Will Truman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William "Will" Truman is a fictional character on the American sitcom Will & Grace, portrayed by Eric McCormack. He is a gay lawyer living in New York City with his best friend, Grace Adler.

[edit] Character history

Will was born in 1967 to WASP parents Marilyn (Blythe Danner) and George (Sydney Pollack); he has two brothers, Paul and Sam. Will came out in 1985, during college, when — with the help of Jack McFarland — he realized that his relationship with Grace masked his true sexuality.

After graduating from Columbia University and the New York University School of Law, he worked for a big-time law firm on track to make partner but decided to quit and start his own practice. This fell through in the show's second season, and he began working for Doucette & Stein, a firm that he worked for until the end of the seventh season. His next job was working for the mysterious Malcolm (Alec Baldwin), but that came to an end when Malcolm revealed that he was an FBI agent. In the eighth season, Will took a job at the Coalition of Justice, a business providing legal support for people who cannot afford it, though he ultimately returned to Doucette & Stein, having taken back his old job after being offered a partnership by his new boss at the firm, played by Lily Tomlin.

[edit] Relationships

Will's relationship with his parents was always prone to issues, particularly his father, who, though outwardly supportive of Will's lifestyle, was uncomfortable with his son's sexuality for years. In season eight, the two had a fight in which George confessed he wished Will weren't gay. A few days later, having not spoken with Will since the fight, George died of a heart attack.

Will has had romantic "relationships" with three women: Grace; his high-school girlfriend Claire; and Diane (Mira Sorvino) — the woman with whom he had a one-night stand after he and Grace broke up. Diane is the only woman with whom Will has ever had sex.

At the beginning of the series, Will's most successful relationship with a man was said to have been with long-term boyfriend Michael (Chris Potter), which lasted seven years, ending in November 1996. In the 2004-2005 season, however, he became involved in a serious relationship with a NYC police officer named Vince D'Angelo, played by Bobby Cannavale. Their relationship was put on hiatus after Vince, who lost two jobs in a row because he couldn't resist trying on gloves while on duty, needed to take some time off from the relationship. Towards the end of the final season (2006), the two reunited after Will's father's death. In the series finale, it was revealed that he and Vince were raising a son named Ben, possibly named after Will's former boss (in a tribute to the late Gregory Hines). Thus, by the end of the series, Will and Vince's relationship has been strong for nearly 22 years.

Much of the comedy on the show is at Will's expense, and many of the characters play off his many unsuccessful relationships between Michael (and sometimes including the failure of that relationship) and Vince.

[edit] Birthday

Throughout Will's life, every birthday has ended with someone - or everyone - else stealing the limelight. This is the plot of several episodes of the show, including "Will On Ice," "Gypsies, Tramps & Weed," and "Key Party." The conflicting nature of the airdates for these episodes puts his birthday somewhere between October and January.