Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris was born in 1940 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He was raised in the town of Rich where his father worked as a farmer.

He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University in Texas in 1964. While attending school, he also worked for the local newspaper. After graduating, Harris traveled Europe for a time. Back in the USA, he worked for the Associated Press out of New York. Not coincidentally, his duties for the press included covering murders and other crimes. This helped fuel his imagination in the fictional world, and he began to write macabre stories for magazines that began to show his attention for detail that would make his subsequent novels so popular.

In 1975, he wrote his first novel, Black Sunday, about a diabolical plot to kill thousands with a blimp during the Superbowl.

The book was turned into a film -- Black Sunday (1977) -- a very short two years after being published. Following its success, he devoted his career entirely to fictional novelization.

Three of the actors who play his characters in the Hannibal Lecter films effectively reverse the roles that they played in earlier films. Anthony Hopkins was cast as Lecter to be the polar opposite of Dr. Treves from The Elephant Man (1980). Jodie Foster went from captive in Taxi Driver (1976) to rescuer in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Harvey Keitel went from playing Foster's pimp in Taxi Driver (1976) to playing her (future) mentor in Red Dragon (2002).

In 1981, Harris wrote his first book in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, Red Dragon.

Though the character of Lecter did not become famous (or infamous, as the case may be) for another decade, the book did spark a loosely-based movie, Manhunter (1986), which was quickly dismissed at first, grossing back only about half its cost.

Because of the large box office take and the fact that Anthony Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his role in the second Lecter film, did not play Lecter in Manhunter (1986), De Laurentis and Harris came to terms to make a second version of the first book, this time properly titled Red Dragon (2002). This film version was more in keeping with the book than the first film was. Unable to escape from being known as the man who created Lecter, Harris again agreed to make not only another novel on the character, but to write the material for the film adaption as well. The current working title is Behind the Mask.

Then, in 1988, Harris wrote another novel about the character Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs. This time, he gave the character more of a presence, although he still did not dominate the book.

When this was turned into a film three years later as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), it became an instant hit and swept the "Big 5" at the Academy Awards, becoming only the third movie to do so. After the success of The Silence of the Lambs in both movie and book form, there became a growing demand among fans - and film producer Dino De Laurentiis -- for there to be another chapter in the Hannibal Lector series.

It took 11 years between novels, but Harris finally delivered again in 1999 with the best-selling novel Hannibal.

Perhaps ahead of his time, the terrorism of 11 September, 2001, led to many stadiums being turned into no-fly zones due to fears of a similar attack.

It was made into a film two years later in Hannibal (2001) and, although dismissed by some critics and fans for straying from the book in parts (as well as Jodie Foster's non-appearance as Agent Clarisse Starling), it set opening records in box office sales for an R-rated film.

Though most of the characters in the Hannibal Lecter novels are American, quite a few of them have been played by British actors. Hannibal Lecter was revealed in Hannibal to have been Lithuanian, but spent most of his life in Maryland. The first actor to play him, Brian Cox, is Scottish, while Anthony Hopkins is Welsh. Reba McClain, the love interest of Francis Dollarhyde in Red Dragon (2002), was originally played by Joan Allen in Manhunter (1986), but she was succeeded in Red Dragon (2002) by Emily Watson. Likewise, Tom Noonan, who played Dollarhyde, was succeeded by Ralph Fiennes. The villain in Hannibal (2001), Mason Verger, was played by Gary Oldman.

Hannibal Lecter has been played by three actors: Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins, and Mads Mikkelsen. All three actors have also appeared in a Marvel Comics adaptation that makes reference to Lecter. Cox appeared in X2: X-Men United (2003), in which Magneto's escape is modeled after Lecter's escape in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Hopkins appeared in Thor (2011), as the adopted father of Loki. In The Avengers (2012), Loki's interactions with Black Widow from the confines of a glass cage mirror the interactions between Lecter and Clarice Starling. Madsen appeared in Doctor Strange (2016), in which he is at one point restrained with a face mask resembling Lecter's.

He was very close to his mother and used to call her every night until her death in 2011.