CHUCKY (AKA CHARLES LEE RAY)

Charles Lee Ray, or Chucky for short (b. January 24, 1950 – d.November 9, 1988) is a fictional character from the Child's Play series of horror films, created by Don Mancini. He is the primary villain featured in the series. Chucky is a doll that was possessed by means of voodoo magic by serial killer Charles Lee Ray, the notorious Lakeshore Strangler. During most of his time as a doll, Chucky chased after a boy named Andy Barclay because Andy was the first person he told his real name to as a doll. Brad Dourif has voiced the character in all of the films (he also appears at the beginning of the first film and in subsequent flashbacks).

History of Chucky (Charles Lee Ray)

On a cold night in shit, Illinois, in November 1988, Ray was on the run from Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon). After taking refuge in a toy store, the fatally wounded killer frantically searched for a body to transfer his soul into in order to cheat death. Using the then-popular Good Guy doll, Ray recited a voodoo chant that resulted in a bolt of lightning striking the toy store and the transfer of his soul into the doll. The voodoo chant is fictional, but the name Damballa is mentioned several times in the curse, which proves Ray worshiped Damballa. It is unclear whether the lightning or the policeman ultimately killed Ray; although Norris appears to find him dead, he later admits "I was the man who killed him." Also, a newscaster announces, a few minutes, that "Charles Lee Ray, the notorious Lakeshore Strangler, was shot and killed shortly before 3 A.M. this morning on Wabash Avenue." Meanwhile, Chucky's girlfriend, Tiffany Valentine, mistook a ring that he stole from heiress Vivian Van Pelt as an engagement ring. When she found out about Chucky's death, she became obsessed with trying to find the doll that he possessed. Before Ray's death in 1988, he had murdered several people, but his killings are random. Anyone that got in his way, he would kill. For ten years he had been trying to capture Barclay. He needed Barclay's body because he was the first person Ray told his secret to. In 1990 Ray was finally destroyed, or so everyone thought, as this was his last attempt at trying to catch Barclay. Ten years later, Tiffany, who had found Chucky's body after killing officer Robert Bailey, stiched him together again. After bringing him back to life, Chucky tells Tiffany he never wanted to marry her. Tiffany then imprisons him. After Chucky escapes,he kills Tiffany by electrocuting her, then puts her soul into a bride doll. The two honeymoon.

Physiology of Chucky (Charles Lee Ray)

Charles Lee Ray, although stuck in the body of a doll, retains most human qualities, most notably the ability to bleed. In fact, it seems that Chucky's anatomy is identical to that of a human, since his innards are not hollow but rather filled with organs, as opposed to stuffing and electrical wiring and mechanics. In addition, he also has the ability to procreate, as seen in Seed of Chucky.

Child's Play

When single mom Karen Barkley (Catherine Hicks) bought the possessed doll from a peddler, she gave it to her 6-year-old son, Andy (Alex Vincent, later Justin Whalin) as a birthday present. Soon, Chucky resumed his killing spree when he pushed Andy's babysitter, Maggie, (Dinah Manoff) out of the kitchen window. All evidence pointed to Andy, but he insisted that Chucky was the one who committed the murder. After Andy was taken to a mental institution, Karen found out that Chucky was talking without batteries and the 2 ft. terror escapes. Chucky found out that he must transfer his soul into the body of the first person that he revealed his true identity to or else he will be trapped in the doll forever. Chucky pursued Andy back to his home and tried to transfer his soul into the boy but he is stopped by Karen and Norris (though he might have succeeded had he not stopped the chant when he heard them break down the barracaded door). After being burned alive by Andy in a fire place and having all of his limbs shot off, and being decapitated, he finally dies with a gunshot to the heart.

Child's Play 2

Two years later, 8-year-old Andy was sent to live with a foster family away from his mother, who was considered unfit to raise him. To prove the numerous news articles wrong, Play Pals, the creators of the Good Guy toyline, decided to rebuild Chucky. After being brought back to life, Chucky went looking for Andy again. When he found him, he killed Andy's foster father (Gerrit Graham) and Andy was blamed for it. Andy was then taken back to the orphanage. After Chucky killed Andy's foster mother (Jenny Agutter) as well; he took Kyle (Christine Elise), Andy's foster sister, hostage and made her take him to Andy. As Chucky and Andy made their way toward the Good Guy factory, Kyle gave chase. After another failed attempt at transferring his soul, Chucky realized that he was stuck in the body and was now focused on killing Andy. Chucky chased Andy and Kyle and ended up bathing in a pipe of superheated liquid plastic after losing his legs and right hand (which he had replaced with a knife blade). Shortly afterwards, the mangled and enraged Chucky was killed for the second time when Kyle shoved an active airhose into the killer's mouth, causing his head to burst.

Child's Play 3

Upon turning 16, Andy was sent to military school having failed to stay in foster homes. Meanwhile, Play Pals decided to re-release its old Good Guy toyline, thinking that all of the bad publicity had died down. Using old toy parts from the abandoned warehouse, some of Chucky's blood was mixed in with a batter of plastic being used to make the dolls, bringing him back to life once more. Chucky mailed himself to the school where Andy was located and was unexpectedly discovered by a young private named Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers). Realizing that because Tyler was the first person he told his true identity while in his new body and therefore unable to transfer his soul to Andy, Chucky decided to use Tyler as his new potential body. When Andy found out that Chucky was back, he told Tyler not to trust him. Chucky made Tyler hide in a carnival and Andy gave chase. While inside of a carnival ride, Chucky first ended up having half of his facial mask slashed off with an iron scythe, his left arm blown off and his chest shot by a revolver and was finally thrown into a giant fan to be cut in several chunks by Andy. Andy and Tyler then leave the carnival ride only to have a policeman arrest Andy and take him away.

Bride of Chucky

On a stormy night, Chucky's voodoo obsessed girlfriend Tiffany finally found the remains of the doll. After slitting a cop's throat, she goes back to her trailer and sews Chucky back together. She uses a book entitled "Voodoo 4 Dummies" and brings him back to life with a spell. However, soon after bringing him back Tiffany found out that the ring she had worn for 10 years had not been for a proposal. It was actually a ring that Chucky had stolen from a woman named Vivian Van Pelt.

Seeing that all Chucky was interested in was becoming human again, she became furious and locked him away in the playpen which she had bought for the child she wanted to have. After escaping, Chucky kills Tiffany by electrocuting her in her bathtub. He then brings her back as a women's bridal doll that Tiffany originally bought for him as a joke. Tiffany wanted out of the doll body right away. Chucky then tells her that the only way to turn human again was to use The Heart of Damballa, an amulet that Chucky was wearing on the night he became a doll. In order to get to Hackensack, New Jersey where his corpse was buried, Tiffany calls her neighbor Jesse (played by Nick Stabile) and says she'll pay him to get them there by the next day. Unaware of the fact that Tiffany and Chucky were alive, he takes advantage of this opportunity to escape with his girlfriend Jade from her overprotective uncle Warren. He accepts the offer and runs away with Jade as quick as possible.

On the way there, Tiffany and Chucky kill anyone who stalls their ride, but Jesse and Jade get blamed for all of it. They then decide to stop at a motel and rest. At the motel, they meet a pair of newlyweds named Diane and Russ, who are later sliced by falling shards of glass above them when Tiffany throws a wine bottle at a mirror on the ceiling. Chucky, awestruck at the creative murder, then proposed to Tiffany and they have sex. When the bodies of the newlyweds are discovered by the hotel maid, Jesse and Jade are even more wanted then ever, so their friend David comes to give them some advice. It is during this time that Jesse and Jade find out the dolls are alive, and there's no turning back now. After hijacking a recreational vehicle from another couple, Jesse and Jade are both forced to drive to Hackensack.

On the way, Tiffany and Chucky wind up getting into a fight (provoked by Jesse and Jade), and Jesse (who was driving) crashes the van and it explodes. That doesn't stop them, though. They wind up getting to Forrest Creek Cemetery, but right before Tiffany was about to transfer her soul into Jade, she and Chucky get into another fight. Tiffany winds up being killed, and when the cops show up, Chucky gets shot by Jade. Before her final breath, Tiffany gives birth to a bloody baby doll (Glen/Glenda).

Seed of Chucky

In this film, six years have passed. The offspring of Chucky and Tiffany, a gender-confused doll named Glen (voiced by Billy Boyd), has grown up as an orphan in Great Britain. When he sees his parents on an episode of Access Hollywood for the upcoming movie Chucky goes Psycho, he escapes his abusive ventriloquist owner and mails himself to Hollywood. Once there, he uses Chucky's amulet to transfer Chucky's and Tiffany's souls into the new dolls that the studio is using for their movie. Although horrified by his parents' murderous lifestyle, Glen wants desperately to please his parents and belong to a family, no matter how dysfunctional.

Seeing that Glen has no genitals, Chucky and Tiffany can't agree on the gender of their child, and they start calling him by different names - Glen (Chucky) and Glenda (Tiffany). Eventually, Glen asks his parents why they kill people, something they never thought about. Tiffany proposes to stop killing all at once, much to Chucky's dismay. This proves to be a very difficult task, especially for Tiffany. Chucky and Tiffany both kill people behind each other's backs and swear Glen to secrecy, as well as Chucky tricking Glen into committing two murders by accident. Eventually, Glen is so traumatized that "Glenda" briefly emerges as an alternate personality who pleases her parents by committing murder with ease. Glen returns to awareness for the rest of the film.

Meanwhile, the real-life Jennifer Tilly (playing herself) is desperate to advance her acting career. When Redman arrives at Jennifer Tilly's mansion to discuss casting her in his movie, they are both knocked out. Chucky's sperm sample is used to impregnate Tilly in order to give Glen/Glenda a human body as well. Because it's a voodoo pregnancy, Tilly appears 9 months pregnant within a couple of days.

Later tying Tilly and her limo driver Stan (Chucky needed a replacement body because Tiffany killed Redman) to her bed, Jennifer promptly goes into labor. Upon the birth of twin babies, one a boy and one a girl, Chucky is put under pressure as to what the harsh reality of becoming human again will mean. He then decides to remain a doll, which makes him immortal, prompting Tiffany to leave him, not knowing who he is anymore. Tiffany decides to take Glen with her, enraging Chucky, who attempts to throw his knife at Jennifer but the limo driver jumps in the way of it, saving Jennifer. Tiffany attacks Chucky with the knife before the police arrive.

The next day, Tilly is visited in the hospital by Tiffany and Glen. Just as Tiffany transfers her soul into Tilly, Chucky hacks his way through the door and kills Tilly, who is in Tiffany's doll body, with an axe. Tiffany barely escapes with Tilly's body, but Chucky and Glen thinks she's dead. With this ultimate trauma, Glen is suddenly capable of killing (without needing Glenda to do it), and he proceeds to attack his father. In comic fashion, Glen uses martial arts to fight Chucky, picks up the axe, and then chops off all of Chucky's limbs. Even while dying, Chucky is proud of his son, but this doesn't stop Glen from chopping off his father's head. Tiffany, in Tilly's body, then comforts him.

Five years later, Tiffany is living happily without Chucky as Jennifer Tilly, with the real-live twins, who are now celebrating their fifth birthday. One of Tiffany's servants, Fulvia, tries to quit her job because she is frightened by the mischievous Glenda. Tiffany finds this ridiculous, but says it's okay for her to leave. When Fulvia thanks her and turns around, Tiffany brutally swings her doll at Fulvia's head, causing her to fall to the ground. She then proceeds to strike her with it several times, cracking her head open after the final blow. When she's dragging Fulvia's body to a closet, she sees real-live Glenda through the window. They both smile and decide to keep the whole thing a secret. Tiffany is then outside telling a group of kids the story of her and Chucky, when she surprises the real-live Glen (a good boy, somewhat timid-looking) by giving him another present that doesn't say who it's from. Glen opens it to reveal Chucky's arm, which leaps up and appears to grab him.

About Brad Dourif

Bradford Claude Dourif (March 18, 1950, Huntington, West Virginia) is an American Academy Award nominated actor with a popular reputation for playing deranged or unbalanced character roles. Director Werner Herzog has called him "one of the greatest living actors".

He was formerly married to businesswoman and self-proclaimed psychic Joni Dourif with whom he has two daughters, Kristina and Fiona. He is the uncle of Nat Friedman.

His father owned and operated a dye factory, and died in 1953. His mother remarried champion golfer Bill Campbell, who helped raise him and his five siblings (three sisters and two brothers). From 1963 to 1965, Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina. There he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming an artist, he eventually settled on the path to becoming an actor. This was inspired by his mother's participation as an actress in a community theater.

Starting in school productions, he progressed to community theater, joining up with the Huntington Community Players, while attending Marshall University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his hometown college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. During the early 1970s, Dourif appeared in a number of plays, off-Broadway and at Woodstock, New York, including The Ghost Sonata, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, and When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, in which he was spotted by director Miloš Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

Although this film is frequently cited as his film debut, in fact, Dourif made his first big-screen appearance with a bit part in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly his big break, earning him a Golden Globe (Best Actor Debut) and a British Academy Award (Supporting Actor): he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until 1988 when he moved to Hollywood.

Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, he frequently plays demented, deranged, or disturbed characters, starting in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979), and Forman's Ragtime (1981). Dourif then teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986).

He has appeared in a number of horror films, notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988) and its sequels. Dourif broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal Beauty (1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda (1990), and London Kills Me (1991). He also played Gríma in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

On television, Dourif appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", in the early X-Files episode "Beyond the Sea" as condemned serial killer Luther Lee Boggs, in the first season of Millennium as Dennis Hoffman, and in Oliver Stone's Wild Palms. He played Lon Suder, a murdering psychopath who eventually redeems himself, in a three-episode story arc on Star Trek: Voyager. He appeared as Saavedro in Myst III: Exile (2001), the third game in the popular Myst franchise. He plays Doc Cochran in the HBO series Deadwood.

Dourif was cast for the role of The Scarecrow who was set to appear in Batman Forever, whilst Tim Burton was attached to the project. However, Burton who was unhappy with the script, instead decided to use The Riddler as the main villain.

According to Rob Zombie's official site, Brad Dourif will next be seen playing Sheriff Brackett in his adaptation/prequel, Halloween.

Brad Dourif Trivia

* Plays the didgeridoo, an Australian musical instrument.

* Appeared in the music video for Toto's "Stranger in Town".

* Played music with the Deviants

* Made five trips to New Zealand while the Lord of the Rings trilogy was being filmed. He had to shave his eyebrows off each time.

* Dourif appeared in a 1987 episode of Miami Vice in which, coincidentally, Helena Bonham Carter made her television debut.

The artwork used on this page was done by David Hartman. For more information on this artist view our "DARK ARTIST OF THE MONTH " section of this website.

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