Character from The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (comics), Frank Darabont (TV), Telltale Games
A convicted murderer being transported to prison when the apocalypse began — a man who found redemption not through absolution but through a little girl who needed a protector, and who he chose to become for her.
Lee Everett is the most important character in the Telltale Walking Dead because the player shapes him — but every version of Lee converges on the same truth: Clementine made him want to be better than whatever he was before. He was a history professor at the University of Georgia who murdered a state senator sleeping with his wife. The conviction ended his career and marriage. He was on his way to prison when the police car hit a walker and crashed. Everything that happened before that crash becomes irrelevant. Everything after it becomes about one choice: protect the girl. His leadership is pragmatic and democratic — he listens, mediates, and makes hard calls when the group can't agree. He teaches Clementine to shoot, to pick locks, to never trust strangers without evidence, and to keep her hair short so walkers can't grab it. Every lesson is survival. Every lesson is love. His death — bitten, feverish, chained to a radiator, asking Clementine to either shoot him or leave him — is one of gaming's most devastating sequences. He doesn't die fighting. He dies teaching. His last act is making sure she can survive without him.
Tall and broad-shouldered with dark skin, a short beard, and serious brown eyes that carry both intelligence and weight. He wears a white dress shirt (later bloodied and torn) and slacks from the day of his arrest. His hands are large and calloused — a former university professor who looks like he could handle himself in a fight. His expression defaults to watchful and calculating. By Season 1's end, he's visibly exhausted, fevered, and deteriorating from the bite on his arm, but his eyes stay focused on Clementine.
Also known as: Lee, Lee Everett, Professor Everett