| “ | Just don't call me Geraldo. | „ |
| ~ Stu to Dietz. |
| “ | I ain't gonna resist. Country don't mean dumb. | „ |
| ~ Stu Redman in the 1994 miniseries. |
Stuart Redman is one of the main heroes of the Stephen King Apocalyptic thriller, The Stand.
He was portrayed by Gary Sinise, who also played Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, in the 1994 miniseries. In the 2020 miniseries, he is portrayed by James Marsden, who also played Cyclops in the X-Men films, Prince Edward in Enchanted, Fred O'Hare in Hop, Tom Wachowski in Sonic the Hedgehog, and voiced Diggs in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.
Biography
Early Life
Stuart "Stu" Redman was born to unnamed parents in Arnette, Texas, and also had two brothers. Stu would become a meatpacking worker when he was 14 years old to help his family after his father's death, and the novel hints that Stu served in the military at one point. Four years before the events of the novel, Stu married a woman named Norma, who died of cancer 18 months after their wedding.
The Stand
Stu is at his buddy's gas station on the night Campion makes his arrival there. He is the first to be noticed with being immune to the superflu and is taken by government officials, first to the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), then to the Stovington, Vermont plague place. He escapes from the Stovington facility after a government employee tries to kill him. After spending time in New England for days, Redman meets Glen Bateman, a retired college professor, and heroine and love interest, Frances Goldsmith.
Soon Stu rises to authority in the Free Zone and becomes the speaker for the Free Zone Committee. Seeing Stu as a threat, the demonic Randall Flagg - the mastermind of the pandemic - has his minions Nadine Cross and Harold Lauder try to kill him by bombing the Free Zone; although dozens of people are killed, Stu survives.
Stu seeks out Mother Abagail for counsel, and she tells him that he must defeat and destroy Flagg. With Bateman, Ralph Brentner, and Larry Underwood, Stu travels to Las Vegas to confront Flagg, but he breaks his leg in Utah and remains behind with Bateman's dog, Kojak. Stu gets pneumonia, but weathers through it to get to Las Vegas, just in time to see Flagg destroyed by one of his own henchmen, Trashcan Man. Stu's friend Tom Cullen nurses him back to health with help from the spirit of Nick Andros, who was killed in the bombing. They later return to Boulder, Colorado, to find that Frances has given birth to Stu's child, the first baby to be born after the plague.
