Whitney Fordman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whitney Fordman is a character from the WB series Smallville. He is played by Eric Johnson.
[edit] History
At the outset of the show, Whitney was the quarterback of the Smallville High School football team, and Lana Lang's boyfriend. To support Whitney on the field, Lana had become head cheerleader, a decision she later regretted. Clark Kent has known Whitney since he was a freshman if not before, and they were never even remotely close. Whitney was a typical jock, and Clark did not fit in with the athletes because he would not even try out for the football team, due to his super strength. Whitney was not impressed with how spineless Clark behaved and they rarely exchanged words.
There had always been an underlying sexual tension between Lana and Clark, and it was no secret that Clark had a huge crush on Lana. When Clark visited Lana beside the graves of her dead parents, Lana was impressed with Clark's understanding and developed a crush on him also. Suspecting the worst of Clark, Whitney stripped him of all his clothes and strung him up as that year's homecoming "scarecrow" in Lander's Field with Lana's kryptonite necklace around his neck. Clark was tied up, helpless and in excruciating pain, until Lex Luthor emerged out of the field to save him. Later that night, Clark exacted revenge on Whitney by making a tower of cars in the parking lot during the homecoming dance, using Whitney's truck as the foundation. As the series went on, Whitney would continually come into conflict with Clark, usually over the best method of dealing with crises. Whitney was by nature aggressive and distrustful. Eventually, Whitney began withdrawing from Lana altogether, something which drove her to Clark.
Although tempted to take advantage of the situation, Clark stumbled upon prescription pills that had fallen out of Whitney's backpack. Whitney angrily snatched them away and stormed off. When Clark looked up the name of the pills on the web, he decided to confront Whitney about it, a gamble since there was no love lost between Clark and Whitney. Struck by Clark's compassion, Whitney could not help but admit everything: his father was suffering from a very serious heart ailment and possibly dying. He had not told Lana because disliked opening himself up to others, and decided that he didn't want to burden her anyway. Clark advised Whitney not to underestimate Lana, advice which Whitney followed. He became a better boyfriend and didn't forget how Clark had done the honorable thing. They put the past behind them and formed a tenuous truce, although their competing feelings for Lana meant they could never be friends.
Whitney was a talented quarterback, and for a time was a candidate for a scholarship to Kansas State University. His dream was to play for the Metropolis Sharks, a team owned by the Luthor family. However, his time was soon consumed by his father's illness, and eventually he lost the scholarship and was forced to eke out a living at his family-owned department store. When Whitney's father, Jack Fordman, eventually died, he was devastated. Before he died however, Lex Luthor arranged for Whitney to practice with the Sharks at Metropolis Stadium with Jack Fordman present in the stands.
[edit] Death
Throughout the first season Whitney struggled with his place in Smallville and feared his life would amount to nothing. Whitney felt too big for his small town and wanted a ticket out. Following his father's death, Whitney found his father's military medals from the time Jack had served in Vietnam. This discovery inspired Whitney, and he decided that leaving town to make it rich as a football player might not be the best way to honor his dad. Still wanting to find his place in the world, he joined the United States Marine Corps. He was shipped out to basic training on the day of the Spring Dance; just before he left, he reconciled with Clark and asked him to take care of Lana for him. Clark was surprised by how drastically Whitney's opinion of him had changed that he would entrust him with such a thing. While Whitney was away, Lana made him a video letter essentially telling him that they should see other people.
The next season, Whitney returns from active duty, dressed in his Marine uniform and seemingly unharmed. What nobody realizes is that it is not Whitney, but a meteor-freak whom Clark had already fought before named Tina Grier. Due to exposure to kryptonite in the 1989 meteor shower, she had developed the mutate ability to morph her bones and features to resemble anyone and was very unstable. In the aftermath of her rampage, the sad truth comes to light that a marine official had come to Smallville to notify Whitney's mother of his death, but Tina had killed him to prevent that information from getting out. This would later lead to the son of the slain officer, Van McNulty, to take up arms against all "meteor freaks" and become an extremist killer. The "fake" Whitney was later impaled and killed. Clark learned the truth and was amazed that someone could willingly walk into the path of bullets if they weren't bulletproof like he was. A part of Clark was grateful he and Whitney had a chance to resolve their differences before he died.
It was later revealed that Whitney had died in combat in the Aceh region of Indonesia. Lana was traumatized by the thought that Whitney had died knowing she would not be waiting for him when he came back.
| Episodes: Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 |
| Characters |
| Clark Kent • Lana Lang • Lex Luthor • Chloe Sullivan |
| Lionel Luthor • Lois Lane • Jimmy Olsen • Martha Kent • Oliver Queen • Jonathan Kent |
| Pete Ross • Jason Teague • Whitney Fordman |
| Guest characters |
| Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 |
| Related information |
| Smallville DVD releases • Media information • Kryptonite • Kryptonian Crystals |
