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| Bill Denbrough | |
| Continuity: | Kingdom Universe |
| Notability: | Main character |
| Type: | Child; Writer |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Human |
| Location: | Derry, Maine |
| Associations: | Losers' Club |
| Relatives: | Georgie Denbrough [1] Audra Phillips [2] |
| Status: | Alive |
| Born: | 1946 [3] |
| First: | IT |
| Actor: | Jonathan Brandis Richard Thomas Jaeden Lieberher James McAvoy |
William "Bill" Denbrough is a fictional character featured in the IT multimedia franchise, based on the works of author Stephen King. He was one of the main characters featured in the 1986 novel IT. The character appeared in the 1990 television miniseries version of It where he was played by actor Jonathan Brandis as young Bill and Richard Thomas as older Bill. In the 2017 feature film movie It: Chapter One, Bill Denbrough was played by actor Jaeden Lieberher. Lieberher reprised the role of Denbrough for the 2019 sequel, It: Chapter Two, with James McAvoy playing older Bill Denbrough.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Bill Denbrough was born in 1946 and grew up in the town of Derry, Maine. [3] He was the son of Zack Denbrough and Sharon Denbrough. He had a younger brother named Georgie Denbrough. As a child, Bill Denbrough had a speech impediment and spoke with a severe stutter, which earned him the unflattering nickname "Stuttering Bill".
In 1958, Bill was stuck at home sick on a rainy day. His six-year old brother Georgie wanted help with a paper sailboat that he was making. Bill crafted the boat for him and helped him seal it up so that it would be float worthy and then sent Georgie off on his own. A short time later, Georgie was brutally murdered by an enigmatic entity that took the form of a clown that called itself Pennywise. His body was never found. Bill never recovered from his brother's death, blaming himself for not looking after him more closely.
Bill was friends with several other neighborhood children that were about his age including Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, and Stan Uris. He met a girl that he liked named Beverly Marsh. Bill also met Ben Hanscom, who was an overweight child and new to Derry, as well as Mike Hanlon, a black boy who was exposed to the racial tensions of era. All of the kids viewed themselves as outcasts, and as such decided to name themselves "The Losers' Club". The Losers were often the targets of scorn and bullying by an older pack of kids led by Henry Bowers. Things came to a head between the Losers and the Bowers gang, when Henry and his cohorts accosted them while they were trying to build a dam at The Barrens. This precipitated a rock fight between the two parties, in which the Losers emerged surprisingly victorious. This incident bonded their friendship, and they would all share in each other's triumphs and tragedies in the weeks to come.
Throughout the summer of his twelfth year, Bill and the rest of the Losers found themselves being terrorized by the same entity that took George Denbrough's life. "It" had manifested itself as the children's worst fears, and Bill saw him as a malicious ghost-like facsimile of Georgie, with a bloody stump of an arm.
They began researching the shape-shifting creature as best they could, and determined that IT was an ancient entity that had been plaguing Derry for what seemed like centuries. Every twenty-seven years, the creature would manifest in the wake of some tragedy, which was usually followed by a string of violent deaths. After which, it would go into a state of hibernation. But now, IT was awake once again, and wanted to sate itself on the fear of children.
The Losers encountered IT at an old dilapidated house on Neibolt Street and were able to keep it at bay, temporarily forcing it to retreat. The creature now saw the Losers as a viable threat, and so it decided to use Henry Bowers as its personal weapon against them.
Meanwhile, Bill Denbrough learned about something called the Ritual of Chüd, which he had hoped would enable them to destroy IT. By conducting the Ritual of Chüd, Bill encountered an ancient turtle deity known as Maturin, which supposedly created the universe. [3] Through Maturin's guidance, Bill and the other Losers were able to confront IT in it's true form, which was a series of orange energy beacons called "Dead Lights". They succeeded in forcing the creature to re-enter a state of hibernation, though they actually believed that they had killed it.
Soon after, the members of the Losers began to drift apart and go their separate ways. The memory of the horrifying occurrences that took place during that summer began to slowly and mysteriously fade from their minds.
Notes & Trivia[]
- Bill Denbrough's encounter with Maturin the ancient turtle is omitted from both the 1990 miniseries and the 2017/2019 feature films.
Appearances[]
- IT - Novel
- It - 1990 miniseries
- It: Chapter One - 2017 feature film
- It: Chapter Two - 2019 feature film
See also[]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Younger brother; deceased.
- ↑ Wife, alive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 IT (September, 1986); King, Stephen; Viking Press