Kevin "Freak" Dillon

Kevin "Freak" Dillon is the secondary protagonist of the novel "Freak the Mighty" and is mentioned many times in the sequel "Max the Mighty". He was played by Kieran Culkin in the 1998 film adaptation, "The Mighty".

Biography
Kevin is a 13-year-old boy who suffers Mucopolysaccharidosis IV, or Morquio syndrome. He is extremely intelligent and prone to flights of fancy, but is physically crippled and is forced to walk with crutches and a brace.

Max is an over-sized, yet, good-natured teenage boy suffering from dyslexia who lives with his grandparents. He has flunked the seventh grade twice and is tormented by Tony "Blade" Fowler, a teenage gang leader. When Kevin is assigned as Max's reading tutor, they form a bond of friendship over the similar circumstances they share, such as both being outcasts and their fathers abandoning them (Kevin's dad heard the word "Birth Defect", he disappeared).

Kevin and Max go to a local festival to watch fireworks for Fourth of July and get attacked by Blade and his gang. The two escape into a nearby lake with Kevin riding on Max's shoulders. Kevin then witnesses that same gang of teens putting someone's purse in a sewer later. Kevin goes and bangs on Max's window to get the purse.

They retrieve the purse, but, are once again confronted by Blade and his gang the Doghouse Boys. They attempt to attack Kevin, but Max stops them. Max then becomes angry; he picks up a manhole cover and throws at the gang, who run away, fearing for their lives. Both Max and Kevin see the purse belongs to a woman named Loretta Lee. Kevin and Max return the purse to Loretta and find out that she is married to Iggy Lee, a former gang leader.

Loretta recognizes Max from when he was a child and, after some questioning, she and Iggy learn that Max is the son of the infamous murderer Kenny "Killer" Kane, who brutally murdered Max's mother by starngling her to death when Max was around 4 years old (That is the reason why Max lives with Grim and Gram), and a old friend of Iggy's from prison. Afterward, the two boys help each other out with Kevin acting as Max's brain, and Max acting as Kevin's legs by carrying him around everywhere on his shoulders. One day, Kevin showed Max where he'd be rehabilitated at a research center. Kevin said he'd be the first one and that he'd be just like a robot.

On Christmas Eve, Max is kidnapped by his father (James Gandolfini), who has recently been released from prison on parole. Max is taken to Loretta's home by Kane, who tries to strangle Loretta after she attempts to help Max escape. This leads to Max remembering when Kane murdered Max's mother, which was one of the reasons why Kane went to prison in the first place.

Kevin, having tracked Max and Killer Kane to Iggy and Loretta's, breaks in with a squirt gun The Fair Gwen (Kevin's mom) got him for Christmas and tells Killer Kane that he has sulfuric acid in it. Kevin shoots Killer Kane with the squirt gun and Kane thinks his eyes are burning despite the actually harmless compounds that are in the vial (soap, vinegar, and chili powder).

An angered Killer Kane attempts to attack Kevin. Max reacts and attacks his own father in order to prevent him from harming Kevin. Police come and arrest Kane, who was never given a parole again and was sentenced to prison for life. Max and Kevin go home and celebrate Christmas. After exchanging gifts, Kevin gives Max an empty book and tells Max to write in it.

The next morning, Kevin dies in his sleep, due to cardiac troubles. Max, not bearing to leave his friend, chases after the ambulance. Recalling an earlier conversation with Kevin on how he would get a new body from a research center, Max heads there immediately, only to discover that Kevin had lied and the research center is in fact a commercial laundromat. Max breaks down among the workers but later finishes writing in the empty book.