Annie Wilkes
Encyclopedia
Anne Marie Wilkes Dugan, usually known as Annie Wilkes, is a fictional character and the antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

/main villain in the 1987 novel Misery, by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

. In the 1990 film adaptation of the novel
Misery (film)
Misery is a 1990 American Psychological Horror Film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates' performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes...

, Annie Wilkes was portrayed by Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...

, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 for her portrayal. The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 included Annie Wilkes (as played by Bates) in their "100 Heroes and Villains"
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...

 list, ranking her as the 17th most iconic villain (and sixth most iconic villainess) in film history.

Character background

The novel provides Wilkes' backstory, stating that she was born in Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....

 on April 1, 1943 and graduated from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 nursing school
Nursing school
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world.-United Kingdom:...

 in 1966. After several years of working in hospitals across the country, she settled in a remote portion of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

's Western Slope
Colorado Western Slope
The Western Slope of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado incorporating everything in the state west of the Continental Divide. The Colorado River and its tributaries divide the region into north and south at Grand Junction, Colorado...

.

Wilkes rescues the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

, Paul Sheldon, after he breaks both of his legs in a car accident, and takes him to her home to convalesce. She fawns over Sheldon, a writer of romance novels starring her favorite literary character, Misery Chastain; she professes to be his "number one fan" and even says she loves him. This, and the fact that she is not in a hurry to take him to a hospital, makes Sheldon uneasy. Sheldon has studied psychological disorders as part of his research for the Misery series, and suspects early on that Wilkes is mentally unstable.

Wilkes is enraged when she discovers Sheldon killed off Misery at the end of his latest novel. She tells him she has not called a hospital or told anybody about him, saying if she dies he dies. She holds him captive in her home and subjects him to a series of physical and psychological torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

s. She forces him to burn the only copy of a novel he felt would put him back on track as a mainstream author, and then makes him write a new novel bringing Misery back to life. Sheldon writes the book as Wilkes wants, but chafes under her torture. In the film, he tries to kill her by spiking her drink with a massive overdose of the painkillers she gives him. However, that attempt goes awry when she accidentally spills it.

Sheldon gradually develops an addiction to the painkillers. While looking for them, he finds her old scrapbook and learns from the newspaper clippings inside that she is a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 whose spree dates back to her childhood in Bakersfield. Among her victims were a neighboring family, her own father, her college roommate, and a hitchhiker with whom she had a brief fling. While serving as head maternity nurse (at a Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

 hospital in the book and a hospital in rural southern Colorado in the film), 11 infants in her care died under mysterious circumstances. She was tried for their deaths, but acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...

 for lack of evidence. Sheldon also learns that she killed several patients at other hospitals where she worked, but no one noticed because they were either very sick or suffered debilitating injuries beforehand. Sheldon also finds that Wilkes was formerly married to a physical therapist named Ralph Dugan, who later divorced her citing "mental cruelty." The last picture is an article about Sheldon's own disappearance, leading him to fear that he is Wilkes' next victim.

Sheldon doesn't know it, but Wilkes has known all along that Sheldon has been sneaking around her house. This sets off one of the film's most infamous scenes, in which she breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to stop him from escaping. In the book she chops off his foot with an axe and cauterizes it with a blowtorch, and later cuts off one of his thumbs with an electric knife when he complains about a missing letter on his typewriter.

In the book, Wilkes brutally kills a Colorado state trooper who sees Sheldon in her house by stabbing him with a wooden cross and running him over with a lawnmower. In the film, the local sheriff comes to Wilkes' farm to investigate Sheldon's disappearance. Wilkes drugs Sheldon and hides him in her basement before subsequently killing the officer with a double-barreled shotgun as he hears Sheldon's cries for help.

Wilkes then says they should "celebrate" the new novel in a murder-suicide
Murder-suicide
A murder–suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more other persons before or at the same time as killing himself or herself. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms, including:...

. Sheldon pretends to go along with it, telling her he needs a bottle of Dom Perignon
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon can refer to:* Dom Pérignon , a monk frequently credited with the invention of champagne* Dom Pérignon , a famous and expensive champagne produced by Moët et Chandon...

 champagne and a cigarette, as per his usual practice after finishing a book. He soaks the manuscript with lighter fluid he picked up in the basement and sets it ablaze. While Wilkes tries to put the fire out, Sheldon overpowers her by cracking her over the head with his typewriter and choking her. In the film, he chokes her with pages of the burnt novel. In the novel, he chokes her with blank pages which she believes to be the book; the real novel was hidden from sight and was later published.

She ultimately dies of a fractured skull; Sheldon is then rescued by police. In the book, she fractures her skull when she slips and falls on the mantle of the guest room bed. When the police go in to search the bedroom where Wilkes is believed to have died, they find it empty. It is later revealed that, despite being mortally wounded, she managed to escape the bedroom and died in her barn with her hands on a chainsaw, which she presumably intended to use on Sheldon. In the movie, Sheldon kills her after her apparent death by ramming a metal statue of her pet sow pig — named Misery after his stories — into her head.

Personality

King characterizes Annie Wilkes as a cunning, brutal and dangerously disturbed woman who hides her psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...

 behind a cheery facade. Both the novel and the film portray her as extremely paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...

, and also suggest that she may suffer from bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...

. In the novel, she has day-long bouts with depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

, during which she is seen maiming herself
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...

. She has an unhealthy obsession with romance novels, particularly Sheldon's Misery series.

She abhors profanity, to the point that she will fly into fits of rage if it is used in front of her. She instead expresses anger with childishly strange words and phrases like "cockadoodie," "mister man" "dirty bird," "dirty birdy," "oogie," and "rooty-patooties." In the novel, however, she lets more conventional profanities slip on occasion, most notably when she calls Paul "a lying cocksucker" after Paul sets the new Misery book ablaze. The film is also consistent in depicting Wilkes' behavior towards profanity. She frequently has unexpectedly violent tantrums over insignificant matters. For instance, when Sheldon complains that the packet of Eaton's Corrasable Bond
Eaton's Corrasable Bond
Eaton's Corrasable Bond is a trademarked name for a brand of erasable typing paper. Erasable paper has a glazed or coated surface which is almost invisible, is easily removed by friction, and accepts typewriter ink fairly well. Removing the coating removes the ink on top of it, so mistakes can be...

 paper she bought for him is smudge-prone, she smashes his still-healing knee (with her bare hands in the novel and with the packet of paper in the movie).

In a special feature on the collectors' edition DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, forensic psychologist
Forensic psychology
Forensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It involves understanding criminal law in the relevant jurisdictions in order to be able to interact appropriately with judges, attorneys and other legal professionals...

 Reid Meloy said that Wilkes' personality (as portrayed by Kathy Bates) is a virtual catalog of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

. According to Meloy, Wilkes suffers from bipolar disorder, a severe personality disorder
Personality disorder
Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors. Personality disorders are noted on Axis II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-IV-TR of the American Psychiatric Association.Personality disorders are...

 and sadomasochism. He also believes her profile is typical of people who stalk
Stalking
Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...

 celebrities.

In his commentary on the film available on the DVD, director Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...

 notes that Wilkes' killing spree is loosely based on that of Genene Jones
Genene Jones
Genene Anne Jones is a former pediatric nurse who killed somewhere between 11 and 46 infants and children in her care. She used injections of digoxin, heparin and later succinylcholine to induce medical crises in her patients, with the intention of reviving them afterward in order to receive...

, a nurse who is believed to have killed as many as 50 children who were in her care over a two-year period.

Other appearances

The fictional version of King that appears in The Dark Tower discusses Annie Wilkes.

Annie Wilkes is mentioned in Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...

's novella, The Other Side of Midnight. Set in his alternate history crossover Anno Dracula series, it is mentioned that she was the murderer of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

, telling the press that she loved him but that he had to die for splitting up the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

.

Kathy Bates reprised her role as Annie Wilkes in a 2008 commercial for DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, with the setting being the infamous scene where she cripples Paul Sheldon.

In the Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

episode "Three Kings
Three Kings (Family Guy)
"Three Kings", alternatively spelled "3 Kings", is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 10, 2009...

", which parodies works by Stephen King, Wilkes' role is taken by Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....

.

An episode of the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 cartoon series Drawn Together
Drawn Together
Drawn Together is an American animated television series, which ran on Comedy Central from October 27, 2004 to November 14, 2007. The series was created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, and uses a sitcom format with a TV reality show setting...

, is a reference to the novel. In the episode Wooldoor Sockbat suffers an injury after Princess Clara tries to drown him, and she takes care of Wooldoor until he heals. She soon becomes addicted to the attention and admiration she receives as Wooldoor's caretaker, and so tries to keep him sick by giving him chemicals such as toilet soap and cleaning water; she finally breaks Wooldoor's ankles with a piece of wood and a sledgehammer.

French and Saunders
French and Saunders
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....

parodied Misery with Dawn French in Bates' role. She holds her comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders, captive in her home in the woods until she writes her a decent script. When Jennifer eventually escapes it takes a lot to kill Dawn, reflecting the number of injuries Annie Wilkes endured while Paul Sheldon was escaping in the film.
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