Zaphod Beeblebrox

Zaphod Beeblebrox
Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, from the TV adaptation.
First appearance	Fit the Second (radio)
Created by	Douglas Adams
Portrayed by	Mark Wing-Davey (all except film) Sam Rockwell (film)
Information
Species	Betelgeusian
Gender	Male
Occupation	Ex-Galactic President; confidence trickster; etc
Title	President Zaphod Beeblebrox I Zaphod Beeblebrox the Nothingth (as addressed by great-grandfather)
Relatives	Ford Prefect (semi-half cousin) Zaphod Beeblebrox II (father) Zaphod Beeblebrox III (grandfather) Zaphod Beeblebrox IV (great-grandfather)

Zaphod Beeblebrox /ˈzeɪfɒd ˈbiːbəlbrɒks/ is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

He is from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and is a "semi-half-cousin" of Ford Prefect, with whom he "shares three of the same mothers". Because of "an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine", his direct ancestors from his father are also his direct descendants (see Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth).

This character is described across all versions as having two heads and three arms, though explanations of how he came to receive the extra appendages differed between versions. The original radio version never explained the second head, but did explain that Zaphod "grew" the third arm in the six months between meeting the character of Trillian on Earth, and the start of the series. The third radio series implies that he had a third arm when growing up – the fifth has him offer to Trillian that "I'd grow my third arm back for you, baby", when they first meet. In the novel, he said the third arm was "recently ... fitted just beneath his right one to help improve his ski-boxing." According to the original Hitchhiker's radio series script book, an ad libbed comment by Mark Wing-Davey in the eighth radio episode ("Put it there, and there, and there, and there! Whoa!") would suggest that Zaphod had grown a fourth arm. In the television series, Ford Prefect simply remarks to Zaphod that "the extra arm suits you." Eoin Colfer wrote and published an official 6th book for the Hitchhiker's series, in which it is implied Zaphod's third arm may have originally been grown so that he would have one hand for each of Eccentrica Galumbits' breasts.