Leatherface

Texas Chainsaw Massacre character

Bill Johnson as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 1986
Leatherface
In-story information
Classification:	Mass murderer, Butcher
Signature weapon:	Chainsaw
Primary location:	Texas
Development information
Creators:	Kim Henkel Tobe Hooper
Portrayed by:	Gunnar Hansen Bill Johnson R. A. Mihailoff Robert Jacks Andrew Bryniarski Dan Yeager

Leatherface is a character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin (hence his name) and engages in murder and cannibalism, alongside his inbred family. Leatherface appeared in the first film in the series (1974) and in its six subsequent continuations and remakes. Wisconsin killer Ed Gein, who wore a mask made of human skin, was reportedly the inspiration for elements in the original film. He is considered to be the main antagonist of the franchise because he drives most of the plots and appears in all of the films even though he takes orders from his older family members.

The original film never showed Leatherface without one of his human-hide faces on. Leatherface used to work as a butcher at the meat factory alongside his brother, presumably "The Cook" (referred to as "Drayton Sawyer" in further films), as "The Hitchhiker" (Nubbins in part 2, following his death in part 1) claims he didn't work at the slaughterhouse, but he states, "My BROTHER worked there. My grandfather, too! My family's ALWAYS been in meat." Gunnar Hansen, who portrayed Leatherface in the original 1974 film, sees Leatherface as "completely under the control of his family. He'll do whatever they tell him to do. He's a little bit afraid of them." In the documentary The Shocking Truth, Tobe Hooper portrays Leatherface as a "big baby" who kills in self-defense because he feels threatened. In the first film, Leatherface shows fear when new people enter his home.

Leatherface's family uses the bones of the people he kills, along with some animal bones for decoration, and human skin to upholster bone-based furniture similar to a leather couch, to build the inside of their house. They process the victims' flesh into barbecue and chili, which Drayton Sawyer, a skilled chef, sells at his restaurant/gas station, "Last Chance Gas." Drayton also enters the human flesh chili dishes the brothers prepare at cook-offs, feeding it to unsuspecting customers and judges without telling them what they're eating, past the point of saying it's "prime meat," and that the key to his recipe is to "never shirk on the meat" (according to the sequel, Drayton has won two cooking awards doing this). As previously stated above, aside from Leatherface and Drayton, the Sawyer clan includes several more brothers, a hitchhiker named Nubbins Sawyer, Nubbins' twin brother, a Vietnam vet known as Chop Top or Plate Head, a hitchhiking cowboy named Eddie/Tex, a hook-handed man named Tech/Tinker, a deranged pervert named Alfredo/Fred, a tow-truck driver named Vilmer and a redneck know-it-all named W.E. Apart from the brothers, the Sawyer clan includes the supercentenarian Grandpa, the dead Grandma/Great-Grandma Sawyer (whose corpse has been poorly preserved), a wheelchair-bound mother called Mama who claims to have mutilated and promptly removed her own genitalia as well as those of the family patriarch a number of years ago, and Leatherface's daughter (first names unknown).