Major Danby

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Major Danby is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

He is a college professor and intellectual who sees himself as a poor match for the armed services. He briefs the airmen on upcoming missions. He is almost shot for insubordination—moaning after a demand for silence—by General Dreedle.

He is one of the few soldiers with whom the main character Yossarian maintains a decent relationship throughout the novel, and is there at the end of the novel when Yossarian plans to run away and seek out Orr.

[edit] Film

Major Danby was portrayed by Richard Benjamin in Mike Nichols' 1970 film adaptation of the novel.


  Catch-22
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Catch-22
Catch-22 | sequel Closing Time | author Joseph Heller | Catch-22 (film) | Catch-22 (logic)
Named Characters
Yossarian | Aarfy | Appleby | Captain Black | The Chaplain | Colonel Cargill | Colonel Cathcart | Clevinger | Nurse Cramer | Major Danby | Doc Daneeka | Mrs. Daneeka | Major —— de Coverley | General Dreedle | Dobbs | Nurse Duckett | Dunbar | Dori Duz | Lieutenant Engle | Captain Flume | Gus & Wes | Havermeyer | Huple | Hungry Joe | Kid Sampson | Sergeant Knight | Corporal Kolodny | Colonel Korn | Kraft | Luciana | Major Major Major Major | McWatt | Michaela | Milo Minderbinder | Colonel Moodus | Mudd (aka the Dead Man in Yossarian's tent) | Nately | Orr | General Peckem | Piltchard & Wren | Major Sanderson | Lieutenant/General Scheisskopf | Mrs Scheisskopf | Corporal Snark | Snowden | The Soldier Who Sees Everything Twice (aka Giuseppe) | Dr. Stubbs | The Texan | Sergeant Towser | Lieutenant Travers | Corporal Whitcomb | Chief White Halfoat | ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
Unnamed Characters
The C.I.D. Investigators | Dreedle's girl | The Maid with the lime-colored panties | Nately's Whore | Nately's Whore's Kid Sister | The Old Woman in Rome | The Old Man in Rome | The Soldier in white | Yo-Yo's Roomies |The small tail gunner who kept fainting (Later named Sammy Singer in the sequel to Catch-22, Closing Time)
Important Locations
Pianosa | Rome | Ferrera | Bologna