Francis Aberline (Hugo Weaving) of Scotland Yard, with the help of several villagers; he is subsequently taken back to the asylum where he was sent as a child. During his time at the asylum, it is revealed that his father, Sir John Talbot, was the werewolf who bit him, with his mother's "suicide" actually being the result of Sir John attacking her in werewolf form; Lawrence'straumatized mind simply repressed the memory during his time at the asylum.
On the next night of the full moon, Lawrence is strapped to a chair and is being psychologically treated in front of an on-looking crowd at the asylum, the doctor convinced that others seeing Lawrence remain human when exposed to the full moon will help him realize that his belief that he is a werewolf is wrong. In the middle of the demonstration, Lawrence warns them that they are all in great danger, but they laugh off his warning and continue. Seconds later, the full moon shines through the asylum window and Lawrence transforms into a werewolf, who brutally murders the doctor and several spectators before escaping. Lawrence tears his way through London with Aberline in pursuit. The following day, Gwen discovers him taking refuge in the antique shop she owns. Several days pass as Gwen tries desperately to find a cure and Lawrence travels back to Blackmoor to settle things once and for all. Gwen, who meets up with the Gypsy Maleva, is told that the only way to save Lawrence is to kill him with a silver bullet. Aberline, along with a group of heavily armed officers and villagers, ready themselves for their next encounter with the beast of Blackmoor [Lawrence]; at the same time, Lawrence sneaks his way back into Talbot Hall where the final werewolf battle between him and his father takes place. After being severely wounded by his father, Lawrence viciously kills him by knocking him into the fireplace, then beheading him. Gwen and Aberline walk in to find Lawrence in werewolf form. In a failed attempt to kill Lawrence, Aberline is attacked and bitten by Lawrence just before he charges through Blackmoor's forests after Gwen. Weakened badly by his wounds, Aberline and his group hunt through the forest in search of Lawrence. Stopped in her tracks by a waterfall, Gwen finds herself cornered by the beast, but instead of killing him with the silver bullet, tries to help him recognize her. Starting to remember who Gwen is, Lawrence turns back to see that Aberline and his men getting closer and lets out several large howls. Realizing what she must do, Gwen grabs the pistol off the ground and pulls the trigger just as Lawrence launches to attack her. In his last few seconds, Lawrence transforms back into human form while he lies in Gwen's arms and thanks her for setting him free, after which he dies. Shortly after, a badly-wounded Aberline and his men arrive to find Gwen holding Lawrence's body. As Gwen sees that Aberline has been bitten, the camera cuts back to the burning Talbot Hall and the Wolfman's howl is heard one last time.
In May 2020,Ryan Gosling was cast as Wolf Man for an upcoming reboot of the titular character. Lauren Shuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo co-wrote the script, from an original story pitched by Gosling.[2] In 2023, Gosling was announced as having been replaced byChristopher Abbott as the characterBlake Lovell with Zac Chandler portraying a younger Blake.Leigh Whannell directs the film.[3] The werewolves depicted in this film resemble a nearly hairless version of Larry Talbot's werewolf form.
In 1995, a young Blake Lovell and his father Grady (portrayed bySam Jaeger) encounter a werewolf, once an infected hiker, while hunting in the woods as they hide in a hunting blind. 30 years later, Blake is now a writer who takes his wife Charlotte and his daughter Ginger to his father's house where they are led there by a man named Derek Kiel as Grady has been declared missing and presumed dead. A werewolf (performed by Ben Prendergast) ambushes them where it infects Blake by clawing him and kills Derek. As the film progresses, Blake starts slowly going through the transformation into a werewolf like losing his human teeth, sweating a lot, having sensitivity to noise, losing his hair, growing in sharp teeth and claws, a distorted vision, and growing fur on parts of his body.
When the werewolf starts attacking again, Blake later lures it away. When it returns, a more deformed Blake manages to kill it, identifying it as an infected Grady from his military tattoo. It is implied that Grady had encountered the infected hiker at some point as mentioned above and got infected by him. Blake and Grady acknowledged each other before Grady succumbed to his wounds. Blake starts to attack his family. After getting his foot caught in a bear trap, Blake claws it off and chases after Charlotte and Ginger as the sun starts to rise. Charlotte ends up using a rifle to put Blake out of his misery as part of his original personality gestured her to do it. As Blake dies in his family's presence, they see the beauty of the valley that he described seeing with his father.