Trevor Bruttenholm

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Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm is a character in the Hellboy comic book, created by Mike Mignola. He is played by John Hurt in the 2004 Hellboy motion picture.

A British academic well-versed in the supernatural, Bruttenholm (pronounced "Broom") was a member of the British Paranormal Society. He was appointed an advisor to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt when the Allies realized that the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler was racing to use the occult to turn the tide of World War II. However, Hitler's goals were foiled by American soldiers and Prof. Bruttenholm on December 23, 1944 in East Bromwich, England (October 9, 1944 on Tarmagant Island, off the coast of Scotland, in the movie). An infant demon came through the dimensional portal opened by the Nazis; Bruttenholm named him Hellboy and raised him as a son.

Bruttenholm and Hellboy developed a very strong emotional bond, and both quickly joined the U.S. Government's Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D.), working closely together to fight supernatural threats to the nation and the world. Bruttenholm eventually retired from the Bureau and returned to field work. His position was taken over by Tom Manning, who is currently the Bureau's director.

In the comics (Seed of Destruction, 1994), Bruttenholm returns from an expedition to the Arctic. Before he can explain himself to Hellboy, he is murdered by a 'frog monster', the first of thousands of such beasts the Bureau would eventually face. Bruttenholm's death signals the first contact Hellboy would have with emissaries of the Ogdru Jahad. It is only appropriate that the death of his 'father' should herald the beasts who mean to destroy the world.

In the movie, Bruttenholm was diagnosed with cancer, but murdered by the Nazi cyborg Kroenen before his illness could claim him.