Bill Henrickson

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Paxton (seated) as Henrickson

Bill Henrickson is the protagonist father in a polygamist family in the fictional HBO series Big Love portrayed by Bill Paxton. He is married to three wives, Barbara Henrickson, Nicolette Grant and Margene Heffman. From these three women he has fathered seven children.

[edit] Biography

Bill was born to Frank Harlow and Lois Henrickson at the Juniper Creek compound, a fictitious community that practices fundamentalist Mormon principles including polygamy. His grandfather, Orville Henrickson was the previous prophet of this sect before it had been handed over to Roman Grant.

Bill spent most of his childhood in this community with his brother Joey and sister Margaret, but was thrown out of the compound by his father on instructions from Roman, who found Bill too much like his grandfather. While attending college he met his first wife Barbara, who was a devout Mormon. Upon marrying her, he abandoned the principles of fundamentalist Mormonism and polygamy, and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Soon after Tancy's birth, however, Barbara Henrickson was diagnosed with uterine cancer, from which she was expected to die. During her illness, Bill revisited the compound in which he grew up and there he met Nicolette Grant, the daughter of the Juniper Creek prophet Roman Grant. Nicolette helped to comfort Barbara while she was sick, and it was decided that when Barbara died that Nicolette was to marry Bill and raise her children. Barbara, however, recovered from her illness, and instead of abandoning Nicolette, Bill decided to return to the principle of polygamy and take her as his second wife. Nicki is mother to two of Bill's children, Raymond and Wayne.

Meanwhile, Bill's hardware business Henrickson Home Plus was escalating. One employee of his store was Margene Heffman. Margene did not excel at doing her job, so Bill took her into his household as a babysitter. Soon, Bill fell in love with Margene as well, and took her as his third wife. Margene later gave birth to two sons, Aaron and Lester.

After marrying Margene, Bill moved his family to a set of three adjacent households in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, and opened a second Henrickson Home Plus at a new location. Since moving, Bill has seen a number of problems, the main one being demands for a percentage of his income from the Juniper Creek Prophet Roman Grant. In addition, he has had to deal with the problems of impotence and Nicolette's credit card debt, but has thus far continued in to love and protect his family.