Bill Compton – or Vampire Bill as the Bon Temps locals call him – is one sexy vampire. From the moment he walked into Merlotte’s and swept Sookie Stackhouse off her sneakered feet, Bill has slowly but surely started winning over the townsfolk. Well, at least some of the townsfolk. The ones who don’t want to drain him or stake him.
Bill is deep and brooding with pale skin and dark haunted eyes. Eyes that have seen a lot in his 173 years on earth. He lived through the Civil war only to be turned by a vampire named Lorena while trying to get back to his wife and children. He has hunted and he has killed but now that his last remaining descendant has died and vampires have come out of the coffin, Bill has returned to claim the family land and ‘mainstream’ with the humans. Although he can only come out at night Bill longs for home and hopefully a community that will accept him. He wants to be a moral and upstanding immortal but sometimes his vampire nature is too hard to ignore.
What he didn’t count on was Sookie. Not only was she excited to meet a vampire, she went on to save his (un)life without wanting anything in return. Not only is she not afraid of him, she is drawn to him because of his silence. Sookie’s telepathic brain is constantly abuzz with voices and Bill’s is a mind she can’t hear. Bill is also fascinated by Sookie. He knows something is different about her, he can’t quite figure out what it is. He asks her a number of times, “What are you?” and to his consternation she replies, “A waitress”.
When Bill discovers Sookie’s secret he is drawn to her even more. She is not quite like the other humans, and like him, doesn’t quite fit in to this normal world. Bill requests help from Sookie to help him rebuild his home. Tradespeople either think he is prank calling or won’t come out to meet him at the house at night – after all he’s a blood sucking vampire. When Sookie’s grandmother Adele asks her to relay a request for him to speak at her club, Sookie and Bill start spending more and more time together and sparks start to fly.
Throughout Season One we see Bill as a Southern gentleman with genuine old world charm, we see pain at the enormous losses he has endured and we see the brutal vampire that he is when he kills people that hurt Sookie. It is this protectiveness juxtaposed with his dangerous nature that makes Bill Compton one hell of a sexy vamp and as it turns out, a very jealous boyfriend.
Bill is also a bit of a pariah. The humans are afraid of him and other vampires look down at him for trying to be too human. He is the ultimate outcast in so many ways with many of the shows themes being metaphors for discrimination. An obvious example is in the opening credits when a car drives by a church with a sign “God Hates Fangs” emblazoned across it.
So what would I say if Bill walked into my bar and ask me for a drink? I’d say, “Bite me!”
Check out this delicious clip…
Stephen Moyer, the actor who plays Bill Compton is not in fact a Southern Gentleman, like two of the other major cast members, he is not even American.
Born Stephen John Emery in Essex, England, 37 year old Moyer (as he is now known) is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, He has two children from a previous relationship; a son, Billy, born in 2000 and a daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.
Moyer has had a career in the theatre, television and film. During his career he has worked alongside many well known actors including Al Pacino in 88 Minutes, Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet in the movie Quills and Keira Knightly in The Princess of Thieves although the role that brought him the most attention was starring in the Emmy Award winning, The Starter Wife with Debra Messing.
Funnily enough this is not the first time that Moyer has portrayed a vampire, he also played one in the British series Ultraviolet.
Currently filming the second season of True Blood, Moyer spends his time travelling between LA, where the show is filmed, and London where his children live with their mother.
In February 2009, Moyer and co-star Anna Paquin, confirmed they are a real life couple.
Photos of Bill from HBO’s True Blood and photo of Stephen Moyer at True Blood’s premier from Shadaliza
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Bill is so gorgeous…Too bad he’s a vamp…
That’s what makes him SO sexy Daisy
i just subscribed!
Wooooo, a subscriber! Yay Morgan Bell. Thanks!
Have you checked out the show yet?
He IS rather cute!!
Moonglow, he is sizzling hot! Which for a vampire is saying something because they’re stone cold undead
those sideburns are H O T – sorry he doesn’t have ‘m in his ‘regular’ picture – takes away off the sizeliness
BILL IS THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!