List of The Stand characters
The following is a partial list of characters from Stephen King's novel The Stand. The novel was published in 1978, with its narrative set during the 1980s; however, a second edition was released in 1990, is considerably longer than the first version, and is set in the 1990s. The two versions are essentially the same, although some content was added in the second version, including a new ending. The book was also adapted into a television mini-series, starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, and Rob Lowe and was released by the American Broadcasting Company network in 1994. In 2008, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation that was ended in 2012. Warner Bros. Pictures released an announcement in January 2011 that the company would be producing a movie remake of the King novel. The project never came to fruition and the book was eventually adapted as a second miniseries for the streaming service CBS All Access where it is currently streaming.
Project Blue
Specialist Charles D. Campion
Charles Campion is an American soldier stationed at a military base in the California desert. While Campion is on night duty, a deadly superflu virus escapes containment; a system intended to lock down the base fails to activate immediately, giving Campion time to flee by car with his wife and daughter. He finally succumbs to the superflu at a gas station in the fictional town of Arnette, East Texas, spreading the virus and making him its patient zero.In the 1994 miniseries, Campion is portrayed by Ray McKinnon. In the 2020 miniseries, he is portrayed by Curtiss Cook Jr.
General William "Billy" Starkey
The ruthless, intellectual, West Point-educated U.S. Army general in charge of the highly-classified Project Blue, "Billy" Starkey provides much of the early exposition in The Stand through his POV and conversations with his friend and aide-de-camp, Major Len Creighton. Starkey realizes mankind is doomed from the moment the superflu escapes the labs where it was created, but makes every effort to contain its spread regardless.Though personally compassionate, Starkey goes to extreme lengths to cover up the accidental outbreak and subsequent pandemic for as long as possible. Starkey directs a draconian campaign of blockades, murdering civilians and journalists, and violating civil rights, all of which leads to rising chaos in the U.S. as the public becomes convinced the federal government is lying to them about what is happening. In an attempt to maintain plausible deniability, Starkey activates a contingency plan to have spies release the virus in the Eastern Bloc and China, effectively guaranteeing the near-extinction of all mankind. After being dismissed by the President of the United States due to his failure to contain the virus, Starkey commits suicide in the laboratory where the superflu was created.
In the 1994 miniseries, Starkey is portrayed by Ed Harris, and is shown to hold the rank of lieutenant general. In the 2020 miniseries, he is portrayed by J. K. Simmons.
Major Len Creighton†
A dedicated and loyal career U.S. Army officer, Len Creighton is General Starkey's friend and right-hand man; he periodically updates Starkey as he works behind the scenes to suppress both the "Captain Trips" superflu and the truth of its origins. As things fall apart, Starkey is fired by the President and subsequently takes his own life, leaving Creighton in charge of U.S. Army containment efforts as both the Army and civilization collapse. Creighton is last heard speaking to another U.S. Army officer via radio in Los Angeles, but it is unknown whether he survives the superflu or the chaos that follows.† This character is named Len Carsleigh in pre-1990 editions of the novel and in the 1994 miniseries.
In the 1994 miniseries, Carsleigh is played by Robert Knott. The character does not appear in the 2020 miniseries.
Boulder
Mother Abagail
Abagail Freemantle, also known as Mother Abagail, leads the good survivors of the Captain Trips plague and claims to be a prophet of God. She is 108 years old and lives in a farmhouse near Hemingford Home, Nebraska.Born in 1882 to freed slaves from South Carolina, Abagail outlived three husbands and all her seven children. She is one of the 0.6% of the population that is immune to the superflu and initially appears to some of the plague survivors in their dreams, drawing them to her farmhouse, just as Randall Flagg draws the evil survivors to his settlement in Las Vegas. She and her followers make their way towards Boulder, Colorado where they establish the "Boulder Free Zone" government.
Abagail receives prophetic visions from God, which end when she believes she has sinned due to pride and goes into exile in the wilderness. She later regains her ability and returns to the Boulder Free Zone. The timing of her arrival saves most of the Free Zone Committee from Harold Lauder's assassination attempt. On her deathbed, she shares one final vision: four men from the committee will travel to the West coast to confront Flagg. She makes no prediction as to what will occur, only that one will fall before arriving in Las Vegas, while the remainder will be brought before Flagg. Mother Abagail dies shortly after revealing this prophecy.
In the 1994 miniseries, Mother Abagail was portrayed by Ruby Dee, and is described as being 106 years old. In the 2020 miniseries, she was portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg, who had previously turned the role down in 1994. The 2020 miniseries also features a young girl portrayed by Kendall Joy Hall who is implied to be the spirit of Mother Abagail.
Salon and Gizmodo criticized Mother Abagail for being an example of the Magical Negro stereotype, a black character with magic powers whose sole purpose is to help the white protagonists.
Stuart "Stu" Redman
Stu Redman is a quiet, intelligent widower and veteran from Arnette, Texas, with a tragic history; he has lost most of his family, leaving only his brother Bryce as a sole surviving family member, prior to the apocalyptic pandemic. He is at his friend's gas station the night Charles Campion arrives. Redman is the first to show positive signs of immunity to the superflu and is taken by government authorities, first to the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then to the fictitious Stovington, Vermont disease center. They inject him with a pure strain of the virus occasionally and his immune system keeps killing it, but they have failed to create a cure from him. Redman escapes from the Stovington facility after a government employee attempts to execute him and he kills his attacker in self-defense.After wandering New England for several days, Redman meets and befriends Glen Bateman and, shortly after, Frances Goldsmith and Harold Lauder. Redman becomes romantically involved with Goldsmith despite their large age gap, and enters a marital relationship with her including accepting her unborn child; their involvement causes resentment with Lauder, who holds an unrequited love for Goldsmith. Redman rises to authority in the Boulder Free Zone, becoming the spokesperson for the Free Zone Committee and acting as the Zone's first marshal. Following an assassination attempt by Lauder, Mother Abagail tells Redman that he must travel west to confront Randall Flagg in Las Vegas.
Redman, together with Larry Underwood, Bateman, and Ralph Brentner, travels towards Las Vegas, but breaks his leg in Utah and is forced to stay behind, along with Kojak the dog. Redman develops pneumonia, due to injury and hypothermia, but witnesses the destruction of Las Vegas. He is saved by Tom Cullen, who nurses him back to health. Redman and Cullen return to Boulder first by snowmobile and finally by foot, where Goldsmith has given birth to the first post-plague child who has survived the Superflu, a son named Peter. The following summer, Redman and Goldsmith, who are now expecting a child together, depart from Boulder with Peter and begin traveling toward Goldsmith's hometown of Ogunquit, Maine.
In the 1994 miniseries, Stu was portrayed by Gary Sinise. In the 2020 miniseries, he was portrayed by James Marsden.
Frances "Frannie" Goldsmith
A college student from Ogunquit, Maine, Frances Goldsmith is pregnant at the start of the book, a topic which resulted in a painful standoff with her mother Carla and the end of her relationship with the baby's birth father, Jesse Rider. Her older brother, Frederick, had died after being accidentally killed by a motorcyclist whose brakes were failing when Frances was young, and she was close to her elderly father, Peter. The superflu wipes out Goldsmith's community, with her and Harold Lauder being the only local survivors after a parking lot attendant, Gus Dinsmore, contracts the virus and dies on June 30. It is also believed that Jesse is dead. After burying her father in his garden, Frances decides to join Lauder and they leave the vacant town.At Lauder's suggestion, the two make their way to the Stovington facility of the CDC, encountering Stu Redman along the way. While Frances agrees to let Redman travel with them, Lauder is highly resistant, mainly due to his own feelings for Frances. Along with Glen Bateman, the group arrives at Stovington to confirm not only the deaths of everyone at the facility, but also that Redman was nearly killed in his escape from there.
The group then continues west towards Mother Abagail, during which time Frances falls deeply in love with Redman. The fact that he is significantly older is noted in her diary, along with many other aspects of the trip, and thus she is like her mother, who was significantly younger when she married her father. Lauder confesses his love to Frances, and she politely but firmly rejects him, before she and Redman reciprocate their feelings for each other. They eventually enter a marital relationship upon settling in Boulder.
Frances serves on the original Free Zone Committee and acts as its moral compass. Although Lauder claims to have dealt with his jealousy toward Redman, Frances remains suspicious, which is later justified when she finds details of a plot to kill Redman in Lauder's diary. Frances saves the majority of the Committee when she intuitively senses the presence of a bomb Lauder has planted but is unable to prevent its detonation. Frances is moderately injured in the blast, but her unborn child remains safe. Frances is opposed to Redman traveling to Las Vegas, but comes to terms with the journey when she realizes Redman cannot be swayed.
Frances later takes up residence with Lucy Swann and delivers a baby boy, named Peter after her father. After the initial joy wears off, he falls ill with the superflu and she is devastated. However, she is rewarded by news of both Redman's return to the Free Zone and Peter's recovery, proving that babies born to immune parents can develop resistance to the virus. Throughout the novel, Frances becomes more and more homesick for her native Maine, and she and Redman – now expecting a child together – eventually decide to take Peter and depart for Ogunquit. When Redman asks Frances, "Do you think people ever learn anything?", she reluctantly replies, "I don't know."
In the 1994 miniseries, Frannie was portrayed by Molly Ringwald. In the 2020 miniseries, she was portrayed by Odessa Young.