Aside from Leatherface, Drayton, and Nubbins, the Sawyer clan includes several additional brothers: Nubbins' identical twin and a Vietnam veteran known as Chop Top, a hitchhiking cowboy named Eddie/Tex, a hook-handed man named Tech/Tinker, a deranged pervert named Alfredo/Fred, a tow-truck driver named Vilmer and a redneck know-it-all named W.E. Drayton also enters the human flesh chili dishes the brothers prepare at cook-offs, feeding it to unsuspecting customers and judges without telling them what they are eating, past the point of saying it is "prime meat", and that the key to his recipe is to "never skimp on the meat" (according to the sequel, Drayton has won two cooking awards doing this). They process the victims' flesh into barbecue and chili, which Drayton sells at his restaurant/ gas station, "Last Chance Gas".
He uses the bones and skin of the people he kills to create furniture for the inside of their house, along with some animal bones for decoration. My grandfather, too! My family's ALWAYS been in meat." Leatherface's family has ethnic heritage from somewhere in Europe, as Nubbins tells Sally that his brother is good at making headcheese which originates from there. Prior to the events of the first film, Leatherface presumably used to work as a butcher at the meat processing plant alongside his brother, "The Cook" (referred to as Drayton Sawyer in further films), as his other brother, "The Hitchhiker" (later identified as Nubbins Sawyer), claims he did not work at the slaughterhouse, but that "My BROTHER worked there.
He has been credited as one of the most influential killers of the slasher genre for inspiring the stereotype of the hulking, masked, and mostly silent killer, which includes other horror icons such as Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees.Īppearances Film Original series
Leatherface has become a widely recognized figure in popular culture, gaining a cult following. Across most versions, Leatherface is depicted as a "big baby" who is under the complete control of his family and kills because he is scared of the outside world, which is why the audience has also shown sympathy towards the character. Most notably, his real name has been changed thrice: in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, his name was revealed to be Bubba Sawyer, but in the 2003 remake of the original film, it was changed to Thomas Brown Hewitt, and in Texas Chainsaw 3D, the character was renamed Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer. ĭue to the different continuities within The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, Leatherface's character has suffered several changes throughout his appearances, the only constant attribute being his skin masks (often wearing more than one in a film). In 2015, Leatherface appeared as a playable character in the video game Mortal Kombat X, and in 2017 as a playable character in Dead by Daylight. Outside of the films, the character has appeared in several spin-offs, primarily comic books, and has been referenced and parodied in other feature films and television series. Since Gunnar Hansen's portrayal of Leatherface in the original film in 1974, numerous other actors and stuntmen have assumed the role of the character, sometimes more than one in a single film. The character is the only one to have appeared in all installments of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, though rarely as the main antagonist, due to mostly acting under his family's orders. The character was largely inspired by real-life murderer Ed Gein, who also wore masks made of human skin.
Leatherface's signature weapon is the chainsaw, though he has also used other tools, such as cleavers and hammers, to kill his victims. The character's name comes from his masks of human skin. He first appears in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a cannibalistic and mentally unstable mass murderer who, alongside his family, kidnaps, kills, and cooks unsuspecting travellers who venture near their ranch in an unidentified part of Texas. Leatherface is a fictional character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. Bill Johnson as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)