No Hannibal Lector is not a real person. He's a character in a series of books by author Thomas Harris. The character Hannibal Lector is probably best remembered from the movie, " Silence Of The Lambs " that had Jodie Foster playing FBI agent Starling. I know the first time I watched " The Silence Of The Lambs " I did not sleep well that night or for many nights after. protagonist
Lector is introduced to the public in the 1981 thriller novel " Red Dragon " which was also written by Thomas Harris. Lector was portrayed as both a brilliant psychiatrist and a cannibalistic serial killer. A lot of people get confused and think that " Silence Of The Lambs " came first but it did not. Silence Of The Lambs was the sequel to Red Dragon.
Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
In the first two novels Lector was one of two primary antagonists but in the third novel " Hannibal " Lector becomes the main character. His role as protagonist continues into the fourth novel " Hannibal Rising " that explores his childhood and what turned him into a cannibalistic serial killer. It is revealed in that novel that his sister was killed and eaten by soldiers and Lector took part in the meal.
The character Hannibal Lector appeared in five movies. The first of which was Manhunter which was loosely based on Red Dragon. It featured Brian Cox as Lector but they inexplicably spelled his name as Lecktor in that movie. In 2002 a second adaptation of Red Dragon was made and Anthony Hopkins played Lector in it as he had also played Lector in Silence Of The Lambs. Anthony Hopkins won an academy award for playing Lector in Silence Of The Lambs in 1991. Ed Gein who was a serial killer from La Crosse Wisconsin gets the name of being the real life Hannibal Lector. If you click the title to this Blog Post or Click Here you can read all about Ed Gein. But I warn you that Ed Gein was a very real serial killer though he is dead now.
Above is Ed Gein who gets the name of being the real life Hannibal Lector
Click Here to read all about real life serial killer Ed Gein
