List of American Horror Story: 1984 characters
' is the ninth season of the FX horror anthology television series American Horror Story. This season is set in the titular year, 1984, and focuses on a group of young staff members at a summer camp getting ready to re-open after a massacre in 1970, but these events repeat when a deranged killer escapes from a local insane aslyum and heads to the camp.
Veteran cast members include Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Cody Fern, and John Carroll Lynch, with Matthew Morrison, Gus Kenworthy, Angelica Ross, and Zach Villa making their debuts. Veteran cast members with recurring or guest appearances include Leslie Jordan, Tanya Clarke, Dylan McDermott, Lily Rabe, and Finn Wittrock. This is the sixth season that is not strictly anthological, with the presence of serial killer Richard Ramirez who previously appeared in the, portrayed by Anthony Ruivivar. 1984 marks the first season to not feature series mainstays Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson. This is also the first season since ' to not include alum Cheyenne Jackson.
Cast members
Main cast
- Emma Roberts as Brooke Thompson
- Billie Lourd as Montana Duke
- Leslie Grossman as Margaret Booth
- Cody Fern as Xavier Plympton
- Matthew Morrison as Trevor Kirchner
- Gus Kenworthy as Chet Clancy
- John Carroll Lynch as Benjamin Richter / Mr. Jingles
- Angelica Ross as Rita / Donna Chambers
- Zach Villa as Richard Ramirez
Supporting cast
Characters
Main characters
Brooke Thompson
Brooke Thompson is an innocent young woman who appears to have an interest in serial killers. Despite her purity, she is easily peer-pressured into drinking with her fellow counselors. In the summer of 1983, Brooke was planning to marry Joey Cavanaugh, despite his jealous nature. During their wedding, Joey grew suspicious and shot his best man, Sam, believing Brooke had cheated on him with Sam. He then shot Brooke's father, who attempted to intervene, and then himself, leaving Brooke traumatized. Brooke's plans to study veterinary medicine over the summer of 1984 are suddenly derailed when Ramirez breaks into her apartment, steals her jewelry, and vows to return to murder her. Attempting to flee the killer's intentions, she joins her new group of friends to participate as a counselor at Camp Redwood. After that, she is tracked down by Ramirez in an attempt to kill her and fights off Montana, who tries to kill her as well to revenge Sam, her brother. She eventually stabs Montana in self-defense, and is framed for Margaret's other murders. She is convicted and sentenced to death. Before she can be successfully executed, however, Donna rescues her and attempts to help her build a new life now that she is legally dead. Brooke is, however, determined to make Margaret pay for the time she lost on death row and returns to Camp Redwood upon hearing that it will be reopened for a music festival in 1989. On their way to Camp Redwood, Brooke and Donna encounter Bruce, a serial killer who they subdued and cut off both of his thumbs, and left him for dead. They also encounter Stacy Phillips, a reporter who researched the Camp Redwood murders, and acknowledged Brooke and Donna's identities and their history in the camp. Worried of being exposed, Brooke tries to kill Stacy, but is stopped by Donna, who persuades her to focus on her revenge and chased Stacey away, who would later be killed by Bruce and Ramirez. In the climax, Brooke attacks Margaret and is shot and seemingly dies, prompting Donna to help the ghosts in killing Margaret. She is saved by Ray, who takes her to the camp's gate so she will not die in the campground. After that, she is saved from dying and wakes up in the hospital. From that moment, she left her old life behind, marries a dermatologist, and has children. At some point, she tries to call Donna, but is overcome by the memories of Camp Redwood. She is revealed to have sent money to Bobby Richter, having admired his father's ability to move on from his dark past and decides to give Bobby a normal life, to keep him from the horrors of Camp Redwood. She and Donna finally reconciled, and acknowledged their status as the "final girls".Montana Duke
Montana Duke is a spunky and motivated aerobics enthusiast. When Joey murders her brother Sam at Joey and Brooke's wedding, Montana, blaming Sam's death on Brooke, vows to get her revenge on Brooke, teaming up with Ramirez, who she met during one of her aerobics classes. She is ultimately stabbed to death by Brooke in self-defense, returning to Camp Redwood as a ghost. During her purgatory, Montana had killed various trespassers in Camp Redwood along with Xavier, much to the dismay of Ray and other ghosts. Upon seeing that a music festival would be opened by Margaret Booth in Camp Redwood, Montana and other ghosts decide to massacre the entire festival to draw in paranormal investigators to set their soul free from the campground. During that, she encounters Trevor Kirchner, whom she had a one-night stand with, and they finally get back together. At some point, Montana and the other ghosts had been attacked and terrorized by the spirit of Lavinia, Richter's mother due to her hatred of camp counselors. After Richter's capture by the ghosts of the counselors, he reveals that he came to kill Ramirez to stop him from killing more people, and further revealed that after Montana worked with Ramirez and brought him along to the camp to hunt down Brooke, she had become his muse to spark his murder spree, much to the disgust of Xavier, Chet, and Ray. Trevor plans to kill himself to be with Montana, but her guilt over how her relationship with Ramirez inadvertently caused the death of many innocent people causes her to push Trevor away. She witnesses Richter being dragged by a creature in the lake. After that, Montana witnesses Trevor being shot and wounded by Margaret and left to die outside Camp Redwood, but Brooke appeared and help Trevor make it back to the campground, despite Montana's protests. Having a change of heart because of Brooke's action, she convinces the other ghosts to stop the killing and put an end to Margaret's murderous rampage, starting with killing off her associates, Bruce, whom Trevor mortally wounded and kicked off the property line so his ghost would not return and Ramirez, whom the ghosts killed over and over due to the Satanic influence that brought him back to life, in order to protect Richter's son, Bobby. Montana, and the other ghosts finally killed Margaret by dismembering and decapitating her, shooting her limbs and body over the property line, keeping her soul from ever returning to the campground, which ultimately fails. Montana is last seen with the other ghosts, taking Margaret's ghost away, and tells Bobby to leave but to never forget them and tell the story of the campground to his children, stating that the 80's will never die.Margaret Booth
Margaret Booth is the new owner of Camp Redwood. Margaret is secretly responsible for the massacre in 1970, having pinned the murders on Benjamin Richter. Several years later, she decides to reopen Camp Redwood with the sole purpose of embracing God, prohibiting the new counselors from sinning on the camp grounds. On the day before the camp is set to re-open, Mr. Jingles escapes from his confinement at a facility for the criminally insane. Margaret reveals to Mr. Jingles that she manipulated the events that lead to him believing that he was responsible for the 1970 massacre. When Jingles tries to kill her, Margaret shoots him, and afterwards attempts to kill Trevor and pin his murder on Mr. Jingles. She goes on to kill Chet and Xavier before non-lethally stabbing herself in order to frame Brooke, who is already in police custody for the death of Montana. Following the murders at Camp Redwood, Margaret learns that Trevor survived, and makes a deal with him to make him rich by marrying her, in return for his silence about Margaret's crimes. They then become business partners, purchasing former locations of gruesome murders and exploiting the notoriety of the sites for the purposes of tourism. After learning that the abandoned Camp Redwood still has ongoing murders, Margaret decides to organize a music festival on the property to kill the featured musicians and make it a tourist attraction for the future, with assistance from Richard Ramirez and hitchhiker Bruce. She kills her assistant Courtney and Trevor for disrupting her plans. Her plans fail however, as Bruce is fatally attacked, rolled down a hill and left to die off of camp property, and the ghosts of Camp Redwood brutally butcher Margaret herself, flinging her arms, legs, torso, and finally her decapitated head into a wood chipper. Although the ghosts attempted to keep her alive until she was safely off of camp property, they miscalculate, and upon death, Margaret's soul, like the others, remains on the property. Almost thirty years later, when Mr. Jingles' son Bobby comes to Camp Redwood, she tries to kill him, but Mr. Jingles, his mother Lavinia, and the other ghosts prevent her from doing so as Bobby flees the camp.Xavier Plympton
Xavier Plympton is an aerobics instructor who lands a summer job as a counselor at Camp Redwood, bringing his friends Montana, Brooke, Ray and Chet along for the ride. The group makes a pit stop at a gas station in the town of Red Meadows. Xavier checks his answering machine messages from a pay phone, which include a threat from an angry man who knows where he is going. Roy, the gas station attendant, discovers that they are headed to the camp and warns the group that they are going to die, and that the camp should never have been re-opened. The group proceeds despite Roy's warnings. Jingles attempts to kill Xavier by locking him in an oven, but a mortally-wounded Bertie rescues him before begging him to end her suffering, with which he complies. He is then murdered by Margaret and returns to Camp Redwood as a ghost. During purgatory, Xavier killed trespassers in Camp Redwood along with Montana. Upon capturing Richter, Xavier and the other ghosts planned to kill him over and over, angered over being disfigured and killed. Originally planned to massacred the entire music festival opened in Camp Redwood, Xavier and the other ghosts decided to kill Margaret to stopped her murderous rampage and killing Richard Ramirez over and over again. He also joins the other ghosts in dismembering Margaret and shot her limbs over the camp's property line.Trevor Kirchner
Trevor Kirchner is the activities director of Camp Redwood who has a fling with Montana. He was to be featured in an early Jane Fonda workout video, but was removed from the video due to his large penis attracting undue attention. Trevor, alongside Donna and Brooke, survives Margaret's first attempt on his life, and subsequently enters into an arrangement with her whereby he marries her and is to share in her fortune in return for his silence on Margaret's crimes. Returning to Camp Redwood in 1989 for Margaret's planned music festival, Trevor reconnects with Montana's ghost and decides to kill himself to be with her, but refrains when Montana rejects him out of guilt over her previous relationship with Ramirez. Trevor, sick of Margaret's abuse and longing to be with Montana instead, then blocks the entrance to the festival with a tour bus in order to prevent further bloodshed, telling would-be concertgoers that the festival has been cancelled. Margaret shoots him in retaliation, mere feet outside of the Camp Redwood property line so he will not come back as a ghost. However, before he dies, Brooke, who has returned to Camp Redwood to exact her revenge on Margaret, mercifully assists Trevor back onto the property, where he dies in Montana's arms. Thereafter, he joins the other ghosts on the camp property and participates in Margaret's death.Chet Clancy
Chet Clancy is the "jock" of the group and a steroid user. Margaret murders him during the 1984 killing spree by tying cinder blocks to his feet and pushing him into the lake, after they take a canoe out to find help. He returns as a ghost and, along with Xavier, Trevor and Montana, brutally chops Margaret up and throws her pieces into a wood chipper as revenge for killing them.Benjamin Richter
Benjamin Richter, also known as Mr. Jingles, is a former janitor of Camp Redwood who Margaret Booth framed for the 1970 massacre. During his time in the Red MeadowsAsylum, he was subjected to mental torture and abuse, leading him to believed that he committed the murders. He later escaped and returned to the camp and killed many campers, and tried to kill Margaret after she confessed to committing the murder and framing him for it, but is ultimately mortally wounded by Xavier. Richter would later be resurrected by Richard Ramirez and escaped Camp Redwood.
In 1985, Richter turning Ramirez to the authorities, having fed-up with his murderous tendency. He eventually attempts to start a new life in Alaska with his new wife and son, but his past catches up to him when Ramirez murders his wife in retaliation for turning him in to the cops. He returns to Camp Redwood and eventually reunites with the ghosts of his deceased mother Lavinia and brother Bobby, after whom Richter named his own son. In 2019, Richter and his mother stop Margaret from nearly killing Richter's adult son when he comes to the now-abandoned Camp Redwood.
Donna Chambers
Donna Chambers is a psychiatrist who harbors an obsession with serial killers, impersonating Rita, the nurse at Camp Redwood. It is eventually revealed that Donna freed Mr. Jingles from his incarceration, after she discovered her father's nature as a serial killer and he committed suicide in 1980. In 1989, in an attempt to atone for her role in the 1984 massacre, Donna saves Brooke from her execution, and together they travel back to Camp Redwood to murder Margaret as revenge for framing Brooke for the 1984 murders. After Brooke is shot and nearly killed by Margaret, Donna assists the ghosts into dismembering Margaret and throwing her pieces into a wood chipper. At some points between 1989 and 2019, Donna had become the director of Red Meadows asylum, where Richter has been held, guilty over being the "final girl". In 2019, Donna finds Brooke, whom she thought had died from her gunshot wound in 1989, alive, and the two reconcile.Richard Ramirez
is a serial killer. After Montana becomes his love interest, she requests that he kill Brooke, who she believes is responsible for her brother's death. After failing to kill Brooke at her apartment, Richard follows her to Camp Redwood, where he subsequently learns that people who die on the property become trapped there as ghosts. During his hunt for Brooke, he crosses paths with Mr. Jingles and is killed. However, as he is a follower of Satan, Richard is resurrected, not as a ghost, and is able to come and go freely from Camp Redwood. He convinces a near-dead Jingles to become a follower of Satan as well, and Jingles is also resurrected. When Brooke is arrested for the death of Montana, and framed for killing the other counselors, Richard and Mr. Jingles steal a police vehicle and return to Los Angeles, where Mr. Jingles gets Richard caught by the authorities. Richard escapes prison with Satan's help, and vows to hunt Mr. Jingles down by returning to Camp Redwood for the music festival Margaret is hosting. He teams up with Margaret and hitchhiker Bruce to kill all the festival participants, but the plan is foiled when the ghosts kill Bruce and Margaret. However, because Satan is on his side, Richard cannot be permanently killed, so instead the ghosts take turns standing guard, repeatedly killing him whenever he resurrects. After thirty years of continuously being killed, when Mr. Jingles' son Bobby comes to Camp Redwood, Richard manages to escape briefly and attempts to kill Bobby, but fails when the ghosts of the counselors catch up to him, and he is again subject to continuously being brutally killed each time he awakens.Richard had previously appeared in ' as one of James Patrick March's guests for the Devil's Night soirée and is also responsible for running Billie Dean Howard out of the Hotel Cortez. It should also be noted that due to a timeline alteration seen in ' caused by Mallory, it is possible that Richard's time at Camp Redwood was erased and instead, the events from Hotel happened, where Richard is caught and remains in prison for twenty-three years before dying from leukemia.
Supporting characters
- Ray Powell is Chet's best friend. During the 1984 murders, he abandons Chet and Montana when he flees on Trevor's motorcycle, but is decapitated by Mr. Jingles during his escape attempt. His ghost then wanders the campgrounds confused and is found by Brooke, both believing he is still alive. They hide from Mr. Jingles in the camp dining hall, where they connect and have sex, but their tender moment is ruined later when Brooke discovers Ray's decapitated head in the kitchen's refrigerator. Brooke flees in fear, leaving Ray confused. After multiple, unsuccessful attempts trying to leave Camp Redwood, he finally accepts his place as a ghost in the camp. Five years after the murders, he is frustrated towards Montana and Xavier over their killings of whoever entered the camp. Later, he rescues Brooke from dying in Camp Redwood, taking her out of the campground.
- Dr. Karen Hopple is the former Chief of Psychology at Red Meadows Asylum. On the night of July 1, 1984, Dr. Hopple is called to the Asylum where one of the administrators, Art, informs her that Benjamin Richter has escaped. She drives up to the camp to warn Margaret of the potential threat of having Richter on the loose. However, Margaret dismisses the psychologist's concerns, and Jingles later kills Hopple when she attempts to leave the camp.
- Jonas Shevoore was one of the counselors during the 1970 massacre at Camp Redwood. He has vague memories of seeing the carnage all around him before fleeing. Jingles hits him with a truck, kills him, and disposes of his remains in the bushes. When he emerges from the bushes in 1984 in a state of panic, Xavier and the gang hit him with their van. When the counselors attempt to help him, he babbles about trying and failing. Under the care of nurse Rita, the hiker panics when he learns he's at Camp Redwood. When he wakes up in the infirmary, he discovers one of his ears has been severed. Confronted by Brooke, the young man claims the phones are down, and that she and her friends should hightail it out of the camp. Brooke later discovers Jonas' corpse nailed to the infirmary's door, which later disappears when Brooke and the others return. He appears again when Ramirez is chasing Brooke. Ramirez disembowels the unfortunate hiker and cuts his throat for good measure. A short while later Ramirez comes across Jonas yet again and stabs him to death, only for the hiker to again vanish shortly thereafter. Margaret tracks down Jonas' ghost in the bushes near where he died. At first, Jonas doesn't recognize her, but bit by bit his memory begins to return. He feels that he acted cowardly after the massacre and is unsure what his purpose is as he himself doesn't even believe in spirits despite being one. Margaret responds that this is all part of "God's plan". The next day, after Ray's ghost has attempted and failed to leave Camp Redwood's grounds, Jonas appears again and advises him to accept his fate: The camp is their home now.
- Chef Bertie is a former veteran cook at Camp Redwood who worked there when Margaret was a counselor, now volunteering as a chef at the camp after learning that Margaret plans to reopen the camp. The night before the campers are to arrive, she is making sandwiches for them when Xavier bursts into the kitchen. She lets him hide under the table when Mr. Jingles comes into the kitchen. She attempts to have a conversation with Jingles, but the conversation is interrupted when Xavier accidentally makes a noise, alerting Jingles to his presence. Jingles tries to kill Xavier until Bertie interferes by striking him with a kitchen utensil, but Mr. Jingles maims Bertie, places Xavier into the oven, and leaves him to cook in the heat. After Jingles leaves, a mortally-wounded Bertie is able to release Xavier from the oven. She is then stabbed to death by Xavier at her own request.
- Courtney is Margaret's personal assistant in 1989. He is murdered by Margaret, who shoots him in the head, and his ghost joins the others on the campgrounds.
- Bruce is a murderous hitchhiker who encounters Donna and Brooke en route to Camp Redwood in 1989.
- Lavinia Richter was Benjamin and Bobby's mother. In 1948, the Golden Star Camp was the site of a massacre. Lavinia killed the counselors that she considered responsible for the death of her younger son Bobby, who died in the lake after swimming into the engine of a motorboat. Her eldest son, Benjamin, stabbed her in self-defense after witnessing his mother's crime. Since then, Lavinia haunts the camp as "The Lady in White", condemning all those who die in Camp Redwood to become ghosts bound to the camp property. In 1985, Benjamin returns to the camp and asks the ghosts about his mother's whereabouts. Montana tells Xavier to take him to her, and Xavier guides Richter back to an abandoned cabin. Benjamin enters alone and his mother greets him. She is disgusted with Richter and is distraught that she could never find Bobby despite hearing him. She pities Richter's son for having a father like him, while she admits that she had watched him the entire time when he was at Camp Redwood, and that she had manipulated Margaret into carrying out the 1970 massacre and blaming Richter. She then disappears, leaving a devastated Benjamin alone in the cabin. Later, Benjamin sits on the dock alone while his mother approaches him. Lavinia encourages Benjamin to kill himself before Ramirez comes to collect him for Satan, in order to return as a ghost and exact his revenge. She is later seen having picnic with Bobby's ghost, grateful of Benjamin of bringing him back to her, and convinces him to stay with them. 30 years later, she is finally seen protected her grandson Bobby from Margaret, incapacitated her and finally shares a tearful goodbye with him.
- Midge was a counselor at Camp Redwood in 1970. During the 1970 massacre, Margaret stabbed her in the eye. Her soul remains at Camp Redwood.
- Helen was a counselor at Camp Redwood in 1970. During the 1970 massacre, Margaret stabbed her in the back of the head. Her soul remains at Camp Redwood.
- Eddie was a counselor at Camp Redwood in 1970. During the 1970 massacre, Margaret stabbed him in the back of the head. His soul remains at Camp Redwood.
Minor characters
- Roy is a gas station attendant at Roy's Gas & Grub in the town of Red Meadows. He warns Brooke, Xavier, Montana, Chet and Ray from going to work at the reopened Camp Redwood, warning that they're going to die there. Later the same night, Roy is crushed under a car by Jingles.
- Blake is a former porn producer who blackmails Xavier into acting in gay porn. Xavier offers him to find a replacement and leads him to Trevor in the shower. While Blake observes Trevor, Chet, and Ray in the shower, Jingles impales him through his eye via the back of his head.
- Mr. Thompson was Brooke's father who was shot by her fiancé Joey, when he attempted to subdue Joey after he murdered Sam.
- Joey Cavanaugh was Brooke's late fiancé. At her wedding, he insists that he saw his best friend, Sam, enter Brooke's apartment the night before and not leave until the morning. When they insist that nothing sexual happened between the two, he shoots Sam, Brooke's father, and then himself.
- Art is an administrator at Red Meadows Asylum. He informs Hopple that Benjamin has escaped from the facility for the criminally insane.
- Rita is a nurse that Margaret hires to work at Camp Redwood. Donna then steals her identity to observe Benjamin's potential murder at the camp. She is killed when Jingles impales her through the mouth with an oar.
- David Chambers was Donna's father. He lived a double life as a loving father and serial killer until his daughter caught him with one of his victims. Ignoring Donna's psychological help proposals, he stabbed himself in the neck in front of his daughter.
- Lorraine Richter was a former prostitute who moved to Alaska to start a new life with Benjamin, who was then living under the name of Donald. Ramirez later murders Lorraine as revenge against Benjamin for having him sent to prison.
- Bobby Richter is the son of Benjamin and Lorraine Richter who travels to Camp Redwood as an adult looking for answers regarding his father.