It

It

by

Stephen King

It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown / Bob Gray

The monstrous antagonist of the novel, “It” first appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It introduces itself to George Denbrough from within Derry’s sewer as “Bob Gray,” also known as Pennywise. When… read analysis of It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown / Bob Gray

William “Stuttering Bill” Denbrough

Bill, sometimes also called “Big Bill” due to his height, is the unofficial leader of the Losers’ Club—a motley group of adolescent social outcasts who are brought together through their mutual experiences of being bullied… read analysis of William “Stuttering Bill” Denbrough

George Elmer Denbrough / “Georgie”

Bill Denbrough’s six-year-old younger brother and the youngest son of Zack and Sharon Denbrough. George, often called “Georgie,” has a fear of the dark and last sees Bill when his older brother helps… read analysis of George Elmer Denbrough / “Georgie”

Ben “Haystack” Hanscom

Ben is an overweight social outcast who has no friends until he meets the Losers’ Club. Richie nicknames Ben “Haystack” after the obese wrestler, Haystack Calhoun. Ben is known among adults for being exceptionally polite… read analysis of Ben “Haystack” Hanscom

Richard “Trashmouth” Tozier / Richie

The bespectacled member of the Losers’ Club, who generally goes by “Richie.” Tozier is known for his barbed sense of humor, his love of rock-and-roll, and his fondness for comic impressions. Along with Beverly Marshread analysis of Richard “Trashmouth” Tozier / Richie
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Stanley Uris

A member of the Losers’ Club who is also a part of Derry’s tiny Jewish community. He is the son of Donald Uris and Andrea Bertoly. As a boy, he expresses an interest in ornithology… read analysis of Stanley Uris

Eddie Kaspbrak

Eddie is the most fragile member of the Losers’ Club, though a violent childhood incident with Henry Bowers proves that he is stronger than he believes himself to be. Eddie is supposedly asthmatic and develops… read analysis of Eddie Kaspbrak

Beverly Marsh Rogan

Beverly is the only girl in the Losers’ Club. She is tomboyish, smokes cigarettes, and demonstrates a talent for marksmanship. Beverly is the daughter of Elfrida Marsh, a server at Derry’s best restaurant, and… read analysis of Beverly Marsh Rogan

Mike Hanlon

The seventh member of the Losers’ Club and the son of Will Hanlon and Jessica Hanlon. The Hanlons are Derry’s only black family, and they own one of two farms in town; the other… read analysis of Mike Hanlon

The Turtle

The creator of the universe in the world of It. Bill Denbrough encounters the Turtle when the Losers’ Club goes to kill It in It's lair. The Turtle is “a large presence” that does… read analysis of The Turtle

Will Hanlon

Mike Hanlon’s father and Jessica Hanlon’s husband. Will owns one of two farms in Derry. The other is owned by Oscar “Butch” Bowers, who harasses Will and vandalizes his chicken coop. Of… read analysis of Will Hanlon

Sharon Denbrough

Bill and George Denbrough’s mother and Zack Denbrough’s wife. While looking through George’s photo album, Bill comes across a photo of his mother from “when she was young and impossibly gorgeous.” Sharon is… read analysis of Sharon Denbrough

Adrian Mellon

A freelance writer and the partner of Don Hagarty. Unlike Don, Adrian is fond of Derry. Described, along with Don, as an effeminate gay man, he becomes the target of John “Webby” Gartonread analysis of Adrian Mellon

John “Webby” Garton

An eighteen-year-old who is brought in for questioning for his involvement in the murder of Adrian Mellon. Garton is the leader of the gang that harasses and savagely beats Mellon while he and his… read analysis of John “Webby” Garton

Paul Hughes

A Derry police officer who, along with his partner, Officer Conley, questions John “Webby” Garton about his involvement in the assault and murder of Adrian Mellon. Hughes is the only officer who seems… read analysis of Paul Hughes

Chief Andrew Rademacher

Chief of the Derry Police Department. When his office is later moved from the third to the fifth floor of the police station, the tramp-chair, which is stored in the attic along with “all sorts… read analysis of Chief Andrew Rademacher

Christopher Unwin

A fifteen-year-old questioned by Chief Andrew Rademacher and Assistant District Attorney Tom Boutillier for his involvement in the murder of Adrian Mellon. Unwin wears “faded jeans, a grease-smeared tee-shirt, and blocky engineer boots.” During… read analysis of Christopher Unwin

Charles “Chick” Avarino

A Derry police officer who questions Steve Dubay about his involvement in the assault and murder of Adrian Mellon. Avarino dislikes gay people and, “like every other cop on the force,” would like to… read analysis of Charles “Chick” Avarino

Elmer Curtie

Owner of Derry’s gay bar, the Falcon, which opened in 1973. Curtie initially thinks that his bar will service bus passengers arriving in the terminal next door. In 1977, Curtie nearly goes bankrupt but his… read analysis of Elmer Curtie

Patricia Uris

Stanley Uris’s wife. Like Stanley, Patricia is Jewish. She grew up in New York City. Patricia is a prudish woman with lingering feelings of inferiority over the anti-Semitism she experienced during her teen years… read analysis of Patricia Uris

Patrick Hocksetter

A twelve-year-old boy who disappears from Derry in July 1958. Beverly Marsh witnesses him being killed by mutant leeches. Patrick is a little overweight and has a round face, “as pale as cream.” Patrick is… read analysis of Patrick Hocksetter

Tom Rogan

Beverly Marsh’s husband. Tom is a misogynist who regularly abuses Beverly. He first meets Beverly in a Chicago nightclub. He beats her partly out of lingering resentment for his mother, who beat him during… read analysis of Tom Rogan

Audra Phillips

Born “Audrey Philpott,” she is a movie star and Bill Denbrough’s wife of eleven years. Audra is five years older than Bill and a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. She is described as “auburn-haired… read analysis of Audra Phillips

Henry Bowers

One of the trio of bullies, including “Belch” Huggins and Victor Criss, who torment members of the self-identified Losers’ Club. Bowers is a large boy and stands out as the leader of the pack… read analysis of Henry Bowers

Reginald “Belch” Huggins

One of the trio of bullies, including Henry Bowers and Victor Criss, who torment members of the self-identified Losers’ Club. Belch got his name due to being “able to articulate belches of amazing length… read analysis of Reginald “Belch” Huggins

Peter Gordon

One of the kids with whom “Belch” Huggins played baseball, and a boy who occasionally joins in with Belch, Henry Bowers, and Victor Criss in bullying Mike Hanlon and members of the Losers’ Club… read analysis of Peter Gordon

Oscar “Butch” Bowers

A farmer and the father of Henry Bowers. He is mentally ill and beats his son and his wife, who leaves him after he nearly beats her to death. He is a World War… read analysis of Oscar “Butch” Bowers

Victor Criss

One of the trio of bullies, including Henry Bowers and “Belch” Huggins, who torment members of the self-identified Losers’ Club. He wears his hair in an Elvis pompadour. He is a quick runner and… read analysis of Victor Criss

Mrs. Starrett

The librarian who sits behind the circulation desk at Derry Public Library in 1958. Like his fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Douglas, Mrs. Starrett likes Ben Hanscom because he is polite and gentle. When Ben returns… read analysis of Mrs. Starrett

Carole Danner

The new librarian who sits behind the circulation desk at Derry Public Library. Ben Hanscom meets her in 1985. He describes her as a “pretty young woman.” She becomes concerned for Ben when he appears… read analysis of Carole Danner

Arlene Hanscom

Ben Hanscom’s mother. Arlene is a single mother and is thirty-two years old in 1958. She works forty hours per week in the spool-and-bale room at Stark’s Mills in Newport. Breathing in dust and… read analysis of Arlene Hanscom

Richard Macklin

Husband of Monica Macklin and stepfather of Edward and Dorsey Corcoran. Richard abuses both boys and later confesses to bludgeoning Dorsey to death with a retractable hammer in the family’s garage. Richard is sentenced… read analysis of Richard Macklin

Edward Corcoran

The eldest son of Monica Macklin, the stepson of Richard Macklin, and the older brother of Dorsey Corcoran. A ten-year-old boy who goes missing in Derry. In his suicide note, Richard claims… read analysis of Edward Corcoran

Dorsey Corcoran

The youngest son of Monica Macklin, the stepson of Richard Macklin, and the younger brother of Edward Corcoran. A four-year-old boy who, before his death, often shows up to school with a… read analysis of Dorsey Corcoran

Alvin “Al” Marsh

Beverly Marsh’s father and Elfrida Marsh’s husband. Like Richard Macklin and Butch Bowers, he is physically abusive. He slaps and punches Beverly but also sexually abuses her by masturbating over her while… read analysis of Alvin “Al” Marsh

Elfrida Marsh

The wife of Alvin Marsh, and Beverly Marsh’s mother. She works as a waitress and has the 3:00 PM-11:00 PM shift at Green’s Farm, Derry’s best restaurant. She is “a small woman with… read analysis of Elfrida Marsh

Greta Bowie

Along with Sally Mueller, she is one of Beverly Marsh’s fifth-grade classmates. Greta and Sally are close friends. Like Sally, Greta is one of the rich girls who lives in one of the… read analysis of Greta Bowie

Sally Mueller

Greta Bowie’s closest friend at Derry Elementary School. Sally lives in a Victorian house on West Broadway, along with Greta. Sally and Greta look down on Beverly for her poverty and tomboyish manners. Sally… read analysis of Sally Mueller

Mrs. Kersh

An old Swedish woman who is living in Beverly Marsh’s childhood home when Beverly goes back to visit in 1985. She identifies herself as the daughter of Bob Gray. Mrs. Kersh transforms into… read analysis of Mrs. Kersh

Owen Phillips

King borrows the name of his middle son, Owen Philip, in an anecdote about “an unfortunate boy” who laughs when “Belch” Huggins is struck by a baseball. Belch walks over to Owen and kicks him… read analysis of Owen Phillips

Dick Hallorann

When the Black Spot is burned down by members of a white supremacist group, Halloran has a vision of several members of the hooded mob blocking an exit. King first introduces the character of Dick… read analysis of Dick Hallorann

Kay McCall

Beverly Marsh’s friend in Chicago. Kay is a former designer and a feminist who has written three books. She is wealthy and gives Beverly the money that she needs to leave Chicago and return… read analysis of Kay McCall

Norbert Keene

A pharmacist and the proprietor of the Center Street Drug Store from 1925 to 1975. Norbert is somewhat misanthropic and dislikes Sonia Kaspbrak. Norbert one day informs Eddie that he does not have asthma… read analysis of Norbert Keene

The Bradley Gang

A group of Depression-era outlaws who arrive in Derry in 1929 to hide out from the FBI. They are gunned down by members of the Derry community on Canal Street in the middle of the… read analysis of The Bradley Gang

Claude Heroux

A lumberman with a strong rural Maine/French-Canadian accent who engages in union activities as an excuse to drink. One night, in September 1905, he uses his ax to murder the patrons of the Silver Dollar… read analysis of Claude Heroux

Lars Theramenius

A three-year-old boy who lives in Derry. He witnesses Eddie Kaspbrak’s injuries in the aftermath of Eddie’s getting beaten up by Henry Bowers. Lars also sees Al Marsh chasing Beverly Marsh from their… read analysis of Lars Theramenius
Minor Characters
Zack Denbrough
Bill and George Denbrough’s father and Sharon Denbrough’s husband. He is a waste water electrician who sometimes helps to repair disruptions to Derry’s sewage system in the 1950s. He also lives in town during the ambush on the Bradley Gang in 1929.
Dave Gardener
Harold Gardener’s father. He is a neighbor of the Denbroughs who, in 1957, finds George Denbrough’s dismembered body near the sewage drain, wraps him in a quilt, and takes him back to the Denbroughs’ house.
Harold Gardener
A Derry cop and the son of Dave Gardener. He witnesses downtown Derry’s collapse and tells his wife that “the end of the world [has] come.”
Don Hagarty
A draftsman with an engineering firm in Bangor and the partner of Adrian Mellon.
Jeffrey Reeves
A fellow officer on Derry’s police force and Harold Gardener’s partner.
Steve Dubay
A seventeen-year-old who is brought in for questioning due to his involvement in the murder of Adrian Mellon. Dubay has an IQ of 68 and left school at the age of sixteen. He also has an abusive stepfather.
Officer Conley
A Derry police officer and Paul Hughes’s partner. He assists in questioning John “Webby” Garton about the assault and murder of Adrian Mellon.
Assistant District Attorney Tom Boutillier
The legal official who, along with Chief Andrew Rademacher, questions Christopher Unwin about his involvement in Adrian Mellon’s murder.
Officer Frank Machen
A Derry cop who breaks up a possible fight between John “Webby” Garton and Adrian Mellon at the Derry Fair.
Barney Morrison
Charles “Chick” Avarino’s partner on the Derry police force.
Herbert and Ruth Blum
Patricia Uris’s parents. They initially disapprove of Stanley due to his lower-income background and his wish to open his own business while still a young man.
Carol Feeny
Richie Tozier’s travel agent. She makes the arrangements for his transportation from Los Angeles to Derry, Maine.
Ricky Lee
Owner of The Red Wheel, a bar that Ben Hanscom frequents in Nebraska.
Gresham Arnold
A man who went into the Red Wheel on the night of his suicide. Ben Hanscom’s eyes, which appear haunted and distracted on the evening of May 28, 1985, remind the Red Wheel’s proprietor, Ricky Lee, of Arnold’s eyes on the night he committed suicide.
Annie
The barmaid at the Red Wheel who becomes concerned by Ben Hanscom’s drinking on the night of May 28, 1985.
Myra Kaspbrak
Eddie Kaspbrak’s wife. Myra is described as a “huge” woman who, in both size and temperament, is very similar to Eddie’s mother, Sonia. Myra helps Eddie with his chauffeuring business, Royal Crest.
Sonia Kaspbrak
Eddie Kaspbrak’s mother. Sonia is obese, overprotective of Eddie, and a hypochondriac. Sonia uses the specter of illness as a tool to ensure Eddie’s co-dependency, due to Sonia’s fears of Eddie growing up and leaving her alone.
Avery Hocksetter
Patrick Hocksetter’s infant younger brother, whom Patrick suffocates with a pillow.
Susan Browne
Bill Denbrough’s agent with whom he has a sexual relationship before meeting his future wife, Audra.
Albert Carson
The head librarian at the Derry Public Library from 1914-1960. Carson helps Mike Hanlon to initiate his research into Derry’s history.
Mr. Ripsom
The owner of a Gulf station and the father of the deceased Betty Ripsom, who is his only child.
Betty Ripsom
The only daughter of Mr. Ripsom and his wife. Betty is found on Outer Jackson Street just after Christmas in 1957. Her body is found “ripped wide open.”
Branson Buddinger
One of Derry’s historians. He commits suicide by hanging.
Cheryl Lamonica
A murder victim from Derry who is killed at the age of sixteen.
Matthew Clements
A three-year-old murder victim from Derry.
Jimmy Cullum
A boy whose body is discovered on July 15, 1958. Jimmy is a quiet child who wears glasses and likes to play Scrabble on rainy days. One day, while playing in the Barrens, the children unknowingly pass over his body, floating in the Canal.
Veronica “Ronnie” Grogan
A fourth-grader at Neibolt Street Church School whose body is discovered in the sewer. Beverly Marsh knew her. Henry Bowers is convicted of murdering her after her underwear is found tucked under his mattress.
Mr. Fazio
The janitor at Derry Elementary School. He is the brother of Armando “Mandy” Fazio, the keeper at the town dump. Mr. Fazio warns Ben Hanscom to watch out for frost-bite shortly before Ben has his first vision of Pennywise the Clown on the frozen Canal.
Mrs. Douglas
The fifth-grade teacher at Derry Elementary School. Ben Hanscom is in her class. She is in her forties, Ben figures, and is as fond of Ben as he is of her.
Mrs. Davies
The pretty young librarian who is reading the story of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” when Ben Hanscom enters the Children’s Library one day during story hour.
Monica Macklin
Wife of Richard Macklin and mother of Edward and Dorsey Corcoran. Monica covers for Richard’s abuse of the boys. Her own relationship with Richard is violent, resulting in several police visits to their home, though Richard never hits Monica. Monica divorces Richard after he confesses to killing Dorsey.
Chief Richard Borton
The chief of the Derry Police in the 1950s who heads the investigations of the mysterious murders of that decade, as well Richard Macklin’s killing of his stepson, Dorsey Corcoran.
Henrietta Dumont
Edward Corcoran’s fifth-grade teacher at Derry Elementary School. She notices Eddie coming to school with bruises but is discouraged from saying anything due to the school’s fears that it will lose money during “tax appropriation time.”
Aloysius Nell
A Derry police officer who speaks in “whiskey-roughened tones.” He is an Irish Catholic and is married to Maureen Nell. He dies around the same time that Derry collapses.
Wentworth and Maggie Tozier
Richie Tozier’s parents. Wentworth is a dentist and Maggie quietly wishes that she were the mother of a little girl, due to her inability to understand Richie’s crude behavior.
Bradley Donovan
Bill Denbrough’s new friend whom he meets at a speech class in Bangor. Bradley has a lisp. He is expelled from the Losers’ Club after calling Beverly Marsh a “cheater” during a game of pitching pennies.
Laurie Ann Winterbarger
A five-year-old girl who goes missing in February 1985. Police suspect that her father, Horst Winterbarger, whom Laurie’s mother accused of sexually abusing the girl during their custody battle, has kidnapped her and taken her to Florida.
Dennis Torrio
A sixteen-year-old boy who goes missing in the same week that Laurie Ann Winterbarger disappears. Unlike Laurie, Dennis comes from a “wonderful family,” is an Honor Roll student, and plays football. The police conclude that he had every reason to stay in Derry, making his disappearance inexplicable.
The Tracker Brothers
Phil and Tony Tracker are lifelong bachelors and owners of a truck depot in Derry. They own a house on West Broadway considered to be the nicest house on the street. Sonia Kaspbrak suspects them of being gay for keeping such a nice and neat property.
Sergeant Wilson
A large man from the South with carroty red hair and pimples who picks on Will Hanlon due to his racism and resentment for Hanlon’s competence.
Trevor Dawson
A black soldier who is present with Will Hanlon and Dick Hallorann when the Black Spot is burned down. He saves Will from being trampled during the stampede to escape the burning shack.
Johnny Feury
A boy from Derry who is killed in the 1980s by a fish-like creature, similar to the one that kills Edward Corcoran. He is found dead on 29 Neibolt Street with his legs gone. A postman finds him by seeing a hand sticking out from under the porch.
Harold Earl
A hermit who lives on Route 7 in a shack. Chief Rademacher suspects him of killing John Feury. When asked if he’s killed anyone, Earl says that he killed many people during the war. This is taken as a confession and Earl is sent to Bangor Mental Health Facility.
Fogarty and Adler
The “counselors” at Juniper Hill, the facility for the criminally-insane where Henry Bowers is imprisoned. The guards are not allowed to carry billy clubs, so they carry rolls of quarters instead, which they use to hit inmates on the back of the neck.
John Koontz
The “counselor” at Juniper Hill whom Henry Bowers considers to be the cruelest of all. While guarding the Blue Ward where Henry is imprisoned, Koontz is confronted by It, who is transformed into a Doberman dog (the only thing Koontz fears), as It helps Henry escape.
Jimmy Donlin
One of the inmates in the Blue Ward who ends up at Juniper Hill after killing his mother and eating her brains. Pennywise the Clown transforms into his mother to frighten and upset Donlin, whose screams distract John Koontz while Henry Bowers escapes.
Benny Beaulieu
A pyromaniac and fellow inmate in the Blue Ward at Juniper Hill who maniacally repeats, “Try to set the night on fire!”, the refrain from The Doors’ song, “Light My Fire.”
Freddie Firestone
The British producer of Attic Room—a film adaptation of one of Bill Denbrough’s novels, starring Audra Phillips and written by Bill.
Andrew Keene
Norbert Keene’s grandson. Andrew witnesses the collapse of part of downtown Derry, but he has smoked so much Colombian Red marijuana that he perceives it to be a hallucination.
Lal Machen
The owner of Machen’s Sporting Goods. Lal dies in 1959. He waits on the men from the Bradley Gang when they go shopping for ammunition at his store. He also participates in the ambush that kills the gang.
Sheriff Sullivan
Derry’s local sheriff. He is present during the ambush on the Bradley Gang. He also helps Will Hanlon to get justice after Buck Bowers destroys the chicken coop on the Hanlon farm.
Jessica Hanlon
Wife of Will Hanlon and mother of Mike Hanlon. She is a devout Baptist and originally from Texas.
Major Fuller
An army officer who works with the Derry Town Council to control the Black Spot. Fuller is racist, and doesn’t want the black soldiers in Derry, but he also doesn’t want to shut down the Black Spot and anger the white patrons from town who go there.
Steve “Moose” Sadler
A mentally-challenged high-school boy who joins Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, and “Belch” Huggins in bullying Mike Hanlon. He takes his nickname from a character of the same name in the Archie comics.
Rena Davenport
A woman whom Butch Bowers courts for eight years. She is “fat, forty, and usually filthy.” She farms beans, which are her “pride,” and cooks them for Butch and Henry Bowers.
Egbert Thoroughgood
A toothless 93-year-old man who tells Mike Hanlon the story of the affair of Claude Heroux and the Silver Dollar, a massacre committed by Heroux which Thoroughgood witnessed. Thoroughgood has a strong rural accent that makes it difficult for Mike to understand him.
Sandy Ives
A folklorist at the University of Maine who helps Mike Hanlon to collect historical records and old tales about Derry.
Davey Hartwell
The chief “organizer” or “ringleader” of the union of lumbermen and a greatly admired figure. Hartwell is found floating face-down in the Kenduskeag River along with Amsel Bickford. His legs are dismembered and something is left “distended [in] his mouth, stuffing out his cheeks.”
Amsel Bickford
Another one of the union of lumbermen’s “ringleaders” who is found decapitated and floating face-down in the Kenduskeag river, along with Davey Hartwell. Like Hartwell, he has a paper with the word “union” pinned to the back of his shirt.
Ralph Rogan
Tom Rogan’s father. He commits suicide by drinking “a gin-and-lye cocktail,” leaving Tom in charge of his brother and sisters and vulnerable to his mother’s abuse if he does not look after them satisfactorily.
Steven Bowie
A timber baron who once lived on West Broadway. Bowie is a devout churchgoer and a deacon, as well as president of Derry’s White Legion of Decency chapter.
Calvin Clark
A firemen with the Derry Fire Department, and one of the Clark twins Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, and Richie Tozier attend school with. Calvin is electrocuted almost instantly after stepping on a live fallen power line.
Anne Stuart
A woman who is killed when “an ancient gear-wheel [catapults] from her toilet along with a gout of sewage.” The gear-wheel goes through her shower door and hits her in the throat.
Mark Lamonica
Cheryl Lamonica’s younger brother. He is the nurse who attends to Mike Hanlon at the Derry Home Hospital. Under the influence of It, he attempts to kill Mike in his hospital bed with a deadly shot.
Vincent “Boogers” Caruso Taliendo
A janitor at Wally’s Bar and an alcoholic. While sweeping up at the bar, all of the beer taps turn on spontaneously, running not only beer but chunks of hair and flesh. After seeing greenish smoke drift out of the cupboard doors, he flees both the bar and Derry.
MaureenNell
Aloysius Nell’s wife who witnesses his death and gives him his last rites herself, as the telephone is out of order and she can’t call their priest.
Dr. Hale
A retired doctor who lives on West Broadway for fifty years and is killed by a flying manhole cover, which decapitates him while he goes out for his regular two-mile morning walk.
Mrs. Nelson
An old woman whom Bill Denbrough sees in the street after Derry begins to collapse. She and Bill wave at each other because he remembers how her sister used to babysit him and George. Mrs. Nelson’s presence brings Bill some comfort.
Foxy Foxworth
Manager of the Aladdin Theater until 1973. He is hurt when a section of bleachers collapses at Bassey Park during a horse race.
Officer Bruce Andreen
The police officer who finds Chief Andrew Rademacher dead after the tramp-chair in the attic falls through the roof of the chief’s office and directly onto him.
Russ Handor
Eddie Kaspbrak’s doctor. Mr. Keene accuses him of being weak in the face of Sonia Kaspbrak’s hypochondria.
Mr. Gedreau
The shopkeeper at the Costello Street Market. He tries to break up the fight between Eddie Kaspbrak and Henry Bowers, but Henry pushes him and threatens him with physical harm if he does not go back inside the store.