- "It's Halloween. Everyone's entitled to one good scare."
- ―Leigh Brackett to Laurie Strode[src]
Leigh Brackett is a supporting character in the Halloween franchise. He first appeared in the original Halloween, played by Charles Cyphers.
Leigh Brackett's history is complicated by the fact that the series follows several conflicting continuities. Twenty Years Later and Resurrection ignore the events of Halloween 4, 5, and 6, splitting the series into two separate timelines both originating from the original film and its sequel. The 2007 remake reboots the series continuity altogether, starting the timeline afresh; in that series, his character is reimagined as Lee Brackett. The 2018 Halloween movie follows continuity from the very first film.
Biography[]
Leigh Brackett was born in Columbus, Ohio and became the sheriff of the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois. At some point, he married and had a daughter named Annie. On October 31, 1978, Sheriff Brackett responded to a call about a break-in at Nichol's Hardware Store. Accompanied by his deputies, he determined that only a few items had been stolen, including a mask, a length of rope and a knife.[1]
He soon learned the identity of the perpetrator when he encountered a psychiatrist from Warren County named Doctor Samuel Loomis. Loomis told Sheriff Brackett that "evil" had come to his little town in the form of an escaped mental patient named Michael Myers. Although Brackett took Loomis's warning with a fair measure, there was little action he could take. Sam advised keeping a look-out for Michael Myers and the two agreed to conduct a stakeout at the old, abandoned Myers house.[1]
By the time darkness came, nothing had occurred to give Sheriff Brackett any further cause for alarm, but Loomis insisted that his men and he should conduct an intensive city-wide search for Myers. He recounted how Myers had stolen the headstone of his late sister, Judith, but Sheriff Brackett dismissed his concerns, citing it as no more than a Halloween prank.[1]
Brackett quickly discovered that Loomis' concerns were warranted, for, on that same evening, Michael Myers brutally murdered the sheriff's daughter Annie.[1]
Brackett learns that his daughter is dead
It was his own deputy Gary Hunt, who discovered Annie Brackett's body and informed her father. Sheriff Brackett blamed Loomis for the crime, accusing him of letting Michael out in the first place. Now that he was ready to take the psychiatrist seriously, Brackett called in all of his resources to conduct a search for Michael Myers. He then went home to tell his wife of the news about their daughter.[2]
Brackett retired in 1981 and he moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, his position being taken over by Ben Meeker.[3]
Notes and trivia[]
- In the 1979 novelization of Halloween, Sheriff Leigh Brackett divulges some family history on the Myers family when he is with Dr. Samuel Loomis as they're on the way to the former Myers residence on Halloween night 1978. He tells the psychiatrist that in 1963 the sheriff of Haddonfield at that time was Sheriff Ron Barstow. Sheriff Leigh Brackett went on to say that on Halloween night 1963 while he was at the Myers residence he overheard Edith Myers saying "It's come back" or "It's happened again." Shortly after, Sheriff Ron Barstow went to the town hall and researched the Myers family history. Sheriff Ron Barstow discovered that in the 1890s Michael and Judith's maternal great-grandfather attended a Grange dance on Halloween and shot a couple who were in attendance for seemingly no explicable reason. The great-grandfather was arrested and had been hung. How sheriff Leigh Brackett obtained this information is not explained.
- Leigh Brackett is named after the writer of the same name, most popular for writing the scripts of The Big Sleep and The Empire Strikes Back.
Appearances[]
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween (1978 novelization)
- Halloween II (1981)
- Halloween II (novelization)
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (mentioned)
- Halloween IV (novelization) (mentioned)
See also[]
- Leigh Brackett/4-6 Timeline
- Leigh Brackett/H20 Timeline
- Leigh Brackett/2007 Remake Timeline
- Leigh Brackett/2018 Timeline