Lt. Philip Gerard

Lt. Philip Gerard
Lt. Philip Gerard is the secondary Protagonist, yet antagonist in the 1963-67 TV Series The Fugitive, where He was portrayed by Barry Morse.

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On the night of September 19, 1961, Stafford Indiana pediatrician Dr. Richard Kimble found his Wife Helen Murdered, but only after he saw a One-Armed Man leave the scene of the crime. Interrogation by the office of Stafford Police Lt. Philip Gerard resulted in interviews of 83 men matching the description provided by Kimble, none of whom were in the area at the time of the murder. Kimble was convicted and sentenced to die, but after a year's worth of appeals, He was being escorted by Gerard to the death house in March 1963 when their train derailed.

The crash freed Kimble from Gerard and He now became a fugitive, wandering the country and working low-paying odd jobs (those that require no identification or security checks and bring about little social attention) in his search for The One-Armed Man.

While he was a formidably intelligent family man and dedicated public servant, Gerard was duty-bound and relentlessly pursued kimible. Guilt or innocence was of no consequence to Gerard, whose own beliefs have been stated as: "I enforce the law. The law pronounced him guilty... I enforce the law. Whether the law was right or wrong of convicting him is not my concern. Let others debate and conclude... I obey. But when I begin to doubt, to question... I can't permit it. Others found him guilty, others were about to execute him. I was merely an instrument of the law... and I am".

In "Never Wave Goodbye Pt. I", he states again, "The law pronounced him guilty, not me." In "Nightmare at Northoak" and "Wife Killer" he states with certainty that the one-armed man doesn't exist and that Kimble is guilty; in "Corner of Hell", even after his own Kimble-like experience, he still scoffs at the existence of the one-armed man ("Still the same fairy tale") and tells Kimble, "The truth is, you're still guilty before the law".

Contributing to Gerard's obsession with re-capturing Kimble is the personal responsibility he feels for Kimble's escape, which happened while he was under Gerard's custody. As he remarks to a colleague in "The Judgment, Part 1" (the show's penultimate episode), "I've lost a lot of things these past four years... starting with a prisoner the state told me to guard".

Over time, Gerard also appeared to have gained some doubts about Kimble's guilt. In one episode, when a woman witness remarks that Kimble killed his wife, Gerard simply replies, "The law says he did", with a tone of doubt in his voice; in the episode "Nemesis", the local sheriff states to Gerard about Kimble, "You said he's a killer", to which Gerard sharply replies, "The jury said that!". Gerard's doubts are augmented after Kimble rescues Gerard in episodes such as "Never Wave Goodbye", "Corner of Hell", "Ill Wind", "The Evil Men Do", and "Stroke of Genius". "The Evil Men Do" in particular played on the respect that develops between the two men. In the episode, former Mob hitman Arthur Brame is running a ranch that Kimble's working at and is rescued from a runaway horse by Kimble. After learning about Gerard's pursuit Brame offers to repay Kimble by getting rid of him. However, Kimble only wanted Brame to Scare Gerard while Brame wanted to kill him. When Kimble escapes from Gerard, the lieutenant doesn't pursue Kimble, but instead goes after and kills Brame. In the epilogue, Gerard explains to Brame's widow Sharon that he wanted both men, but that Arthur was a career killer and more dangerous while Kimble "has done the one murder he'll probably ever do". Gerard comes close to acknowledging Kimble's innocence when he concludes, "Until I find him, and I will, he's no real menace to anyone but himself".

In the course of the series, Gerard's family becomes entangled in Gerard's obsession with finding Kimble. In "Nemesis", Kimble unintentionally kidnaps Gerard's young son Philip Junior (played by a then 12-year-old Kurt Russell). Though as concerned as any father should be, Gerard is confident that Kimble won't do his boy any real harm. After his experience with Kimble, Philip Junior questions whether he is guilty and his father openly admits that he could be wrong, though it doesn't change his duty. It's this almost inhuman dedication to his duty that strains his relationship with his wife Marie almost to the breaking point and causes her to leave him in season three's two-part episode "Landscape with Running Figures"; her actually coming into contact with Kimble (unknowingly at first) causes an emotional collapse when she realises who he is, with her screaming at Kimble, "It began with you ... it'll end with you!" It's clear that Gerard does indeed love his wife when he finally chooses to come find her over chasing Kimble (although he admits to her that he will go again when the next time comes: "He's stuck in my throat and I can't swallow him.").

In the two-part series Finale "The Judgement" Gerard ultimately ends up being the one to free Kimble. In 1967, The One-Armed Man, going by the alias Fred Johnson, is arrested in Los Angeles and when Kimble learns of the arrest, He gets a ride to the city, but is intercepted by Jean Carlisle, the daughter of his deceased friend Ben Carlisle. Gerard wants to use The One-Armed Man's arrest to make newspaper headlines all over the country in order to bring Kimble closer to him.

When interviewing The One-Armed Man, Gerard begins to suspect that He's talking to the real killer after He lies about his alibi. When The One-Armed Man is bailed out of jail, He returns to Stafford - the reason why is then discovered by Kimble and Jean in a bail bond receipt signed for by Leonard Taft, Kimble's brother-in-law. Kimble Prepares to find The One-Armed Man, but Gerard stops and arrests him. On the Train back to Stafford, the two men talk about everything that's happened and after being convinced to do so, Gerard gives Kimble 24 hours to find The One-Armed Man before brining him in for good.

"Taft," however, Is in reality Lloyd Chandler using Taft's name as an alias. When Chandler comes back with Kimble's Nephew Billy and some other boys who he'd been giving lessons on how to fire a gun, He learns from Kimble's sister Donna that a man called and said that He saw Len in the house on the night of Helen's murder and asked to Meet Len at an abandoned riding stable after dark. While Donna and Len think it was a crank call, Chandler keeps the meeting, where the caller is revealed to be The One-Armed Man. Even though Chandler is armed with a loaded pistol, The One-Armed Man easily overpowers and disarms him, takes his gun, points it at him and blackmails him for $50,000. Later, after learning from Donna and Len about the phone call, Kimvle and Gerard investigate the stable, where they first find a matchbook to an art School in New Jersey. They then find a dropped, unfired cartridge from Chandler's gun.

Chandler tries to get the money, even resorting to putting his house up for sale, but no luck. Out of options, He tells his wife Betsy about what happened on the night of the murder. Because Kimble is unsuccessful in finding his evidence within the 24 hours that He was given, even with help from Donna, Len and Gerard, The lieutenant prepares to bring him in, just as Kimble reunites with Jean. Right before Gerard leaves with Kimble, Donna finds a bullet hidden in one of Billy's dresser drawers. When Shown the bullet, Gerard identifies it as being identical to the one they found at the riding stables the night before. Donna tells Len and the lieutenant that the bullet must have come from Chandler, who she told about the phone call. Gerard and Kimble head over to the Chandler residence to learn From Betsy that her husband has headed to an abandoned amusement park and is luring The One-Armed Man there so He can make up for his earlier unwillingness to talk by killing him.

By the time Gerard and Kimble arrive at the abandoned park, Chandler and The One-Armed Man have started a firefight, with latter's pistol squaring off against the former's rifle. While trying to stop the shooting, Gerard takes a bullet to his right Thigh from The One-Armed Man, temporarily disabling him. The lieutenant gives Kimble his Revolver as the Doctor heads off to finally confront his wife's murderer. Chandler then Helps Gerard up and the lieutenant attempts to convince him to testify and help Clear Kimble.

When the fight between Kimble and The One-Armed man takes them to the top of a tower, The One-Armed Man prepares to shoot Kimble with Gerard's Gun, as his own ran out of bullets. Before He's able to, Gerard hits The One-Armed Man with a well placed shot from Chandler's rifle and The One-Armed Man falls to his death from the top of the tower to the ground below. Kimble climbs down the tower to the ground and informs Gerard that He was able to get The One-Armed Man to confess to killing his wife, but it's no good because nobody else besides Kimble heard it. As Kimble resigns himself to spending the rest of his life in prison, Chandler, after being convinced by Gerard decides to come forward and testify in court as to what He witnessed. In the final scene of the episode and the series, an exonerated Kimble leaves the courthouse and then returns to pediatrics and begins his new life with Jean. Before leaving the building area, he shakes hands with Lt. Gerard to bid farewell.

There are parallels to be seen between Gerard's pursuit of Kimble and the pursuit of Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, though Javert never lets go of his obsession to follow the letter of the law and hunts down his fugitive, even killing himself when he couldn't reconcile his tenets with the mercy Valjean shows him. Gerard, on the other hand, was portrayed externally as a man like Javert, but internally as more of a thinking man who could balance justice and duty. According to some of those who worked on the show, these parallels weren't coincidental.