Clay Morrow


Clarence "Clay" Morrow is a fictional character in the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, portrayed by Ron Perlman. One of the "First 9" members of the titular outlaw motorcycle club, he spends the first four seasons as a primary protagonist, serving as president of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original, charter based in the fictional town of Charming, California. After a series of antagonistic actions, Clay is eventually stripped of his presidency, excommunicated from the club, and later killed by his stepson, Jax Teller. His character is based on King Claudius, the King of Denmark and Prince Hamlet's uncle and step-father from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

Character

Of the "First 9" Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club members, Clay was the youngest. He joined the US Army as a paratrooper in 1969 and was deployed to Vietnam until 1972. When he returned from service, he remained a member of the SOA and settled in Charming, opening the Teller-Morrow Automotive Repair shop with John Teller, the club founder and his best friend.
In 1993, he became president of SAMCRO after the death of John Teller. He went on to marry John Teller's widow Gemma Teller Morrow in the mid-1990s. It is later revealed that Clay and Gemma had been having an affair for some time prior to John's death, and they sabotaged his motorcycle in an effort to remove him from power. Under Clay, SAMCRO becomes more of a criminal organization, holding sway over the town of Charming with an iron fist.
He suffers from osteoarthritis in his hands that he attempts to mitigate via cortisone injections, but which slowly worsens as the series progresses. He makes several attempts to hide it to protect his position.

Season 1

SAMCRO's lucrative arms trafficking business is disrupted after their storage warehouse is burned down and their guns are stolen by the Mayans, an enemy motorcycle club based out of Oakland. SAMCRO tracks the guns to a Mayan property, culminating in a shootout. The Nordics, a local White supremacist gang, is revealed to be working with the Mayans to destroy SAMCRO. SAMCRO escapes with the weapons and destroys the building using explosives.
Meanwhile, SAMCRO is being investigated by David Hale, deputy chief of the Charming Police Department, breaking a decades long agreement between SAMCRO and corrupt police chief Wayne Unser, who has cancer and will soon be retiring. Local businessman Elliot Oswald goes to Clay after his 13-year-old daughter is raped and asks SAMCRO to hunt down the culprit. Oswald tries to castrate the rapist but cannot bring himself to do it, so Clay steps in. He then frames Oswald, using the knife with his fingerprints on it as leverage to prevent Oswald from selling land to corporate entities.
When an ATF agent arrives in Charming and begins investigating the club, Clay decides to move SAMCRO's weapons to Indian Hills, Nevada, where an allied MC, the Devil's Tribe, are based. To protect the guns and the Devil's Tribe from the encroaching Mayans, he decides to merge the Tribe into the Sons of Anarchy. The Mayans retaliate and shootout ensues, with the SOA emerging victorious. Clay is arrested by the ATF after Teller-Morrow is connected to a prison convoy ambush; Jax and Piney Winston sold AK-47s to members of a right-wing militia who used them to free one of their members and kill three police officers. ATF raids SAMCRO's clubhouse, but Clay is later released after no evidence connecting him to the crime is found.
As Clay attempts to expand SAMCRO's gun business, he is almost killed when the Mayans attempt to assassinate him while he is meeting with gun supplier Cameron Hayes of the IRA. Clay makes plans to wipe out the Mayans. However, Clay is arrested and brought to jail where Ernest Darby, leader of the Nordics, is also being held. Clay tells Unser to bring in Mayans president Marcus Álvarez in order for the three gang leaders to hold a meeting and hopefully prevent further bloodshed. Clay succeeds; the Nordics stand down and SAMCRO will begin selling guns to the Mayans, ending all Mayan-SOA disputes.
However, ATF raids the clubhouse again after Bobby Munson is arrested for the murder of Oakland Seaport commissioner Brenan Hefner as a favor to the IRA. Clay and Tig mistakenly suspect Opie Winston of being the witness who identified him. Tig finds a recording device in Opie's mobile phone and truck, both planted by the ATF without Opie's knowledge. Clay gives the order for Tig Trager to kill Opie.
Despite the apparent SOA-Mayan truce, Clay meets with the One-Niners street gang and they discuss driving the Mayans out of Oakland. They plan to have the Niners ambush the Mayans at an arms deal. However, when SAMCRO meets Álvarez and his crew at a warehouse in Oakland, the Niners try to take out both the Mayans and SAMCRO. Tig attempts to kill Opie during the chaos, but finds himself unable to do so. Later at Jax's son Abel's homecoming party, Tig follows Opie's truck and mistakenly kills Opie's wife, Donna.
SAMCRO's lawyer meets with Clay and tells him that the ATF has put out an arrest warrant on Opie and that he and Bobby will most likely get convicted of Hefner's murder because of the prosecution's key witness. Using the blackmailed knife, Clay forces Elliot Oswald contact a friend in the US Attorney's office to find the safehouse location. Jax prevents the witness from being killed by SAMCRO, but threatens her into leaving the state. Clay, who has been butting heads with Jax for weeks, is confronted about Donna's death; Clay denies responsibility, instead claiming it was the One-Niners.

Season 2

Clay struggles with remorse for Donna's murder, and continues to have growing strife with Jax who deduces Clay is responsible after he and Piney confirm the Niners are innocent. Clay convinces Opie a Mayan killed Donna, and convinces Jax to play along for the sanctity of SAMCRO. Meanwhile, Clay and SAMCRO are threatened by the League of American Nationalists white separatist group leader Ethan Zobelle, who demands SAMCRO stop selling guns to people of color. After Clay rebuffs this, Zobelle's lieutenant AJ Weston abducts Gemma and she is gang raped.
After Opie learns the truth about Donna from Tig, Clay asks for forgiveness and Opie agrees. Piney attempts to kill Clay, but is forgiven upon Opie's request. Meanwhile, Clay and Jax continue to grow apart, and Clay attempts to shutdown SAMCRO's newest legitimate business venture spearheaded by Jax, a pornography production company called Caracara. Clay and Jax's tensions eventually erupts over disagreements regarding how to deal with LOAN and Donna's murder; SAMCRO is arrested after Clay leads them into a trap in an attempt to kill Zobelle. Gemma convinces Oswald to post SAMCRO's bail, and Jax decides to leave SAMCRO to join the SOA's nomadic charter. However, after Gemma reveals the rape to Clay and Jax, they settle their differences and work together again. SAMCRO kills Weston and ambushes the Mayan convoy protecting Zobelle; Clay spares Alvarez's life. Clay and the others corner Zobelle in a restaurant, but abandon the mission after learning Jax's son Abel has been kidnapped by IRA gun dealer Cameron Hayes.

Season 3

SAMCRO travels to Belfast to find Abel, learning the baby is being used as leverage between the IRA and rogue IRA member Jimmy O'Phelan. Clay kills McGee, member of the First 9 and President of the Belfast SOA charter, for his treachery against the club. Returning to Charming, Clay and SAMCRO initiate a plan against ATF Agent Stahl and Jimmy O'Phelan, culminating in their murders. Clay and some of the other SAMCRO are sentenced for their attack on Zobelle and are imprisoned in the California Department of Corrections.

Season 4

Clay is seen as one of the many SAMCRO members released from prison. He later escapes their sheriff tail and accompanies Jax and Opie's meeting with the Russians, where he settles their differences and forms a partnership with them. He attends Opie's wedding and goes to test a new gun given to them by Putlova. As he's firing the gun he turns and shoots Putlova's bodyguards and Jax stabs Putlova to death as revenge for trying to kill him in prison. He also tells Gemma that his arthritis has gotten worse and that he has only 1 or 2 years left before he has to step down as President of SAMCRO. Also, while in prison, he set up a deal to run cocaine for the Gallindo Cartel, but this does not sit well with the other members of the club, as SOA avoids drugs. When the club goes to Arizona and meets the Tucson charter, SAMTAZ, he demands that the charter stop dealing meth. This request is denied, as selling generates too much money for the club to give up. Otto wants Luann's murderer dead, and the issue is raised in the chapel. Clay is then confronted by Piney, who threatens Clay that if Clay does not kill the cocaine deal with the Gallindo Cartel, Piney will distribute letters to the club about John Teller's murder to the other members. Clay discusses the threat with Gemma, revealing that Clay did kill Teller. Clay later meets Unser and obtains the letters from him, unaware that Gemma has the same plan. After Unser gets a copy of the letters, he confronts Clay. Clay replies he does not regret doing what he did because it protected the Club and Charming. When he visits a tied Georgie Caruso, he claims that he has connections with millionaire Japanese families. Clay immediately sees an opportunity to make Jacob Hale believe he has investors in time. His idea is that he will have the investors pull out at the last minute, which will put an end to Charming Heights. After retrieving the last brick of cocaine that Juice had stolen, framing Miles for it, Clay asks Romeo for help killing Tara, to keep the secret of the letters hidden.
Clay comes to Piney's cabin in the night. After discussing trust issues and differences in the cabin, Clay leaves, only to break down the door, knocking Piney off his feet. Piney begs Clay not to get Tara involved in the letters from JT. Clay shoots Piney in the chest with a shotgun, killing him. This makes Piney the 3rd member of the First 9, and the 2nd and final co-founding member of the Sons of Anarchy to be killed at the hands of Clay. Clay leaves the markings of the cartel to implicate them for the murder. Given the club's difficult circumstances, Clay calls the Irish Kings for a meeting to set a new deal that lets them survive the war against Lobo Sonora. He later learns that the One Niners have been dealing with the Sonora and the Sons plan an attack using the Niners to lure them. This fails, however, as Sonora's men were equipped with grenade launchers. Luis, Romero's right-hand man, gives Clay a cell phone with his contact to kill Tara. Jax confronts Clay when he hears from Bobby that Clay wanted Bobby, instead of Opie, as president as was the deal. Clay says it is Tara's fault that Jax changed, but Jax warns him to never insult her like that again. Gemma tells Clay that Tara will not reveal the letters to Jax for fear that Jax will get deeper into the club out of guilt. Clay promises to Gemma he won't hurt Tara, however he uses the cell phone Luis gave him, and the next morning pays the contact 25,000 dollars for the murder. After finding out that Jax and the babies are with her, Clay desperately tries to stop the hit, but is unsuccessful and Tara has her hand broken by a car door while struggling to escape. Clay meets Romeo and gets a refund, with Romeo taking the matter into his hands personally, and Clay reluctantly agrees that Tara is best dead. Gemma confronts Clay about the hit and a violent fight ensues between the two, including Gemma shooting at Clay and getting in a powerful punch and a kick against Clay, with Clay getting injured, but Clay gets the upper hand and severely beats Gemma's face. That night he decides to sleep in the clubhouse. Opie later finds out that Clay was behind the death of Piney and seeks revenge, ending up shooting Clay in the torso twice. Clay survives the shooting but is shown to be in intensive care. Later in the episode Gemma gave Jax his father's letters to Maureen Ashby. After reading the letters, and realizing Clay is responsible for the death of John Teller, Jax vows to kill Clay. Jax puts a knife up to Clay's throat and makes him step down as President and orders him to never go near his family again. Although Clay tries to explain his reasons, Jax refuses to listen and takes his President patch, thus ending Clay's reign as President of SAMCRO.