Lawrence Stewart "Larry" Talbot, also known as The Wolf Man, is a title character of the 1941 Universal film The Wolf Man and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is portrayed by Benicio del Toro. The Wolf Man was part of the Universal Classic Monsters ensemble.
Biography
The Wolf Man (1941)
Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales, to reconcile with his father, Sir John Talbot. He had left for America eighteen years earlier, when his elder brother (also named John) was made heir to the estate, but he has returned following his brother's death in a hunting accident. While there, Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl named Gwen Conliffe, who runs an antique shop. As a pretext, he buys a silver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf (which she defines as a man who changes into a wolf "at certain times of the year").
That night, Larry attempts to rescue Gwen's friend Jenny from what he believes to be an attack by a wolf. He kills the beast with his new walking stick, but is bitten in the process. A gypsy named Maleva later reveals to Larry that the animal which bit him was actually her son Bela in the form of a wolf. Bela had been a werewolf for years and now the curse of lycanthropy has been passed to Larry.
Larry transforms into a werewolf every night, in one instance murdering a villager. He has no memories of his time spent in werewolf form, but gradually comes to believe Maleva's story. After a panicked attempt to leave town, he transforms into a werewolf and is bludgeoned to death by his father, who does not recognize him, with his own walking stick. As he dies, Maleva casts a spell which returns him to human form.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
This film makes significant changes to the nature of Larry Talbot's werewolf curse. He now changes into Wolf Man form only during a full moon, rather than every night during the werewolf season as in the original film. He also now remembers all of his doings as the Wolf Man. The film reveals that the official story for his death is that the Talbot house was invaded by a wolf, and while trying to fight it off, John Talbot struck his son instead by mistake.
Four years later, Larry is awakened from death when grave robbers open his tomb under a full moon and remove the wolfsbane he was buried with. Once he realizes what happened, he is dismayed; he regards the attack by his father as his rightful death, and immortality an affliction. Seeking a cure for his apparent inability to die, he searches for Maleva. Maleva tells him Dr. Frankenstein could know how to remove his life force. They set out on a journey to the Frankenstein family's castle, where he hopes to find the notes of Dr. Henry Frankenstein. A month elapses during his search for Maleva and journey to meet Dr. Frankenstein, bringing another full moon. During his transformation into a werewolf, he falls into the castle's frozen catacombs and revives Frankenstein monster. Finding that the monster is unable to locate the notes of the recently deceased doctor, Larry seeks out Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, hoping she knows their hiding place. The Frankenstein monster crashes the village festival. Elsa gives the notes to Larry and Dr. Mannering, who has tracked Larry across Europe, so that they may be used to drain all life from both Larry and the monster. However, Dr. Mannering's desire to see the monster at full strength leads him to instead transfers Larry's life to the monster. Elsa attempts to stop this procedure, and as a result Larry's life is not fully transferred. The procedure takes place on the night of a full moon, and Larry is transformed just as the monster regains his strength. After the monster carries off Elsa, the Wolf Man attacks him, and the two title characters are swept away by a flood that results when the local tavern owner blows up the town dam to drown the castle's inhabitants.
House of Frankenstein (1944)