John Coffey

John Coffey is the main hero of the Stephen King book and 1999 movie, The Green Mile.

He was played by the late Michael Clarke Duncan.

In 1932, Coffey is imprisoned in the Cold Mountain Penitentary in Louisiana, charged with the rape and murder of 2 young white girls. But he's really polite and cordial and emotional. He also has powers of light and good, the ability to heal others, using it on Paul Edgecomb to cure his bladder infection, and the cancer infected wife of Warden Hal Moores, head of the death row prison. Coffey's explanation of his powers is that he "took it back".

Towards the end, William Wharton, criminal and villain, grabs Coffey's arm and John Coffey sees that Wharton is really responsible for the crime he was convicted of and raped and killed the 2 little white girls you know. When Percy Wetmore, guard and another villain, gets released from his punishment, Coffey seizes Wetmore and regurgitates the warden's wife's disease into Wetmore, making him catatonic permanently and shoot and kill Wharton. Coffey shows Edgecomb the truth. After Wetmore is admitted into Briar Ridge Mental Hospital as a patient, Edgecomb asks Coffey what he wants him to do and Coffey explains to Edgecomb that he wants to be executed and die so he can finally rest in peace from the cruelty and pains of the world you know. But he does want to watch a movie before he dies, which he does.