Tom Ripley

Tom Ripley
Alain Delon as Tom Ripley in Purple Noon
First appearance	The Talented Mr. Ripley
Last appearance	Ripley Under Water
Created by	Patricia Highsmith
Portrayed by	Alain Delon Dennis Hopper Jonathan Kent Matt Damon John Malkovich Barry Pepper Ian Hart
Information
Aliases	Dickie Greenleaf
Gender	Male
Occupation	Con artist
Spouse(s)	Heloise Plisson (wife)
Nationality	American

Thomas "Tom" Ripley is a fictional character in a series of crime novels by American novelist Patricia Highsmith, as well as several film adaptations. The five novels in which he appears—The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Ripley Under Water, published between 1955 and 1991—are referred to collectively as the Ripliad.

Highsmith introduced Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) as a young man making a meager living as a con artist. The novel also supplies him with a back story: orphaned at age five when his parents drowned, he was raised in Boston by his aunt Dottie, a cold, stingy woman who mocked him as a "sissy". As a teenager, he attempted unsuccessfully to run away from his aunt's home to New York City before finally moving there at age 20.

In The Talented Mr. Ripley, he is paid to go to Italy by Herbert Greenleaf, a shipbuilding magnate, to convince his son Dickie (a half-remembered acquaintance) to return to New York and join the family business. Ripley befriends the younger Greenleaf and falls in love with the rich young man's indulgent, carefree lifestyle; he also becomes obsessed with Greenleaf himself. He eventually murders Greenleaf after the playboy tires of him and spurns his friendship. He then assumes Greenleaf's identity, forging the signatures on his monthly remittances from a trust fund. He rents an apartment in Italy and revels in the good life. He also assumes Greenleaf's style and mannerisms, imitating him so well that he essentially becomes him. However, the charade gets him in trouble whenever he is confronted by people who know both him and Greenleaf, particularly Greenleaf's suspicious friend, Freddie Miles, whom he eventually murders. Ripley ultimately forges Greenleaf's will, leaving himself the dead man's inheritance. The novel ends with Ripley, having narrowly evaded capture, sailing to Greece and rejoicing in his newfound wealth. However, the book's final passages hint that he will pay for his freedom with a lifetime of paranoia, as he wonders whether he is "going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached".