Drayton Sawyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Texas Chainsaw Massacre character | |
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| Drayton Sawyer | |
| Alias | Cook [1] Old Man [1] |
| Gender | Male |
| Location | Texas |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Creator(s) | Tobe Hooper Kim Henkel |
| Portrayed by: | Jim Siedow [1] [2] |
Drayton Sawyer is a fictional character from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, the character first appears in the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and has made several subsequent appearances since, in both films and comic books. In the films, the character is portrayed by Jim Siedow.
In all his appearances, Drayton appears as an antagonist. A mentally unstable and murderous cannibal, Drayton, along, with his family of fellow serial killers, lives in the backwoods of Texas, preying upon travelers, who he and his relatives capture and devour, selling some of their meat to unwary people in chili. Drayton's name wasn't mentioned until the second film, the first simply referring to him as Cook and Old Man. [1]
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Film
Drayton Sawyer makes his debut appearance in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, in which he first appears as the proprietor of the Last Chance Gas Station, a gas station and barbecue, where a group of teenagers stop while passing through the area. Drayton's malevolent nature is only revealed later in the film, where he beats Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) unconscious and captures her after she approaches him seeking help when her friends disappear. Taking Sally to his home, Drayton torments her alongside his siblings, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and the Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), before deciding to let the family patriarch, Grandpa (John Dugan), kill her. When Grandpa proves too decrepit to kill Sally with a hammer, Drayton, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface attempt to aid him, but only succeed in losing grasp on Sally, who flees out a window, in their over-eagerness to help. [1]
In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Drayton reappears, now living in an abandoned amusement park by the name of Texas Battle Land, due to the intense police investigation sparked by the events of the first film, with what remains of his family, Leatherface (Bill Johnson), Chop Top (Bill Moseley) and Grandpa (Ken Evert). Now an award-winning chili cook, Drayton appears far more unhinged than in the previous film, happily joining in on his family's murderous frenzies, which previously disturbed him somewhat. Drayton dies, off-screen, at the end of the film, when, during the fight between Leatherface and Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper), he is accidentally struck by Leatherface and the hand grenade he is holding explodes prematurely. [2]
[edit] Literature
In Topps Comics' 1995 comic miniseries Jason vs. Leatherface, Drayton, only identified by the name Cook Slaughter, appears as a main character. After Leatherface and the Hitchhiker bring Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist of the Friday the 13th franchise home, Drayton befriends him and inducts him in as an unofficial member of the Sawyer family. [3]
The comics expand on Drayton's back story, revealing that, though he aspires to gain fame and fortune using his culinary skills in the city, he stays in the Texan backwoods due to a vow he made to his younger sister Velma on her deathbed, promising he would always look after her children, the Hitchhiker and Leatherface. The comics also portray Drayton as much more apathetic and lax towards his relatives murdering of people, with him, at one point, stating that he wishes the Hitchhiker and Jason, who had just delivered to him a freshly killed couple, had brought him some children as well ("their meat's so much more tender...") [4]
An unnamed character similar to Drayton in both appearance and demeanor appears in the comic one-shot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Cut!, which is set in the remake continuity of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films and published by Wildstorm. Like Drayton, this character, a member of the cannibalistic Hewitt family and brother of Leatherface and a character similar to the Hitchhiker, is a chef, though he appears to specialize in ribs, instead of chili. In the comic, the Drayton look-alike feigns aiding a group of teenagers in making an amateur movie about the murders committed by his family, by bringing them to the supposedly abandoned Hewitt house. Revealing his true nature near the end of the story, the character, along with his siblings, slaughters the director of the film project (his brothers having previously killed his companions) like livestock. The comic's ending, set one year after the main events of the story, implicate the character will once more lead a group of wannabee filmmakers to their death at the hands of him and his family. [5]
[edit] Behind the scenes
Tobe Hooper has stated that Drayton, along with the rest of the Sawyer family, is based upon serial killer Ed Gein. [6]
Jim Siedow was offered a chance to appear as Drayton Sawyer in the 1994 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, which was originally meant to be a direct sequel to the original 1974 film, but declined. Drayton was ultimately replaced in the film by the character W. E. Sawyer. [7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Tobe Hooper (Director). (1974). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [DVD]. United States: Bryanston Distributing Company.
- ^ a b Tobe Hooper (Director). (1986). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 [DVD]. United States: Cannon Films Inc..
- ^ Nancy Collins (w), Steve Montano (i). "Goin' South" Jason vs. Leatherface vol. 1, #1 (1995) Topps Comics
- ^ Nancy Collins (w), Steve Montano (i). "A Day in the Life..." Jason vs. Leatherface vol. 1, #2 (1995) Topps Comics
- ^ Will Pfeifer (w), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Cut! vol. 1, #1 (2007) Wildstorm
- ^ Gregory, David (Director and Writer). (2000). Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth [Documentary]. Blue Underground.
- ^ The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994) - Trivia
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