Lankester Merrin
The elderly priest-archaeologist who has fought the demon before and dies during Regan's exorcism.
Father Lankester Merrin is an elderly priest and accomplished archaeologist in William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel The Exorcist and one of the main characters of the 1973 film, where Max von Sydow plays him. He comes back in flashbacks in Exorcist II: The Heretic and is the lead of both prequel films, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion, where Stellan Skarsgard plays him.
Quick Facts
- Series
- The Exorcist
- Voice
- Ian McDiarmid (BBC Radio adaptation)
- Nationality
- Irish
- Creator
- William Peter Blatty
- Occupation
- Exorcist priest
Facts from the source article.
Background
The story opens with Merrin on a dig in northern Iraq, where he finds images of Pazuzu, a demon he once faced in an exorcism in Africa, and senses that he will have to fight it again. Later he joins Father Damien Karras in Washington, D.C., to drive the demon out of Regan MacNeil. Merrin has a heart condition and takes nitroglycerin; during the rite he dies of a heart attack, leaving Karras to finish it alone. Exorcist II shows his earlier African exorcism of a boy named Kokumo, and its plot has him facing heresy charges after his death. The two prequels each tell a different version of his time in Kenya just before his first exorcism, and neither matches Exorcist II. Blatty modelled Merrin's look on the British archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding, whom he met in Beirut. The studio wanted Marlon Brando for the part, but Friedkin refused.
More in Characters & Cast
Elsewhere in The Exorcist
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