Louis de Pointe du Lac

Louis de Pointe du Lac
The Vampire Chronicles character
Brad Pitt as Louis (1994)
First appearance	Interview with the Vampire (1976)
Created by	Anne Rice
Portrayed by	Brad Pitt (Interview with the Vampire)
Information
Nickname(s)	Merciful Death Dark Angel Beautiful One
Species	Vampire
Gender	Male
Family	father, mother, younger sister, and brother Paul (younger brother)
Significant other(s)	Lestat de Lioncourt (maker/lover) Armand (lover) Madeleine (fledgling)
Children	Claudia (adoptive daughter)
Religion	Catholic (as a human)
Nationality	American (Louisiana Creole) French (born in France and emigrated to America)

Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. He begins his life as a mortal man, and later becomes a vampire. He is the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire (the first book of The Vampire Chronicles). He also features in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch The Devil, The Vampire Armand and Merrick.

Louis de Pointe du Lac is born in France on October 4, 1766, to a Roman Catholic family who immigrated to North America when he was very young. His mother, sister and brother, Paul, live just outside New Orleans on one of their two indigo plantations, named Pointe du Lac after the family. Louis's brother, who insists that he has religious visions, dies after a terrible quarrel with Louis. Louis blames himself for his brother's death, becoming self-destructive, cynical, and desperate. He longs for the release of death, but lacks the courage to commit suicide. He takes to frequenting taverns and other places of ill repute, instigating fights and duels in order that someone might kill him.

During a tavern brawl, Louis catches the eye of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Lestat appears to Louis as an angel and offers him an alternative to his desperate, meaningless life. Lestat, upon seeing for the first time Louis's "fine black hair" and deep green eyes, and sensing his passion, is seduced not only by Louis's beauty, but also by his tragedy and human heart; "He seduced the tenderness in me." Lestat makes Louis into a vampire, his immortal companion in 1791, and lives with Louis for nearly a century.