Bill Henrickson

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

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[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 considered the prophet of this sect before he mysteriously died - likely at the hands of Roman Grant - and the power and the role of prophet were handed over to Grant.

Bill spent most of his childhood in this community with his brother Joey and late sister Margaret, but at fourteen was thrown out of the compound by his father on instructions from Roman, who found Bill too much like his grandfather, and a potential threat to Grant's power. 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 third child Tancy's birth, however, Barbara Henrickson was diagnosed with uterine cancer, from which she was expected to die. During her illness, Bill met Nicolette Grant, the daughter of the Juniper Creek prophet Roman Grant, and brought her to his home. Nicolette helped to comfort Barbara while she was sick and care for her children, and it was decided that when Barbara died Nicolette was to marry Bill and raise their 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 expanding. 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, and took her as his third wife. Margene later gave birth to two sons, Aaron and Lester. She is pregnant with their third child.

After marrying Margene, Bill moved his family to a set of three adjacent houses, connected by a common back yard, in Sandy, Utah, a suburb 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 Roman Grant. In addition, he has had to deal with the problems of impotence and Nicolette's credit card debt, but has continued to love and protect his family.

In 2007 he and his business partner Don Embry decided to invest in slot machines, though this led to a problem with another FLDS family, the Greenes. Both Roman and the head of the Greenes, Hollis Greene, fear that Bill is the next prophet. Bill arranges with the FBI to turn states evidence against the Greenes and go undercover for them as the Greenes are wanted for murder and extortion in Utah and in Mexico.

Bill's relationship with his three wives is complex. He would consider having an affair with another woman adulterous, but he did have a flirtation with a possible fourth wife. Bill claims he is completely in love with all three wives, and that he was moved by the Holy Spirit to choose them. Barb is head wife - the only legal marriage - and the one he can acknowledge in public. Marge and Nicki must say to others that they are single. Bill seems to argue the most with Nicki, who causes problems such as accidentally exposing their polygamy on several occasions, her credit card debt, and her jealous nature. Bill's affections for Marge are in league with his affections for head wife Barb: she being the youngest and barely out of her teens, she has the largest sexual appetite (it is implied that Bill's sex life with his other two wives have dwindled considerably), she has the most child-bearing years left, and she causes the least trouble of all his wives (it's implied that she would cause more if she had a better understanding of the conflicts that surround the household, such as the atrocities between the compounds). In the show's season finale of 2007 Barb tells him that she "outed" them to the neighbors as polygamous because Margie wanted to be a surrogate mother and Barb would not go along with that. Bill tells Barb that as his first wife he needs her the most and offers her membership on the board of the gaming company.

[edit] Lifeline

[edit] Family

[edit] Parents

  • Frank Harlow (Father)
  • Lois Henrickson (Mother)
  • Roman Grant (Father-in-law via Nicki)
  • Adaleen Halstrom (Mother-in-law via Nicki)
  • Nancy Davis Dutton (Mother-in-law via Barb)
  • Ginger Heffman (Mother-in-law via Margene)
  • Roberta Harlow (Sister-Mother via Frank) (deceased)
  • Nita (Sister-Mother via Frank)
  • Sue (Sister-Mother via Frank)
  • Lourdes (Sister-Mother via Frank)

[edit] Sibling(s)

  • Margaret Henrickson (deceased)
  • Joey Henrickson

[edit] Marital status

[edit] Children

  • Sarah Henrickson
  • Ben Henrickson
  • Tancy Henrickson
  • Wayne Henrickson
  • Raymond Henrickson
  • Aaron Henrickson
  • Lester Henrickson

[edit] Grandparents

  • Orville Henrickson

[edit] Other relatives

  • Alby Grant (Brother-in-law via Nicki)
  • Wanda Henrickson (Sister-in-law via Joey)
  • Joey Henrickson, Jr. (Nephew via Joey)

[edit] See also

[edit] References